The Hindu Business Line : Outsourcing empowers executives: Accenture

AS organisations outsource more and more business processes, executives are finding they gain more control over capabilities that affect their entire organisation, a report released by Accenture has revealed.

Insights were gathered through interviews with senior executives from public and private organisations which steered BPO relationships in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.

The report titled `Control: Getting it and keeping it in business process outsourcing", found that 92 per cent of executives were pleased to report that their overall level of control actually increased as a result of BPO.

In fact, the kind of control these executives got was more powerful than what they initially feared losing.

More than two-thirds of the executives described control as an important obstacle during the evaluation phase of a BPO deal.

These include concerns over losing control of operational performance, personal influence, knowledge and customer relationships.

Those who gained better control as a result of BPO found that processes and information within their organisation became much more transparent.

Additionally, over a third of the executives agreed that outsourcing allowed them not only to change business direction at a faster and more controlled rate but also supported the acceleration of business growth.

The Asia Pacific BPO Managing Partner, Accenture, Mr Andrew Friars, in a statement said, "to sustain momentum with their business process outsourcing arrangements, executives need to take a more dynamic approach to control. We have found that by building a repertoire of broad controls, executives can reliably get the outcomes they want and to equally prevent the outcomes they do not want."

Further, the Asia Pacific executives placed high significance on the issue of trust, which is very closely related to control.

Over 84 per cent of the executives interviewed in this region specifically cited trust and the Asian way of doing business, built around personal relationships, as a key consideration in any outsourcing relationship.