The Continuum of Business Process Improvement

A company should first evaluate its objectives for improving business processes and then determine which business processes are core competencies of the organization. What is the end goal? Is it cost savings, quality improvement, speed to market, business flexibility or something else? Does the process have a direct influence on your ongoing competitiveness, is it a capability others would outsource to your company, or difficult to transition and manage with a third party?

Looked at in this way, business process outsourcing can be mapped as a spectrum of opportunities with each having its own set of sourcing options and value points.

Companies traditionally initiate outsourcing vendor relationships with lower complexity processes for business objectives such as cost savings. Companies should look for a vendor who, as the relationship evolves, can help transform highly complex business processes.