IBM Australia and The Sauce published the first Australian Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Report 2012, which investigates the current state of business process outsourcing in Australia and points to future trends.

 

Global expansion is seen to be the key driver and benefit of outsourcing decisions amongst 71 per cent of organisations surveyed. The report also showed significant anticipated growth in business process outsourcing activity among large organisations with between 1,000 to 5,000 employees (this constituted one-third of all respondents). This group of Australian organisations is expecting an increase of 20 per cent over the next two years.

 

“The report reflects the rapid pace of change and maturity that the BPO industry has undergone over the last decade. It has evolved from pure cost cutting, to improved efficiency, to strategic transformation and an important part of business strategy,” said Russell Ives, Director, Global Process Services, IBM Growth Markets.

 

“The report highlights that Australia’s senior business community are aware of the benefits of outsourcing and decision makers are looking towards higher order benefits such as improving financial flexibility, driving free cash flow, strengthening customer satisfaction, increasing market penetration, expanding into emerging markets and taking advantage of the opportunities with a global economy,” said Ives.

 

The report highlights that while outsourcing decisions in the contact centre and customer service functions were by far the most widely reported, customer service functions are actually not among the top three of most outsourced activities. Human Resources, and Printing/Document Management were found to be the most outsourced functions (15 and 18 per cent), followed by Finance and Accounting (13 per cent). In the next 12 to 24 months, HR outsourcing is expected to grow to 23 per cent.