Key trends that will define the BPO industry soon?

Key Trend 1 - Culture

It will become increasingly important for companies to build true partnerships with providers that can represent their culture and brand regardless of location. Companies will use outsourcing to gain a cultural and competitive edge.

Key Trend 2 - Cloud services

The adoption of cloud services will continue as the technology becomes more mainstream, mature and cost effective. This includes call centers and BPOs moving their services to the cloud from CRM systems to entire telephony platforms.

Key Trend 3 - Big data

Expect to see the sophistication of metrics and the use of unstructured data to provide better business intelligence in real-time. A whole new set of tools to capitalize on this data will emerge.

Key Trend 4 - IT gets more ‘customer-centric’

Companies will focus more on experience metrics (such as customer satisfaction) over efficiency metrics (like average handle time).

Key Trend 5 - Preferred channels

Expect a rise in the number of customer questions via online chat, social media and mobile applications. Continuous development of technology and business processes, dynamic economic conditions, globalization, social and mobile revolutions, all contribute to drawing the future of the BPO industry. Whether these drivers would change the historic role of outsourcing, being a cost-reduction tool, to a means of delivering higher-quality services and capabilities only time will show.