Good BPO-client alignment needs near constant attention and engagement, and today’s disrupters are enabling real outcomes for these partnerships. As one key example, the connection between BPOs and client IT departments has undergone a change due to the arrival and maturity of cloud technology.
The Pre-Cloud Era
In the pre-cloud era, there were numerous obstacles that companies had to overcome:
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•Capex was high, with companies needing to make significant investments for partnership synergies.
•Disparate systems usage made it difficult for client IT departments and BPOs to work together.
•Data migration was a challenge.
•Time to provision (implementation, integration challenges) was longer because of disparate systems’ usage and lack of sync between BPOs and client IT departments.
The Post-Cloud Era
In the post-cloud era, the working scenario for BPOs and client IT underwent a welcomed change with all systems going on to one cloud platform, therefore bringing in a sense of uniformity. BPO alignment with clients’ IT infrastructure has improved post-cloud implementation within the regulatory framework and the choice of cloud used. The cloud service provider you choose is one of the key aspects that will help win and retain clients. This includes choice of telecom service provider and application service provider, and the data coming in from the customers.
The post-cloud era is also commercially more beneficial, as BPO partners are able to pass on the benefit of the variable opex expenditure to the client. This has helped BPOs be more viable to clients in terms of price. These BPOs can provide multi-cloud offerings where clients can move from one cloud provider to another if the first doesn’t suit their requirements. Another benefit is the introduction of new features and functionalities by application service providers. This translates directly as a benefit to clients, with minimal or no cost for upgrades, updates and revised versions for every additional feature, unlike the pre-cloud era.
Cloud and the Consumer Journey
The emergence of cloud computing has been essential to the way brands strategize and manage the consumer journey. Cloud-based applications and programs have tremendous impact on the entire customer journey, from brand–customer engagement to brand retention of disgruntled customers.
Keeping customers engaged is a major challenge for brands today with so many competitors fighting for space in the minds of customers. Decreasing attention span is a tough reality that all brands have to face. In such a scenario, brands have to be prepared to optimize performance at every phase of the customer journey. This starts at the Engage phase of the customer journey, as a vital component is data availability and accessibility. Even post-Engage, hosting applications and data on the cloud enables brands to remove obstacles to data accessibility, making data more accessible irrespective of location.
An important facet of both the Engage and Care phases of the customer journey is feedback. Usage of cloud technology enables companies to stay in step with customer likes and preferences, with quicker and easier product updates. Cloud adoption near eliminates application downtime, increasing your brand’s app availability, which improves handling of the customer journey.
Cloud technology also enables brands to cater to more customers and enables them to meet customer demands by making it easier to scale up as per the brand or client’s requirement. This is essential for that last step in the consumer journey: Retain—the end goal of keeping that consumer for life.