Reflections from industry torchbearers, like Peter Ryan rate work at home provision as a vital tool in the belt of any BPO. As of now, the ability of outsourced and service agents to work remotely will be at the forefront of the customer’s decision-making process when considering outsourcers. In a CX Files podcast with industry expert Mark Hillary, and ThinScale’s CCO, Andrew McNeile, we see the significant benefits BYOD can provide to work at home strategy, as well as insight into the blended model of on-prem/work at home that will likely occur outside of just cost savings. Building off of this topic, in this blog, I wanted to touch on how BYOD can enhance BPOs’ offerings to their customers now and in 2021, specifically in terms of:

• Hiring
• Business resilience
• Reduced cost

 

1.) Flexibility when hiring

A concern for many BPOs and their clients, especially in customer-facing industries, is maintaining a source of hiring in local areas. One positive that has come from the massive shift to work at home has been the increased acceptance uptake of regional and offshore sourcing.

Employers’ ability to look outside of large metropolitan areas to areas where both salaries and employee operating costs are lower is hugely beneficial, it also gives the BPO access to a much larger hiring pool to meet any rise in customer demand; the increase potential also allows BPOs to choose agents based solely on skill rather than proximity. Finally, the BPO can consider hiring internationally, allowing this potential skill pool to grow exponentially and allowing the BPO to better cater to varying time zones.

However, the need to transport devices throws a spanner into the works, limiting the employer’s scope due to downtime and cost of delivery. Which is one of the reasons BYOD solutions have flourished recently – as agents can use their own device rather than wait for the BPO to send a device, allowing for substantial cost savings, as well as the ability to substantially reduce downtime. This drastically decreases the cost and time to hire in any remote working scenario.

2.) Resilience in future events

According to this report from Gartner, customers will be looking closely at the disaster recovery plans of outsourcers and factoring this into their decision making. This is to ensure that they can maintain resilience in a resurgence of COVID-19 or any other major disaster that may disrupt regular business activity.

One aspect of the pandemic that threw the professional world for a loop was the high demand and subsequent shortage of supply during the shift to work at home. Customers who utilize the services of BPOs certainly took note and will be looking to ensure the outsourcer they are working with will not be affected by the same issues again. BYOD allows BPOs to rapidly scale up agent hiring based on customer demand, without any reliance on supply.

3.) Reduced customer cost

We would be remiss not to mention the cost differential when talking about BYOD for BPOs. The same Gartner report states that customers will begin planning for long-term cost optimization and will seek to cut wiggle room into their budget to allow for unforeseen future expenses.

With BYOD, you eliminate both the capital cost of devices and the operational cost of transporting these devices to agents. We break this down further in a separate blog on cost savings with BYOD here. This cost reduction allows BPOs to carry value over to their customers, to provide a more cost-effective service, without sacrificing any service quality.

Secure BYOD with Secure Remote Worker

After reading about how great BYOD is, what are its drawbacks? The primary concern for customers is that their corporate data is secure, to the point where most customers will not even consider a BPO if their agents workstations do not meet the stringent requirements set by compliance QSAs.

Secure Remote Worker provides this security and total compliance in PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR for the endpoint. Creating a temporary secure workspace on personally-owned agent devices, Secure Remote Worker allows agents to have secure access to corporate VDI, RDS, remote and local applications. All the while providing the employer complete visibility and control over agent activity during work.

Secure Remote Worker provides all of the flexibility and benefits of BYOD while delivering the same level of security as an on-premises corporate machine.

Conclusion

In 2021, BPOs looking to provide better value to customers should be considering BYOD for their agent devices. Using Secure Remote Worker, alongside a BYOD scheme, will allow BPOs to increase hiring flexibility, increase business resilience and cut down on costs for customers while maintaining security and compliance standards.