As 2017 is nearly over, the Business Process Outsourcing world today is currently undergoing a very interesting period with technology seemingly re-imagining most business process management practices. Through the continuous breakthroughs being achieved by technology, BPO organizations are able to achieve process excellence that dramatically enhances their ability to provide value when working with clients from multiple industries. Aside from technological advancements, the BPO world is getting busier than ever with a lot of developments appearing out of the woodwork. These activities are currently changing the BPO landscape as we know with current developments such as:

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence or A.I is viewed as a formidable threat disrupting the BPO industry. The Philippines, also known as the call center capital of the world, has a BPO industry that accounts for roughly 10% of the country’s economy with 86% of its services being exported to the U.S, 7.1% to Europe, and 3.2% to Japan among others. With the arrival of A.I in the Philippines, the entire BPO scene is preparing for a lot of change as many tech experts are predicting that this technology will indeed impact the industry. As most of the Philippine BPO organizations are transforming digitally to accommodate A.I, the technology will be replacing many service-level entry jobs. It will also enhance many BPO practices with cloud-based applications, analytics, and mobile applications that will considerably improve customer service.

The Impact of Automation in Business Process Outsourcing

Another current development taking place in the Outsourcing industry is Automation, which many BPO organizations have been slowly but surely implementing into their business processes. With organizations that implement Automation, this can impact the industry by diminishing the need for call center services as there are now A.I programs such as Virtual Agents that will be able to replace call center agents in the future. The technology is still in its infant stages yet has shown a lot of promise with its ability to gather vital information during administering customer service phone calls. With this technology, call center agents eliminate having to put a customer on hold to gather data as the Virtual Agent automatically accomplishes this as they are on the phone with a client. Another technology being developed that could improve the BPO services substantially is Language Generation where it efficiently and effectively gathers structured and unstructured data to aid Virtual Agents in administering customer service without human intervention, as the agents are able to process all data and compose customized responses to customers.

The Impact of President Donald Trump’s Protectionist Trade Policies

The inauguration of U.S president Donald J. Trump had many voters extremely excited for the changes in their country’s economic landscape. Among the voters of the 45th U.S president are many individuals with higher level jobs such as chief executives and investors. The reason for their excitement is Trump’s Protectionist Trade Policies that has come with promises of tax cuts, deregulation, and spending on infrastructure among others. Through these policies, the entire BPO industry of the world may experience a lot changes with some of the positive and many negative. The Protectionist Policies of President Trump promote an “American First” approach in doing business. This approach may spell some trouble for many countries doing business with the U.S as it may entail making Outsourcing more expensive to off-shore with border tax regulations. An example of an industry being negatively impacted is the BPO industry, especially in the Philippines as the country exports 86% of its BPO services to the U.S. If the President continues to impose tariffs on organizations that ship jobs off-shore, this has the potential to not only hurt American consumers but be devastating to American business in general.

The Brexit Effect on Outsourcing

Since 1973, the United Kingdom has been a part of the European Union. The country decided to remain a member state after a referendum in 1975.This year, the U.K decided not to remain a member due to the Union imposing too many restrictions on British lawmakers. This departure from the E.U may impact the BPA industry as the U.K has abandoned its long-time Sterling Pound currency and has since adopted the Euro currency, which has been historically the weaker of the two. With the adoption of this currency, labor cost rates are expected to be much more competitive on the global aspect than it had been with the Pound. This has the potential to impact the BPO industry in popular BPO havens such as India and the Philippines as a large percentage of their BPO is exported to Europe.

With more than a decade of providing the best Outsourcing Solutions in the Philippines, Infinit-O has successfully partnered with many organizations that have since attained financial success in their respective industries. These organizations belong to major industries that have provided substantially for the country’s economy such as:

• Healthcare
• Finance
• Contact Center
• Data and Research

For more information about brand and customer service, feel free to visit their official website.

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Sources:

• https://www.outsourcinginsight.com/outsourcing-trends/
• http://www.hexacta.com/2017/03/16/8-outsourcing-trends-to-look-out-for-in-2017/
• http://news.abs-cbn.com/business/05/12/17/bpos-gearing-up-for-impact-of-artificial-intelligence-on-industry
• http://www.staffvirtual.com/blog/bpo-companies-in-the-philippines-who-are-changing-the-world
• http://blog.taxumo.com/2017/02/president-trump-philippine-bpo-industry/
• http://www.mosaic-search.co.uk/insight/how-will-brexit-affect-bpo-companies-in-the-uk-and-europe.php
• http://robohub.org/how-robotics-is-changing-the-face-of-business-process-outsourcing/
• http://noholdinc.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-benefits-of-virtual-agent-for-bpos.html