• Clients in mature economies are seeking, more than ever, to reduce cost and minimize investment.

• The nature of the work that is being outsourced is becoming more complex with more specialized and information-intensive processes taking front stage. As a result, clients are looking for additional value, innovation and process improvement, rather than just reducing cost.

• The use of the cloud is growing, though big buyers are moving slowly because of the security and data privacy issues involved.

• According to the KPMG 2012 survey, buyers face the challenge of managing and governing larger and more diverse portfolios of outsourcing efforts and service providers. This is giving rise to the “system integrator (SI) role, a set of capabilities to bring service providers and clients together in a better way.

• Political pressure in the U.S. will lead BPO companies to offer more onshore options, with focus on new lower cost locations where possible. Multi-shoring is happening as with Genpact that recently set up an operations center in Texas. As Scott McConnell, senior vice president, Americas for Genpact says, “Since our operations are standardized across the globe, we can efficiently manage the interface between onshore, nearshore and offshore.”

• As demand for more sophisticated benefits through outsourcing grows, the complexity in contracting for outsourced services is also growing. Clients are seeking shorter contracts involving lower payback as well as more contractual flexibility.

Keeping track of outsourcing trends, responsible BPO companies streamline their operations to meet changing client requirements. The key to success lies in forging the best deal that will keep both vendor and client happy.

• Can the outsourcing company manage your risks more efficiently than you can in your home market?
• Will the services offered attract more customers and retain existing ones? For instance, if outsourced services provided lack quality, you will definitely lose customers.
• Does the service provider fully understand your requirements? Do you, as a client, fully understand the capabilities of your potential outsourcing partner?
• Is the outsourcing company aware of your risks? For instance, if you are in the medical sector, the importance of HIPAA compliance. Does it have safe and reliable systems of data transfer and storage? Any laxity can have serious legal implications as far as you are concerned.

Relatively inexperienced companies eager to strike up a business relationship may be more flexible to your requirements. But that shouldn’t drive your decision. It’s much safer to go with an established BPO company that offers a test drive of its services – the ideal outcome evaluation strategy.

It is crucial to identify the right data management system for your business. It is also necessary that your vendor has the capability to provide you with a customized conversion solution. So choose a vendor that has adequate experience in the field. Only this would ensure optimal use of your data. Do your research and compare business process outsourcing companies on capabilities such as:

• Technology
• Customized solutions
• Error-free data conversion
• Rigorous quality checks
• Service in quick turnaround time
• Security and confidentiality
• Affordable and competitive pricing

Check references and if your project is a large one, make sure the data and document conversion company has the experience in handling projects of this size and scope. Once you have identified your service provider, request a free trial if one is offered. This will give you an idea of the conversion and implementation schedule. Though your vendor will create the data mapping document and chalk out the conversion program, it is your responsibility to view, evaluate and approve the test conversion data. Finally, make sure the implementation goes live at a time when it will minimize staff downtime in your office.

Investigating health care industry drivers, major outsourced services, and the BPO services provider scenario, this study points out that outsourcing services for claim management, enrolment, billing, provider contracting, and care management will be responsible for the greatest growth opportunities. The Obama government’s healthcare reforms are also driving the healthcare outsourcing market.

Healthcare Industry facing Many Challenges

The report discusses the challenges faced by the healthcare industry – technological innovation, new regulations, new diseases, and population growth, all factors that influence healthcare consumption. Health care costs are rising and so is the use of health care services. This underlines the importance of cost control to maintain affordability.

Some of the main findings of the report:

• New regulations make it necessary for industry players to comply with rigorous and expensive auditing and reporting requirements, ICD-10 mandates, HIPAA standards, complex rules for Medicare and Medicaid, and health IT standards. While payors are planning changes to their business priorities and operations due to the new regulations, their commitments are mostly with regard to only compliance with ICD-10 and HIPAA-related mandates.
• Regulatory changes will impact the healthcare insurers’ competitive marketplace. While companies that cannot face the competition will consolidate, large retail organizations will enter the scene and pose a threat to traditional payors.

The rise in demand for improved technology, lower administrative costs and more scalability will have a tremendous impact on the healthcare BPO marketplace. Payors will rely more on more transformational assistance from service providers.

Niche service providers will recruit experts and qualified personnel to provide high-end services. Others will focus on scalability and volume-driven work. Their capability will extend to offering improvements in process-driven tasks and impact costs heavily in routine work.

• The service provider maintains platforms, applications and/or infrastructure in the cloud. The client is saved the expense of hosting and maintaining these applications, and can access them easily and affordably on the cloud.
• The client can direct resources to more pressing business needs as there is no need to maintain an expensive infrastructure.
• The client has access to the latest technology on the shared platform. This saves on the expenses that would have gone into investing in new technology in-house.
• Since the BPO company allows its client to utilize the cloud-based applications on a per-per-use basis or on the basis on outcome, the client has lower operational costs.
• Business process outsourcing companies with several clients can achieve a higher rate of cloud application utilization by providing services to suit varying client deadlines and work requirements.
• The cloud-based environment reduces the need for a disaster recovery plan.

However, security is a major challenge in cloud computing. Information shared over the Web poses a security risk. Service providers must have proper policies in place to ensure protection for precious client data.

It’s no wonder that translation services are now a vital element in business process outsourcing. Whether you’re looking for translation from and to English from Spanish, all Indian languages, French, German, Latin, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic or other languages, look to BPO companies for the solution. Professional translator teams help you break the language barrier with anything written or published. An established service provider is well-equipped with the software and hardware necessary to provide expert translation solutions.

Academicians, students, writers, media persons, IT professionals and others are now increasingly relying on the translation services of reliable BPO companies for cost-effective, timely solutions. Other related BPO services these firms provide include desktop publishing, copyediting, data entry, transcription, and so on.

• Established company: Browse the web and short-list a few companies. Browse their website to understand the nature of their operations and commitment. Only a well-established company would have the manpower and technology to provide comprehensive, error-free data entry solutions.
• Client list: It’s important that the company lists its clients. This will give you a good idea of the jobs it does and its reputability. Make sure it offers a comprehensive range of services so that it can meet all your needs, offline or online.
• Accuracy and timeliness: Make sure that the company can deliver error-free services to meet your deadlines. This is especially important if you are in the medical, legal or insurance industry.
• Security: This is crucial. Data security issues are always in the news. Does the firm guarantee security for all the data you entrust it with? What are the security measures it has in place to ensure this? How safe are its modes of data transfer?
• Cost: The very idea to outsource your data entry or data cleansing is to save the cost of doing it yourself. Can you save at least 30-40 percent on your operational costs by outsourcing?

The ideal solution when it comes to making your choice would be to go in for the free trial that most established companies offer.

To ensure professional solutions, most healthcare facilities outsource their data entry to a reliable data entry company. Established data entry companies use different methods to help their clients compile electronic health records (EHR):

• Data is entered directly using client-specific templates or screens
• Handwritten documents are scanned
• Dictation is transcribed and text reports are created
• Data is fed from lab systems and devices

Besides, a reliable data entry service provider would also be able to handle all offline data entry capably. The right service provider would work as an extension of the healthcare facility. With a team of professionals trained in all aspects of managing the data requirements of their clients, and the right technical capabilities, they can offer quality data entry and documentation solutions to:

• Minimizing the use of paper records
• Setting up an efficient EHR system
• Easy retrieval and access to patient records whenever necessary
• Avoiding compliance issues
• Quick reimbursement
• Enhanced practice productivity

Outsourcing to the right service provider ensures data entry services in custom turnaround time and at very competitive rates.

Questions to Ask

A lot of thought should go into choosing an outsourcing service provider. Regardless of whether you’re in health, law or business, confidentiality of information is crucial and should get top priority. Besides ensuring that your work is performed efficiently and in time, ensure that you know what provisions your service provider has in place for data security. Ask questions about the company’s security policy, procedures for data backup and disaster recovery, data transfer methods, internal and external safeguards for data, insurance with regard to security breaches, and so on. Find out if the work force is trained on maintaining data security and if the work done adheres to the latest security procedures?

Professional and Accountable

It shouldn’t be difficult to find a professional and accountable business process outsourcing partner. Browse the web and shortlist a few experienced BPO companies. You’re sure to find a section or page devoted to the security measures they have in place. A mutually beneficial partnership can be forged once you’re convinced that the company is serious about protecting your confidential information.

Capturing data and keying it into the computer has done in keeping with required formats. The information has to be prepared to follow approved procedures. This is especially relevant for medical and legal establishments. Data from medical forms, documents, reports or charts are entered and filed electronically. Patient demographic information, appointments, schedules, diagnoses, medical chart information, doctor’s notes, billing, insurance, claims details are documented. Legal data entry has to be completely error free as even a simple typo can have far-reaching consequences for a lawyer’s clients. Data entry services are available for court reports, hearings, depositions, meetings, insurance and medical claim forms, registration documents, financial documents and more.

Data processing has to keep pace with changing needs. One of the main advantages of outsourcing your work is that you get it done by professionals who well-informed on the latest data and document entry requirements. Moreover, you get solutions that adhere to all security norms, so there is no chance of data leak. Data entry outsourcing also ensures the highest degree of accuracy and services delivered in custom turnaround time. Partnering with an established US-based outsourcing company with centers in countries like India allows you to get the work done at very competitive rates.