How to Choose a Back Office Support Service Provider

In the last few decades, Business Process Outsourcing has become a vital part of Small & Medium Enterprises. As the bandwidth costs came down with technological advancement, outsourcing got strong footings in low cost regions rapidly. In the modern era, SMEs are paying keen attention to Back Office Support in order to manage their day to day operations effectively and efficiently. The Back Office Support offers a wide range of services right from a simple data entry task to writing a viable business plan to designing and developing advanced software systems. This way, on one hand, SMEs gain benefits in terms of business growth, cost effectiveness and shorter turnaround time and on the other hand, they are in a better position to concentrate more on core business concerns. No doubt, the job demands a provider who better understands your business needs and comes up with a solution that could cater the said. Following are a few steps which can help you find the right provider:-

Right Size Provider

This is not a wise approach if you are representing a Small to Medium Enterprise and go for a large back office support provider. Though size matters a lot as a large provider will prefer to have big clients but it will be a better option if you manage to have a mid size service provider who can provide you with better value, service and flexibility.

Background

Best service is the one that has been well researched before hiring. Inspecting provider’s background, examining management profile and looking over customer testimonials are all parts of a best service research.

Start Small

Rather than looking for a long term commitment with your service provider in the first go, we strongly recommend that initial contract should cover at least two months so that the provider can be tested on the following grounds:-

• Service Quality
• Prompt Response in case of urgency
• Effective communication especially under stressful situations
• Handling Disagreements
• Documentation of the information provided in support of the work done

“Remote Local Office”

Consider your service provider as “Your Remote Local Office” i.e. an extension of your company. This implies that you have to facilitate your remotely located employees with the opportunities through which they can understand your company’s culture and come up to your expectations. Make sure that they must know the right people to contact when needed. Be open to new ideas they come up with. Successful integration of these remotely located employees with your company will undoubtedly result into a long term growth of your business.