Business Process Outsourcing Case Study

Business Process Outsourcing Case Study

Internal and External Changes that have Resulted in BPO becoming an Alternative

            CIBC has gone through a myriad of changes over the years. These changes have a very big role to play in enhancing the various decisions made by the management. The organization has gone through various transitions that have impacted its organizational culture in one way or the other. However, focusing on the changes that have contributed to PBO becoming an available alternative, many of them are internal, with only a few being external. First of all, CIBC has proven its interest in retaining its employees and maintaining the knowledge they have acquired over the years they have been in contact with the organization. However, the new need for a single system that is going to serve both sectors with maximum efficiency is inevitable.

Human Resource managers have been experiencing hard times running the two systems to keep track of the activities of the employees. Maintenance of both systems has also been a factor that needed checks, was there a way to do so early enough. Now that the need to shift from the old systems is inevitable, the organization is presented with choices to make. The organization’s management has choices to make, but each of the choices has constraints. Some of these constraints have proven it wiser to keep to the old systems other than shift to a new system that is going to offer lesser efficiency or one that is going to be a burden to the organization with little or no value addition at all.

Still on this, internally, the organization lacks enough personnel and expertise to develop and run a new system. The organization currently has enough to only keep the operations needed to ensure the normal running of the daily activities. Otherwise, a lot is still required from the team, especially when it comes to setting the bars of continued organizational leadership in the commercial sector. The employees are therefore charged with getting all the details on the movement and flow of events, daily maintenance, and rectifying the existing systems. This is impossible with the existing team. The system to be developed still needs to be higher and more advanced than the existing one. This means that a lot more is expected from the team working on it. The development of a more sophisticated program requires greater expertise which will be hard to find in the pool of the existing employees.

CIBC still seems to be so much into caring for their employees. They have proven their readiness to ensure job security and at the same time, ensure the employees get the best from what is available. People cannot become any better if they are not allowed to learn. The challenge of coming up with a system that caters for both the needs of the employees and ensuring the security of the organizational secrets is yet another change. The organization is gaining interest in the development of the employees and hiring new teams posts another challenge that is sorted only by BPO. As the employees get trained by the vendors, they increase the chances of absorption by the trainees, and this could be even worse for the organization. It could be a known weak point which can only be treated using a strategy that is going to ensure gains from either side.

Some external changes still have had a great impact on the choice of available alternatives. Evolution of technology is one such change. Technological advances are among the most rampant changes that are taking place in the world. Technological advances take place, each step to make life easier for the people concerned. Bringing this into the context of CIBC, the need to advance to a higher scheme is more than evident. Such a huge organization needs systems that match the level of services required by the employees and customers too. Efficiency is key. Failure to advance with the changing times could cost the responsible organization a fortune. As technology advances, systems ease the transaction processes and open more doors for the people to the external world. With the technicality required in this industry, there is a huge imbalance in the organization. In the case of a rising company that satisfies the needs of the employees while at the same time offering an apt response to the requirements placed, the competition is going to become stiff. Most of the company’s employees and technical staff could be lost to this new company. This means that chances of growth and survival are reduced the more. With this, technological changes are evidently a major contribution.

The external stakeholders are also a huge factor in the issue under discussion. People want to see the organization getting directly involved. However, the need to engage a system that is going to be of direct use to the organization while still reflecting the responsibility of the same is better than an individualized one. The skills available in the market are strong and bearing in mind the fact that CIBC has contacts with vendors that could deliver the rest of the work. The existing relationship between CIBC and the vendor is a plus since it is a pathway to greater heights in the development of an inclusive system.

Despite all these factors, the most impactful one is the role of technological advances in ensuring that the chance is not lost. Technology brings an inclusive cover that needs to be properly stored and preserved for the future. These changes over the years have created a very vast environment that if not well managed, BPO will cease being an alternative.

Evaluation of the Alternatives

            Each of the available alternatives come with their strengths and weaknesses. A proper analysis of the existing alternatives is the only secret to coming up with the best system, one that will bring to an end the suffering of the people. The first alternative under consideration is remediation. Remediation means using the existing options to come up with the required change. In case the organization chose remediation, the task force could be responsible for satisfying all the existing needs of the organization using the already existing capabilities (Simon, 2017). The best thing about this alternative is adaptability. The employees will not have the challenge of dealing with an entirely new system. More on that, they do not need to hire a new set of employees. This is advantageous since it involves huge savings on the side of hiring new experts, getting the needs of the new system, which could call for sacrifice and finally, the cost of training the employees to use the new system.

However, this is also disadvantageous in a couple of ways. First of all, since the organization has the option to outsource as a matter of lesser concern, the advances made will be restricted. The pool of employees existing in the organization is limited in scope. The people will, therefore, have very few changes to make despite the new requirements of the organization. The case could be different if a different approach was used. Remediation is also a very costly venture. It is compared with renovating a house. Renovation most often uses the same amount with what could be used in a new construction case. What makes it worse in this situation is the fact that the employees are limited by the already existing limits. This cannot be compared to starting an entirely new system.

Design and build is the second available option. The team suggests the establishment of a partnership relationship between the organization and a third party vendor. This relationship is going to help in joint design and construction of the system. This system is meant to be completely new, with all the changes and expected working states provided. The best part about this is the bit that the organization shall use the existing team as the most important people.

Additionally, the organization will only have to buy in the expertise that could be lacking to ensure that the system is optimized. The employees have the opportunity to earn and develop their skills more. Even better for the organization, the maintenance of the systems would be easy with the employees have taken part in the design and building process. They are still presented with more chances to deliver quality work.

The organizational ability and freedom to explore this alternative is, however, very little. The organization could lack enough employees to satisfy the need for development among the other needs. Taking in the existing members into the project means that a gap is going to be created in the labour force. Filling the vacancies created by this becomes even a greater deal. The challenge extends to the fact that even the existing employees lack the required skills. The only solutions, therefore, remain to be outsourcing for the services from PeopleSoft 8.0. This creates difficulty in managing internal labour needs and satisfying the needs of the project team.

The third alternative designed, build and run. In this system, the organization was charged with contracting a third party to take control of the whole system, from the design, maintenance and renewal of applications (Subotincic, 2018). In this case, the organization would be at a very great loss. Many employees are going to lose their jobs. This can be attributed to the responsibility delegation. What should have been their role is given to another party which will be responsible for the entire process. The employees could also be transferred to the vendor’s firm. By so doing, many of the employees and skills could be lost to an external body. Some could end up getting permanent employment in the vendor’s firm.

On the other hand, doing the above will help in easing the responsibilities on the shoulders of the managers. This means that the HR managers will have more time to focus on other processes like the development process and recollection of the existing weaknesses to make the organization better. Growth will be achieved if this is done. The managers will also have more time to focus on the inadequacies in the organization and spearhead the need for innovation and creativity in the organization.

Of all these options, I would recommend business process outsourcing. The reason behind this is the many advantages that come with this alternative. First of all, the chances of losing the organization’s labour force are reduced. The people are at greater levels of safety when it comes to the security of their jobs. This option comes in as the best solution to the existing challenges in the organization. Most of the challenges being faced by CIBC are simple, but the existence of complex systems complicates everything to uncontrollable levels. Therefore, just like the design, build and run, the challenge posed by the need to adjust to the changing times is completely sorted out. Additionally, this alternative provides the organization with the chance to create the best team by outsourcing some of the roles. Most preferably, the roles to be outsourced should be those that cannot be well attended to by the existing number of employees.

Additional factors that needed to be considered are functions that do not directly interfere with the vision of the project and revenue generation plans. The core of the institution will remain to be running the major functions like controlling the revenue generation process and ensuring that the organization plans align with the strategic vision. This is so particular and fixed since these are among the most sensitive pieces of information that are key in organizational survival. Sharing such with outsiders would cause lots of problems. First, the security of the business would have been at risk since the people in charge are not the dear trustees of the organization. Once the spill to the external world, the organization could come down, and this should be avoided in all means. As such, among the duties that I would advise to be transferred to the outsourced members are; transaction records, inventory records, receipts and payments made, the attendance records and other issues related to the management of employee relations.

Future Issues that could Result from this choice

            A few challenges are deemed to face the organization if this choice is to adopt. The biggest challenge would be information management. Organizational secrets and important information are among the most sensitive resources that need to be guarded. The secrets of every organization dictate how far it is able to go. With this in mind, developing organizational systems through outsourcing poses a great challenge (Mutwil, 2016). Organization information is at great risk. A simple step mistake could lead to the data the organization has been holding being availed to the competitors. By so doing, the organization’s competitive edge will be easily lost. This can, however, be avoided. The only way to avoid this is by getting all the information organized and stored in areas that the unwanted parties cannot access. Additional security measures should be taken to ensure the safety of the information. This means trying to work with as few outsourced members as possible.

Limiting the number of people you outsource could pose a challenge to the organization. In an attempt to protect the fragile organizational data and image, it is still important to recount on the role this personnel have to play in organizational growth and mission achievement. To achieve higher levels of data security, high integrity personnel should be hired into the team. A well organized and disciplined team is only but for sure to achieve the intended plans for the organization (“IT Outsourcing, Business Process Outsourcing, and Knowledge Process Outsourcing in China,” 2015). People are also expected to challenge the systems and the functioning of the new team. This is because most of the things have not been done before. Therefore, in an attempt to get the solution to the way things run, they will seek all possible answers. The most important thing is maintaining the code and understanding the customer’s needs.

Finally, in as much as this alternative is expected to shed bright light, there is a huge risk. Managers and other top officials are prone to rejecting the systems since it could reduce their power and the huge command. Traditionally, human resource managers derive joy and the feeling of power from the number of employees under them. Implementing this means that the duties they are obliged to take will be greatly reduced. This could result in some of them trying to fight it. However, every possible means of getting them on the same side is going to be highly appreciated. The members are going to have their happiness and propel the performance of the organization. Additionally, HR managers need to know the best practices to ensure the smooth running of the processes.

Works Cited

IT Outsourcing, Business Process Outsourcing, and Knowledge Process Outsourcing in China. (2015). Source Code China, 135-155. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119198086.ch8

Mutwil, A. (2016). Market Analysis of Business Process Outsourcing in Logistics. Marketing i Zarządzanie, 42, 127-138. https://doi.org/10.18276/miz.2016.42-08

Simon, J. A. (2017). Editor’s Perspective-Identifying Products for Green and Sustainable Remediation Projects. Remediation Journal, 27(2), 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1002/rem.21512

Subotincic, N. (2018). DESIGN-BUILD Build/Design 1. Developing Creative Thinking in Beginning Design, 239-255. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315622927-17