Partnering with specialized, external suppliers is a time-tested, highly effective way for enterprises to free up resources, enabling them to focus on core business objectives. In fact, 57% of executives interviewed for a recent Deloitte survey on the subject noted that exact reason as their motivation for engaging an outsourcer originally.
As organizations evolve, they are looking to off-load business critical daily operations to specialty providers - accelerating performance and innovation, reducing costs, and streamlining business processes across the enterprise.
In particular, two growth areas have emerged; enterprise information management (EIM) and transaction processing services (TPS). In this information-driven age, it is crucial that businesses effectively manage the growing amounts of information and data, as well as efficiently process payments, transactions, enrollments, applications, and statements—allowing them to focus on revenue-generating activity.
When an organization is evaluating whether to outsource a business process or keep it in-house, the number of vendors that would need to be involved in a successful outsourcing initiative should be one of the first considerations.
If you're managing multiple vendors in relation to your TPS and EIM needs, many of the operational efficiencies, cost savings, and management streamlining that these partnerships provide can be negated by the complexities of managing multiple relationships. If you need multiple vendors to handle your organizations business processes, is there really an advantage over simply managing multiple internal departments?
But, by partnering with a single-source provider; your enterprise can achieve optimal efficiency, maximum cost savings, and the ability to streamline operations to refocus more exclusively on customer service and growing your business. Read on for five reasons why partnering with a true end-to-end TPS/EIM provider is the optimal approach:
- TPS & EIM are Inherently Linked
Partnerships with specialized companies have become a go-to strategy for enterprises trying to refocus on core, revenue-generating work. Yet, many benefits of this approach can be negated by complicated vendor management scenarios. For example, EIM platforms can facilitate the exchange, consolidation, organization, and analysis of large amounts of structured and unstructured data that are crucial to an enterprise's ability to effectively manage decisions, and enable the presentment of critical customer information through unified communication services.
TPS offerings then use the structured data output from shared EIM platforms and apply industry and customer specific rules-based data validation, management of exceptions, business automation, and outcome resolutions to complete transactions, client interactions, and other operational processes. From there, these fully integrated EIM and TPS platforms, help facilitate reliable information workflows through data aggregation, seamless connectivity, and automated processes to significantly reduce cycle times and improve quality.
When platforms are integrated and supplied by the same provider, these types of workflows are made possible. When multiple partners are providing disparate platforms to manage payments, communications, and more – management scenarios can balloon in terms of complication.
- Linking EIM & TPS Outsourcing Services can Provide Optimized Cost Savings
Having established the inherent connections between TPS and EIM services and solutions, we can begin to see the inherent value in keeping these activities under the same roof. Single sourcing, defined as the practice of using only one vendor to handle the entirety of outsourced processes - is widely recognized as a beneficial approach producing far greater advantages. Single sourcing offers various benefits such as lower production costs, and can help create better value for customers and stakeholders by keeping the amount of governance required to a bare minimum. Working with a single vendor is often more cost effective as it enables better utilization of resources – both managerial and financial. It also cuts down the interoperability issues significantly. In this case, two metaphorical heads are not better than one.
- Increase Delivery & Efficiency of Service
Working with a single vendor to handle the entirety of your needs can streamline service delivery in several ways. A single-source partner takes responsibility for the entire service delivery process within the outsourced operational areas. There is no pointing of fingers or blame on others for non-performance or delay in delivery. This sense of responsibility can result in more effective and efficient delivery of products or services. It also streamlines the amount of oversight you'll need to allocate internally, because as the number of vendors rises, so does the amount of internal oversight they'll need.
- Decreased Training & Governance
Any worthwhile outsourcer will make your business easier to manage over time. But, like any new business relationship – there is an introductory period to share necessary information for each party to handle their responsibilities properly. This means you'll need to onboard and govern each outsourcing vendor you work with. In the case of single-sourcing, a business needs to train only one service provider. Saving considerable amount of time and energy for the enterprise, which can subsequently allocate their resources – human and financial - to more critical areas.
- Increased Control over Branding & Corporate Image
A substantial part of the EIM/TPS mix is represented by communications. Payments – in the forms of invoices, bills, statements, or receipts – are themselves communications. Many pieces of information that need to be produced, distributed, and managed by an outsourcing partner are communications as well. When these communications are produced by multiple vendors, it can affect branding negatively through disparate output quality, data inconsistencies, or lack of coordination between vendors. When all operations are done under the same roof, it helps avoid the above-described issues, while boosting the quality of work and helping ensure that the highest quality of service is provided to your customers.
To conclude, it is easier to derive the maximum value from your externally-based partnerships when the number of vendors you need to partner with is kept to a minimum. Especially in the related fields of TPS and EIM, placing all of that work with an organization who can handle it in an end-to-end manner is simply the best practice.
