BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) is the trend that has caught up with major industries in the world. According to Gartner, Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the delegation of one or more IT-intensive business processes to an external provider that, in turn, owns, administrates and manages the selected processes based on defined and measurable performance metrics.
However, the BPO industry has now stepped into diverse processes, whether front-office or back-office operations. Some of these operations include Finance, Accounting, Human Resources, Knowledge Processes, Healthcare, and Customer Contact Centers, among others.
The evolution of BPO has transformed the landscape of the global market by altering the way industries used to function. By outsourcing a part of their business process to a third-party service provider, the businesses can now focus on core projects.
The BPO industry might be on the rise. However, certain technologies can be adopted to improve the quality of services, reduce budget overhead, and optimize its process. The VDI technology is one of them.
VDI or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure is a virtualized environment that enables the creation of virtual desktops on remote servers replacing the bulky physical desktops. There are various cloud service providers available in the market that deploy VDI in their cloud infrastructure and offer you with hosted desktops at affordable prices.
The hosted desktops can offer the BPOs with features to enhance their process and reduce hassles. Here are some of the reasons why BPOs should opt for virtual desktop hosting.
1. Hire Remote Workers
For the BPO industry, the majority of the projects are undertaken to offer some service to another company. The company outsourcing the services might be in a different region, country, or even continent.
Hence, it does not matter where the BPO is located or from where are they hiring. With the advent of technology, the world has become well-connected, and it is now possible to recruit talent from all over the world.
The world can be seen as one vast ocean of talent. So, why shouldn’t the BPOs dive deep and find the best talent for their process?
Hosted Virtual Desktop makes the hiring of people located in remote locations possible. As the virtual desktops are hosted on the cloud, the location you are in does not matter as the virtual desktop can be accessed remotely.
The virtual desktops can be configured as per the requirement and each employee, whether in the office or not, can be given access to his/her desktop. Moreover, these can be accessed even with a smartphone, laptop, or tablet.
Moreover, the leisure of remote work enhances the employee’s productivity as it reduces mental -stress and creates a work-life balance.
2. Budget Considerations
Budget is a major concern for the BPO industry. Be it a customer contact center, IT, accounting, or healthcare; the BPOs always look to cut costs through new strategies as well as the implementation of the latest technology.
The BPO companies take on multiple projects at a time. Each project is assigned a budget along with the workforce. However, there are some constant costs that can be avoided to distribute more revenue among the projects.
One such constant is the IT-related costs. These costs may be anything from setting up the IT infrastructure, maintaining, and upgrading the hardware to employing the IT team.
The hosted virtual desktops save revenue by eliminating the IT-related costs. As the hosted desktop providers host the virtual desktop on their servers and are responsible for its maintenance/upgrade, all you have to do is access them.
Since there are no physical desktops in your local setup, you do not have to worry about the costs. The costs saved can be distributed among the projects and other business operations.
3. Data Protection and Security Concerns
The security concerns of a BPO are much higher than any other industry. The BPOs bear the responsibility of handling a different company’s process. As a result, their process involves the handling of some confidential as well as critical data. The data might vary depending on the process from balance sheets and invoices to the customer’s personal information such as health records.
Storing such critical data in the local setup can be hazardous. The physical desktops are prone to malfunction, and with it, data getting lost or corrupted is a certainty. You can back up the data on local servers, but that takes up physical space and leads to more hardware-related hassles.
In case of virtual desktop hosting, the data is stored in cloud servers located at remote data centers. Hence, any malfunction in the local device does not cause any loss in data as the local devices are used only to access the virtual desktops.
There are certain safeguards that the hosting providers implement to protect your data from unauthorized access. These include data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS & IPS), among others.
In addition to this, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) implemented by the cloud service provider ensure total data protection even in times of a disruptive event such as an earthquake.
4. Unparalleled Support
Consider a scenario where you work at a call center BPO where various companies outsource their call process for customer interaction. The clients may be from diverse geographical locations resulting in 24/7 operation of the call center.
Hence, it is essential for the IT team of the BPO to be available all the time. Any issue surfacing during the call can lead to call drop and unhappy customers. Hence, the IT team should be agile in identifying and resolving issues.
However, employing an IT team on a 24/7 basis leads to increased operational cost and requirement of human resources.
It is better to opt for virtual desktop hosting providers that offer you round-the-clock support for all your issues. It eliminates the requirement for an IT team at the BPO premises as everything from maintenance, deployment, and upgrade of desktops to the installation of software is handled by the hosted desktop provider.
5. Scalable Desktops
Hardware-related issues emerge in the office premises on a daily basis. The on-premise hardware can store a limited amount of data with a specific configuration.
For the BPO industry, with new software made available now and then, the hardware is in constant need of an upgrade. If needed, the storage, as well as other server specs, must be upgraded by manual replacement of hardware that utilizes your valuable time and effort.
Whereas, in the case of hosted virtual desktops, the desktops can be scaled instantly and as per demand. Hence, you do not need to manually replace the software every time you need a hardware upgrade.
The Story So Far!
BPO is emerging as one of the leading industries in the world. However, the hardware-related bottlenecks hamper the productivity of the BPO process.
An effective solution is the hosted virtual desktops. Virtual desktops on the cloud offer the BPOs with the flexibility, mobility, and security that the physical desktops lack. The BPOs can hire employees from different parts of the world as the virtual desktops can be accessed from anywhere.
Hosted virtual desktops save costs by eliminating the requirement of physical desktops in the office. The virtual desktops can be scaled without the need for manual hardware replacement and can be upgraded automatically.
The virtual desktop hosting providers offer you with a secure environment implementing advanced security measure as well as BCDR to ensure total data protection even in times of a disaster.
The virtual desktop hosting providers offer the BPOs with dedicated support for swift and effective resolution of issues.
Have you opted for hosted virtual desktops for your process yet? Tell us your views in the comments section.
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