Why BPO is Integral to Your Business Continuity Plan

The coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally impacted how our economy, and individual businesses, function. Many businesses are responding in a three-pronged approach: react, remodel, return. Companies face new challenges as they continue to do business in what will be the “new normal” and are turning to business process outsourcing, enabling a more adaptive and cost-effective business model in a heightened financially risky environment. Here are some ways companies have been leveraging BPO while adjusting their business continuity and disaster recovery plan:

Leveraging Digital Mailroom Services for Remote Work

In the disaster recovery phase, companies need to be prepared for potential work from home periods, and long-term there’s a growing demand among employees for remote work environments. Using an outsourced mailroom, where mail is sent, received, opened, and scanned at a single, offsite location before electronic distribution to your remote workforce, alleviates the risk of business coming to a halt if your in-house mailroom has to shut down. As companies realize how important mailroom outsourcing is in their business continuity plan, many are contacting digital mailroom providers to start the transition.

Cloud Software Is Now Critical to Business Continuity

In the past, many companies have kept documents stored on internal servers that everyone could access only at the office. With advances in cloud security, it’s now preferable to store documents and data in the cloud. Leveraging cloud software minimizes the reliance on your IT staff, eliminates the need for capital expenditures and most importantly allows remote workers to access and share the business critical documents they need as they work from home.

Once your employees have remote access, you can also help them spend more of their time on core business tasks, by taking advantage of workflow automation, which includes using automation software to distribute scanned files, electronic documents, information, and tasks among employees for immediate review and action no matter where they’re working.

Responding to Fluctuations in Business Growth

Cloud software not only allows your employees to access business critical documents from anywhere, but also makes it easier for companies to seamlessly and cost effectively react to changes in staff.

As governments start to contain the virus, companies will rapidly need to rehire their staff to meet market demands, while still factoring in the uncertainty of potential future waves of the pandemic or other global health crises.

Changing Workforce Environment and Demands

As employees adapt to their work from home offices, there’s going to be an increase in requests to work remotely. According to a recent study, half of employed adults are currently working from home because of the pandemic. As they invest in at-home offices and form habits around their remote work, many will likely request to work from home at least part time even after this all ends. And as businesses adapt social distancing safety measures, they won’t be able to fit as many employees into the same office space at the same time.

By using a BPO service for your document management processes, you can access and share critical documents more easily with your remote team, while improving employee satisfaction and productivity.

Go Paperless

Adopting a paperless office strategy can solve the problem of accessing your current files and future incoming documents if you do need to shut down offices or rotate the number of employees in your office at one time to help with social distancing.

As part of your business resilience plan, make a list of the different services you need such as document scanning, cloud document management, workflow automation software, and an outsourced mailroom. You are looking for a long-term partner who will become a core element in your business’s continuity. Instead of working with different vendors, consider finding a partner who provides a variety of services you can use as your business grows and adapts to the current unpredictable economic landscape.

If you’d like one-on-one support to discuss how business process outsourcing could help your business resilience plan, feel free to speak with one of MetaSource’s specialists at (888) 634-7684 or read more about what to look for in a BPO partner.