Outsourcing

outsourcing philippines

6 Frequently Asked Questions About Outsourcing Offshore

Offshoring in the Philippines, Outsourcing in the Philippines / By

Every business seeks to be profitable while keeping expenses as low as possible. But with profit comes tax, upgrade of office equipment investments in real estate and other worthy ventures that ensure money goes back to the local economy and creates more jobs. 

However, when business owners refuse to adapt their models, profit dries up, tax and wages are no longer paid, and some even go into government benefits, which takes money out of the economy. And this is happening every day across Australia. Businesses that hold onto past models and misconceptions are bound to fail today. 

This article seeks to put an end to those misconceptions and wrong beliefs that hold people back. So let’s get started.

1. Are Jobs Being Taken Out of Australia?

Some people think that by outsourcing jobs overseas that they are stealing jobs in Australia. But this is not true. 

The truth is that everybody wins!

If a business gives a job to someone in another country, as the business grows and expands output and productivity, it can hire more hands among locals as not all jobs can be outsourced. 

Within a short while, more jobs have been created in Australia and the business pays tax and spends more money. The offshore professional wins, the business wins, and the local community wins.

2. What Can They Do?

There are endless tasks that offshore virtual staff can do. Businesses are only limited by their imagination. Here are some of the simple but time-consuming tasks that can be outsourced:

  • Deal with customer enquiries and clear out junk mail.
  • Contact people when emails bounce or return to the sender to ensure data is current.
  • Update website with content, optimise new pages for search engines and reply to blog comments.
  • Post to social media and monitoring of feedback.
  • Generate marketing reports on website analytics for smarter decision-making.
  • Typing minutes from meetings, creating presentation slides, doing research and sourcing images.

Related article: 4 Tasks That Entrepreneurs Should Consider Outsourcing

3. Is It Taking Advantage of Overseas Workers?

Overseas workers prefer working for Australian clients. Since the time difference between the Philippines and Australia is minimal, they can work during the day and get paid more, most of the time even more than working for clients that require workers to work at night. Working in day shift allows them to have a better work-life balance and spend more quality time with their families. 

The fact that they can earn more working for international clients motivates them greatly which increase their productivity and build loyalty to your business.

So again, this is providing a great employment opportunity at a higher rate than what is obtained working for a local employer.

4. Is It Possible To Find Good People?

Just like in every human endeavour, there are great people and there are bad ones. 

When it comes to finding the best people (And by the best people, we mean people who are highly skilled, have a degree or even double degree, speak excellent English and great work ethics), all it takes is some effort to search for the right outsourcing partner and the willingness to pay a little more than everyone else. 

Having said that, people are only as good as the system they follow, so it is crucial that new hires are trained and inducted properly into the company processes.

5. What About Business Data Security?

This may be a little tricky but it’s not any riskier than hiring local staff. All it takes here is following proper employee contact practice and if needed a non-disclosure agreement. However, this is more of an obstacle and not entirely a solution but is pure common sense. 

When it comes to the main work, they’ll only be granted access to the core folders and systems required for their job. Cloud-based file-sharing systems are the best bet and if they need access to special tools, password management tools like LastPass or RoboForm are great for this. With vital information, they can only be allowed to view them but not to delete or export data until they are tested and proven.

Given the importance of data security, a better option is to find an outsourcing partner that can help protect your data. This is why outsourcing companies like Dynamic Business Outsourcing Solutions (DBOS) have made a significant investment in infrastructure and connectivity as these are paramount in delivering a high-functioning offshore team.

DBOS placed high importance on privacy and security. Our facilities and systems are equipped with both logical and physical security. Most importantly, DBOS observes the provisions set out in the Privacy Act to protect our Client’s intellectual properties. 

6. Is Managing Offshore Staff Difficult?

Any serious business willing to make money must take staff management seriously and it is not any different when it comes to offshore staffing. It is important to have the right tools and maintain consistent communication as best practice.

Here are some great tools for offshore staff as well as in-house staff:

  • Gmail, Google Drive and other Google tools
  • Asana or Trello for project management
  • Skype or Zoom for face-to-face communication through video
  • Voxer for sending memos on the fly
  • TimeDoctor or Toggl for time tracking on projects

Conclusion

Outsourcing doesn’t have to be the way it has always been seen. Rather than thinking that it steals Australian jobs, businesses should see it as a great way to create more jobs in the country. Business people who are ready to join the shifting tide can take the plunge now or wait to be the last man standing, which might be an undesirable position to be in the future.

b2b-companies

DBOS Receives Award for Being One of the Top B2B Companies in Asia for 2020

Business, Business News, Outsourcing in the Philippines / By

The current state of voice is becoming more and more widespread as technology gets smarter. This year, we’re seeing more customer data analysis, real-time translation, and enterprise voice assistants.

Here at Dynamic Business Outsourcing Solutions, we’re always on top of the latest trends and practices so you don’t have to be. You can rest easy knowing we’re providing the latest and greatest for you. We’ve been at this for a while now, and our team has been providing world-class, personalized and affordable outsourcing services to businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Our greatest product is our staff. We offer different offshore staffing services such as call centre support, back-office functions, online marketing services, graphic designing, website, software and app development.

We can even customize solutions to each individual client’s request and requirements. With this, we cater to different industries such as car finance, car rental, insurance, marketing, IT, development, and a whole lot more. We locate experienced college graduates with the perfect skills to fit our client’s requirements for whatever industry it may be.

Over the years, we’ve had many successful engagements that have brought positive results to our clients.

client-review

“Our dealings with their team have been great.” – Claims Manager, Delaney Kelly Golding Pty Ltd

Feedback such as this highlights our great customer service and the top quality of our deliverables. That’s why we’ve been recognized as a 2020 top collections service provider in the Philippines by Clutch. This award means we’re a top voice services company!

Jacqui Miller, our CEO and founder, had this to say about the achievement, “We aim to bring our customized outsourcing solutions to more SMEs not just in Australia and New Zealand but also in North America and Europe. Also, we want to provide more jobs and opportunities to well-rounded and talented Filipinos by opening more offices in key cities in the Philippines.”

We’re looking forward to what the future holds and always want to hear from you!

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Covid-19 is pushing more companies to look at outsourcing

Business, Outsourcing in the Philippines / By

Over the decades as globalisation has taken hold, the Philippines has become a major player in the outsourcing industry. In cities from Makati to Quezon City, more than 1.2 million people staff are employed by BPO companies, call centres, IT centres and all kinds of other outsourcing services to western businesses, including Australia and New Zealand. 

But the uncontrolled nature of the country’s coronavirus lockdown declared at four hours’ notice in March, left many outsourcers clambering to avoid operation interruptions as they shifted to remote working. This highlighted the risks of focusing on outsourced operations and work that has been kept in- house but transferred offshore in a singular place. 

The Philippines which is one of Asia’s biggest outsourcing and offshoring hub and one of the worlds top five is one of the outsourcing hotspots hoping to benefit.

For those businesses that were not considered outsourcing before, the pandemic will expedite it. They will look at the circumstance and say if we are global operating companies, we too have to have our workforce allocated more evenly. 

One hurdle for Philippines outsourcers in the switch to remote work or work-from-home was stern privacy rules on what can be taken out of the office. Next was the inadequacy of infrastructure, power interruptions, and staff often lack stable internet connections at home.

Many companies were not anticipating the scale of the impact. Most staff don’t have fast home broadband because it is too expensive so BPO companies have had to provide their staff with a prepaid sim card (with internet cash stipend) and laptops so they can work remotely. Some even let the staff take home their office desktop computers.

Since we transitioned our staff in DBOS to work from home, productivity continues to be higher. We have tools to track the productivity of every employee right now. There is a lockdown, so obviously, everybody is focused on work. We have to recognise how a grand-scale work from home stacks up in a non-lockdown environment. The second viewpoint is a lot of clients have comfortably accepted it because of the pandemic. 

The Philippines remain one of the most competitive and affordable in terms of labour costs among the top outsourcing providers. It continues to attract western companies, including Australian and New Zealand companies. As much of the country continues to be under “enhanced community quarantine”, the country’s BPO industry has adapted to new working practices and shifts in demand. With this, BPO companies executives hope that the way the industry handled the shift to work-from-home setup during the pandemic will be another factor in their favour.

Related article: A Quick Guide to Opening Your Business After the COVID-19 Lockdown is Over

 

small business owner

When and How to Outsource for your Small Business

Business, Outsourcing in the Philippines / By

Most entrepreneurs and small business owners have enormous talents but oftentimes they think they can do it all. This mindset can really hinder the growth of the business. Through outsourcing, they will have more time to focus on their core competencies to generate income. 

Business owners and entrepreneurs have long seen outsourcing as a strategy used by big businesses or large corporations, but technology has made this incredible resource more accessible to startups and other small businesses. For many startups, outsourcing has made a powerful impact not only on their growth but also on their efficiency, productivity and bottom lines. 

More and more businesses in the SME category are outsourcing or utilising offshore teams to do repetitive day-to-day back-office tasks because of technology. The advancing technology allowed professionals to be able to work from anywhere in the world. Couple that with the availability of extremely qualified and talented professionals. Whether it’s a virtual executive assistant, digital marketing professional, graphic designer, bookkeeper or web developer, there’s a large pool of these talents in countries like the Philippines. The utilisation of offshore staffing helps small businesses save on overhead costs. It removed the burden of paying overhead associated with payroll taxes and expenses such as health insurance and salary, as well as the office space constrictions that growing a company in-house can present.

When to outsource

Taking the first steps toward outsourcing can be a daunting task and extremely time-consuming. But figuring out how to build a more sustainable business with help from outside professionals can offer increased productivity, efficiency and economies of scale.  According to David Walsh, an entrepreneur and author of Source Control, “Progressive entrepreneurs realise the unstoppable power of outsourcing to handle aspects of their business that are essential but simply don’t make sense for them to deal with personally.”

The right time to outsource is different for every company. Some businesses have in-house employees to handle daily activities but may need outside help to tackle new projects that are beyond their capabilities and capacities. It’s when you and your current staff are unable to manage the daily business of your company and do it satisfactorily, it may be the right time to consider outsourcing. For entrepreneurs, the realisation may come when you had no time left in your day to pursue the growth of your business. If you want your business to thrive, you have to let go of some control and start delegating. 

According to Tonya Thomas, president of The Small Office Assistant, it’s recommended that startups and very small businesses start outsourcing from the very beginning. She suggested starting out with a virtual assistant and a bookkeeper and growing the team from there. 

What to outsource

Almost any task can be outsourced these days with many outsourcing and offshore staffing firms in countries like the Philippines offering access to a large pool of talented and qualified English-speaking professionals. But just because you can outsource a task or a project doesn’t mean you should. 

Business owners should take a hard look at their business and determine their strengths and values. Startups and small businesses especially must identify their core competencies and capabilities. 

Here are two general categories of the types of tasks that are best outsourced: 

  • Highly repetitive tasks. Some examples are data-entry, accounts payable, website tasks such as moderating comments, blog writing, content creation, SEO and social media tasks.
  • Specialised knowledge. An example is IT support for your network or accounting system. 

Related: Here are 4 tasks that entrepreneurs should consider outsourcing.

Finding the Right Outsourcing Provider

Although technology makes it a lot easier to find capable, reliable outsource providers, the selection process is still extremely important. There’s no better place to start than your own network; ask other entrepreneurs or your accountant, lawyer, or banker if they can recommend a provider that offers the services you need. Online networks like LinkedIn and Facebook make it easy to grow your personal networks and to ask for recommendations.

Others are also able to locate outsource providers through brokers like Outsource Accelerator. They are the leading Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) marketplace, advisory & operator for businesses across the globe. They connect startups, entrepreneurs and business owners of small-to-medium sized companies with the top outsourcing providers in the Philippines while helping them learn about, engage and integrate outsourcing into their businesses.

Whether you use a personal referral, a web-based broker or marketplace, or a consultant, the key to choosing the right provider is to know exactly what you’re business needs are.

Focusing on identifying your performance metrics for each task that you want to outsource is critical. There are some outsourcing providers that focus on speed at the expense of quality or vice versa. This is fine as long as there is a good match between what the small business wants and what the provider specialises in. In the Philippines, there are BPOs that specialise in customer service support for big companies like Slack, Google, AT&T, Skype to name a few who require a larger call centre operation. Others specialise in assisting the SME market like Dynamic Business Outsourcing Solutions (DBOS). DBOS’ business model allows full flexibility to scale up and down from 1 staff to 50+ which is perfect for startups and expanding businesses. Many small businesses don’t realise these massive differences among outsourcing providers and select the wrong ones. It’s essential to have an open and transparent conversation with potential partners regarding these key performance metrics.

Making it Work for your Small Business

Your work does not end yet once you’ve found a provider. You need to put in some extra time creating a specific contract that outlines exactly all the key performance indicators. You need to ensure that your provider focuses on what is most important to you rather than their own preferences or assumptions of what you want. 

Set your expectations and the steps included in the job as clearly as possible. Never assume that your provider is thinking what you’re thinking. And even when you clearly set your expectations, there will always be a learning curve on the provider’s side so just be patient. The provider will get better, and you will soon have the freedom to focus on more important tasks. 

Finally, your last responsibility to become a successful outsourcer is to relinquish some control and allow your new offshore team to do the job you’ve hired them to do. A measure of trust is required to be successful at outsourcing. Remember that the whole point of outsourcing is to save your valuable management time and attention. You also have to realise that removing yourself from low-level operations is the smartest investment you can make for the long-term success of your business.

Determining the Costs vs. the Benefits

The costs of allowing you to get away from the day-to-day tasks and build a better business depend on the type of work that you’re buying. You also have to consider the skill level of the employees you’re planning to hire and the location of your provider.

In the Philippines, outsourcing companies like DBOS offer a flat structure monthly fee which covers all the dedicated staffing solutions:

  • Staff’s salary package
  • Staff’s workstation
  • Electricity and internet access
  • HR support
  • IT support
  • Admin support
  • Orientation
  • Payroll processing
  • Benefits management
  • Performance monitoring and evaluation
  • Engagement and recognition programs
  • Meeting and boardroom access
  • Access to pantry and supplies

This type of fee structure allows businesses to save between $20,000 to $40,000 per employee annually. 

It cannot be any more true that you get what you pay for wherever you go in the world. Regardless of location, you always have to pay someone what they are worth. Leveraging the currency differences though can often work in your favour. 

Overcoming the Challenges

Outsourcing does not guarantee success every time. While it yields great advantages for a startup or small business, there are always challenges. 

  • Language and timezone barriers. Making sure that your own communication is clear can help overcome confusion for non-native English speakers. Time zones, on the other hand, create more opportunity than an inconvenience. You can extend your productive hours by assigning tasks over to your offshore team during your workday and wake up to find it complete and ready for you.
  • Security risks. There is always some level of security risks involved when handing over tasks to an outsourced provider. You need to ensure that you’re not risking any employee personal information and customer data. Choose a provider that allows clients to maintain their intellectual property and full process and data control. Or provide them with only the absolute minimum data necessary for them to do the job. Otherwise, for general sense, always review your provider’s security policy and practices.

Earning the Benefits of Small Business Outsourcing

Despite the risks, outsourcing offers small business owners great advantages. It’s an affordable and proven strategy for growing your business without letting it consume all your time. Outsourcing can bring back your focus on your core competencies and allows you to spend your time setting new goals and finding ways to fulfil them. 

outsource

5 Reasons Why You Should Outsource to the Philippines

Outsourcing in the Philippines / By

Before 2020 started, an international market business insider listed the Philippines as the second-best country to outsource in the world. Despite the hundreds of countries that accommodate all kinds of outsourcing, the Philippines remain thriving.

Each country that serves as home to hundreds of outsourcing companies has a special subset of skills and expertise. Although they can probably take on a few tasks beyond their core strength, it would be more strategic to assign it to someone with in-depth knowledge and experience on the matter itself. According to the same survey, almost 80 per cent of businesses feel good about their outsourcing decisions and are expected to continually do so in the coming years.

Once dubbed as the Call Center Capital of the World, the Philippines has been considered as the number one source for outsourced agents in the world. So, if you’re contemplating whether to outsource your services to the Philippines or not, you should check out these 5 reasons why.

outsource

5 Reasons Why You Should Outsource to the Philippines

Every country has its own reasons why foreign companies decided to outsource their non-core tasks with them. While it could be because of the most obvious of reasons, the Philippines remains to be one of the most outsourced countries in the globe.

1. Filipinos are highly proficient in English

There is no doubt that the Filipino people are well-versed in the English language. Even the local vendors and drivers can keep a normal conversation going. Aside from that, the media also utilise the English language in news reports, newspaper articles, magazines, and more.

Students have also learned it in school as early as 2 years old. At the same time, their teachers speak a mix of English and the native language when communicating. Even in meetings, events, and formal written documents. Although not formally declared, English is considered as the second language in the Philippines.

According to the English Proficiency Index, the Philippines ranks 20th out of 100 countries that proficiently speak the language, and is 2nd in Asia.

2. Labour costs are cheaper

Outsourcing in the Philippines has one outstanding privilege that foreign businesses take advantage of, the low labour costs. They enjoy almost up to 70% less on their wage costs compared to what they might be spending if they opt to do nearshoring. Also, they have high regards to the Filipino quality of work and their ethics as professionals. So, instead of paying someone locally for the same skill, it is better for them to outsource that talent and pay less. It might be just a little amount for now, but when accumulated, could be more than enough to grow their businesses.

3. Almost 3 decades of outsourcing

As the saying goes, “experience is the best teacher”, the Philippines has a 3-decade history of outsourcing. Starting from 1992, when the first contact center was built in the country, slowly, the business practice flourished. Because of the surge, the outsourcing industry in the country hit the all-time high rank and was recognised as the top outsourcing destination in the world. Until then, the Philippine government came into the picture and supported the rise of the BPO sector. As it contributes a huge chunk to the country’s economy, they made sure to protect it by enforcing laws and policies that will attract more investors.

4. Strict data privacy law

“To protect the fundamental human right of privacy, of communication while ensuring free flow of information to promote innovation and growth” is the main objective of the Data Privacy Act of 2012. It is designed to protect the client’s data by maintaining confidentiality, integrity and availability of their data while ensuring a free flow of information. It was established to attract more foreign investors and businesses to move to the country.

5. Filipinos are hardworking and talented

The Philippines has a highly educated and diverse talent pool which was evident in almost 200,000 university graduates each year. This number equates to the country’s 97% literacy rate. And in every field of work, the Filipinos are popular because of their culture of hard work and perseverance to achieve excellence.

Conclusion

Outsourcing in the Philippines could be your best move this year to help grow your business. You just have to make sure to meet a great outsourcing partner that will walk with you through success. Find an outsourcing provider who has the same goals and aspirations as you. If you’re having a hard time finding one, check out DBOS and get to save up to 70% on your labour costs today!  Contact us today and get a free consultation with our CEO/Founder.

outsourcing partnership

The Recipe for a Successful Outsourcing Partnership

Offshoring in the Philippines, Outsourcing in the Philippines / By

The most essential part of achieving business growth and development is building a meaningful outsourcing partnership. All while connections are easy to establish, a partnership, on the other hand, should be mutual.

Nowadays, even if the digital age has revolutionized the way businesses deal with everything, outsourcing remains to be a part of the priority list. As a matter of fact, relevant research says that businesses from different industries at least delegate 1 or 2 of their non-core activities for outsourcing. They do it to guarantee a higher quality of service and faster turnaround – the same reasons why businesses outsource.

With outsourcing, the possibilities are endless. As it does not only cater to a specific type, nor to a certain size of the business, everything is achievable.

But, the question is how? Find more about the recipe in creating a successful outsourcing partnership on the infographic below.

outsourcing partnership

More than making sure that the foundation of a budding partnership is present, guaranteeing a few characteristics on both sides is one strategic move.

Cultural proximity

On your search to finding a capable outsourcing partner, you’ll pass through several companies who will offer services that are too good to be true. But, do not budge. Instead, look for an outsourcing company who has the same ideas and cultural beliefs as you do. If you found one, you will be more confident that you are working hand-in-hand towards success.

Trust and communication

You can’t provide excellent outsourcing services if you don’t fully trust who you’re working with. Second-guessing their strategies and questioning the process that they follow could negatively impact your services. Sometimes, you just have to take a leap of faith in their ideas and believe that they also want to do their best as their reputation is on the line. Regularly communicating with them might also help clear the doubts.

On the other hand, you also have to set your expectations, time frame, and resources straight so your outsourcing partner can thoroughly prepare.

Flexibility

Not everything that you have envisioned for your product and services can be doable. Just like what they say, “we can never create something exactly as we picture it in our heads”. So when your outsourcing partner tells you that what you’re planning is impossible, consider their feedback. Believe it or not, they also want nothing but the best for you and the business. And even if the end product could be too far from your visions, it might be better than what you have originally imagined.

Conclusion

Out of all the outsourcing companies in the world, the perfect one does not exist. But, the one who will work hard to accompany you through success is DBOS. Located in the Philippines, DBOS is an Australian-owned offshore staffing company that caters to back-office services, digital marketing, IT outsourcing, and outsourced customer support services. Reduce your wage costs up to 70% and get a free consultation with our very own CEO/Founder!