FEATURE: OUTSOURCING
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the concept first before incurring huge costs,” she said. “Finally, even
those established insurers or brokers looking to replace legacy systems
with new technology while optimising current operational processes can
benefit from investigating the outsourced route.”
The concept of outsourced policy administration is not new; it does
take quite a bit of strategic and financial analysis to determine the
value over insourcing, upgrading existing technology and migration
from legacy systems.
“There is an opportunity for insurers to embrace the concept of
outsourced services,” said Strumpher.
“This allows for a refocus of selling the right product to the
right target market. Partnering with the right company who has
an FSP license and is authorised to perform administrative
functions can help achieve your strategic goals by optimising
your business without having to invest hundreds of thousands of
Rands in technology.” n
Mobile technologies’ growing role
in Business Process Outsourcing
B
usiness Process Outsourcing (BPO)
has long since played a role in
cutting costs for businesses. An ‘on
and off again’ trend, BPO is now facing what
industry specialists call a ‘technology enabled
transformation’. Cassie Lessing, Managing
Director, Strato IT Group, says that digitisation
is a main driver for BPO’s resurgence.
“Increasing pressure to cut costs and reach
a higher level of business productivity has
motivated both clients and suppliers to
review operational efficiency and look at
ways to better use technology to affect
business savings and improve overall
performance,” said Lessing.
“South Africa has already established itself
as a global BPO service provider in the call
centre and financial services sector. The
weakening Rand also makes South Africa an
attractive option for global BPO solutions.”
planning and administration with a powerful
USP, being its data integrity.
“We transform the delivery process, making
the business operation more seamless and at
the same time, we generate meaningful data.
“There is a lot more insight into the
operational side of delivery and what is and
isn’t working. Often issues within the delivery
cycle impacts the overall effectiveness of the
business and increases administration and
essential ‘down time’.”
Lessing says he has countless examples
of where the technology Strato IT has
locally developed has made an immensely
positive impact.
“We see this reflected on clients’ bottom
line and improved overall efficiency and
effectiveness by very significant margins,” he
said. Having launched the ePod business App
three years ago, Lessing says that interest in
StratoPOD grows daily.
“It may not be conscious, but we are seeing
many logistics-focused businesses consider
alternatives as they essentially try to
redefine their business process outsourcing
as part of the overall process,” he said. “We
often start a scope of work looking at one
small element and once the benefits become
more tangible, clients build on it and before
you know it, we have a redefined business
process strategy that is initially led from a
mobile business app solution.” n
The growing increase in technologies such
as digitisation and cloud has increased the
overall role technology plays within BPO.
An Accenture study found that businesses
that deliver value are the ones who use
technology as a source of innovation and
advantage, moving away from an over
reliance on the infrastructure of delivery.
“Strato IT has witnessed this technology
enabled transformation with our mobile
business application platform, StratoPOD,”
added Lessing.
“Not just an add-on, by utilising data level
systems integration, StratoPOD has become
an essential business tool for delivery
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