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Case study

A BPO Leader Embraces Automation to Transform Its Cost Structure

A leading business process outsourcing (BPO) company had attempted to make greater use of automation in the past, with limited success and were now significantly behind the curve. We helped them plan and execute an ambitious program that resulted in more than 100 processes being automated in the first year. They not only achieved their efficiency goals but also improved the quality of their delivery (faster; fewer errors), enhanced the employee proposition, and made automation a core part of the customer value proposition going forward.

  • min read

At a Glance

  • 120 FTEs working in BPOCo’s new Automation Center of Excellence
  • 500 Roles automated with additional 1,000+ identified

The Story

A series of acquisitions had enabled BPOCo* to grow significantly, but it had not invested the time and effort to fully integrate its expanded operations, leading to a high cost position, duplication of activity, and inconsistent and inefficient processes. The company believed that greater use of automation could make its core operating processes more efficient and effective and provide an important foundational element to its multi-year cost transformation effort. However, the company had made virtually no investments toward that goal and, as a result, badly trailed their competitors. We teamed with the company to develop and implement an ambitious plan that would greatly reduce its costs and develop a core automation capability for the future.

We worked closely with BPOCo to develop a roadmap that identified both short- and long-term automation opportunities, including a series of “quick wins” that would deliver an immediate impact and win credibility for the larger automation strategy. We helped BPOCo stand up the necessary teams, develop the internal processes, build supporting IT infrastructure, deploy the right third-party software and delivery partners, and embed the company’s expanding automation capabilities in its external sales efforts.

To ensure the company achieved its long-term objectives on an accelerated schedule we helped them grow their in-house automation team from 9 FTEs to a scaled Automation Center of Excellence of 120 FTEs that functions as a dependable service provider for the rest of the organization. This team created a process to systematically review new automation opportunities, and build the infrastructure needed to consistently deliver reliable, high-impact forms of automation.  Further, it started offering automation services to external customers, creating a new go-to-market path that won significant external business in the first 12 months.

As a result of our collaboration, BPOCo is on track to exceed its cost reduction targets by 50%, and its automation capabilities translate directly into improved client service thanks to greatly reduced error rates and improved cycle times.

The company’s automation team now spans several geographies, with a robust and secure cloud-based infrastructure prepared to support a complete end-to-end automation program that has already set them well on the  way to automating 500 roles, with a further 1,000+ candidates identified.

* We take our clients' confidentiality seriously. While we've changed their names, the results are real.

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