September 2, 2025 The BPO Blueprint for First-Time Outsourcers

As economic volatility and supply chain complexity put pressure on businesses, outsourcing is back on the agenda as a strategic lifeline.

By Ruben Moggee, CEO, Nutun International

Why outsourcing is a strategic imperative

Yet, for companies taking their first steps into Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), the landscape is unfamiliar, filled with myths and missed opportunities. Too often, decisions are rushed, and outcomes fall short. But with the right strategy, outsourcing can become a powerful lever for growth, resilience, and innovation.

Outsourcing has become a core part of smart business strategies because it delivers measurable benefits – and not just on cost. According to a report by the Africa Global Business Services (GBS), global buyers can save up to 86% in labour costs by outsourcing to African offshore service providers. That kind of efficiency opens the door to far more than savings. Done right, outsourcing enables businesses to scale operations, access scarce skills, and boost resilience.

BPOs give companies the ability to scale their capacity in response to evolving market conditions and business requirements to support seasonal or daily peaks in demand, without increasing permanent staff numbers. The ability to respond to changes in customer demand can help elevate customer service levels and improve customer experience (CX). A BPO partner can also provide access to new technologies or scarce skills, without the costs commonly associated with accessing these capabilities.

In addition, businesses have also leveraged BPO providers to outsource non-core functions such as IT support, finance or HR, functions that are essential but may be overlooked to enable strategic change within organisations. By delegating highly skilled technical functions to external third-party experts who possess domain expertise, companies can focus on their core competencies. Freeing up capacity allows internal resources to focus on mission-critical functions and value-adding tasks within the enterprise, which can increase productivity and deliver better business outcomes that boost profitability.

Outsourcing also offers companies a viable solution to responding to more complex industry changes, such as meeting evolving compliance environments or accessing specific expertise and skills. Finding and retaining these skills in-house often creates challenges and is typically expensive. Specialist BPOs in regions that boast highly skilled and technical workforces offer domain expertise and technological capabilities that can enhance operational efficiencies, improve decision-making, and further reduce costs.

Spreading your operation across time zones by outsourcing to different countries can create a team that is available 24 hours a day to support the operation or your customers. With operations spread across multiple geographic locations, businesses also benefit from greater resiliency thanks to the baked-in redundancy that operating from multiple BPO centers of excellence creates.

Smart choices: Where outsourcing adds real value

Outsourcing isn’t one-size-fits-all. Back-office functions like HR management, IT support, data capture, and compliance are prime candidates because they are essential but not differentiating. Front-office tasks such as customer service or technical support bring your brand to life, so the provider you choose must align with your culture and standards. Knowing what to keep in-house versus what to outsource is a strategic decision that impacts CX, compliance, and ultimately, customer trust.

Choosing the right BPO partner: Strategy before selection

Selecting the right outsourcing partner isn’t just a procurement exercise – it’s a strategic decision that can determine the success or failure of your entire BPO journey.  These five factors will shape your outsourcing success:

1. Start with strategy: Why outsource? Whether it’s to reduce costs, scale quickly, tap into global talent, or build resilience, your outsourcing strategy should serve a clear business purpose. Without that clarity, even the best provider will struggle to deliver meaningful impact.
2. Set clear objectives: It is critical to the outsourcing project’s success that the outsourcer can track and measure the progress toward the identified strategic outcome. Understand what success looks like based on a specific metric – is it financial, like the cost to serve, a measure related to CX like first call resolution (FCR) or average handling time (AHT)? Understanding the criteria for success also aligns expectations between the client and the outsourcing partner. Without these clearly defined goals, there’s a high risk of misalignment, where the provider may deliver what they think you want, but not what you need. This leads to wasted resources, frustration, and missed business outcomes.
3. Define your scope: Don’t fall into the trap of outsourcing everything or nothing. Identify which services genuinely benefit from external expertise and which are better kept in-house due to regulatory, cost, or competency reasons.
4. Choose the right location: Offshoring might dominate the headlines, but not every region is right for every business. India and the Philippines offer deep experience and talent pools. South Africa is gaining traction with its English fluency, CX culture, and timezone overlap with the UK and parts of the US. The right location delivers more than cost savings. It brings access to scarce skills, diversity, business continuity, and even 24/7 coverage across time zones.
5. Select the right partner: Only once armed with an understanding of the required skills, capabilities, geographic reach, and a clearly defined scope, should a first-time outsourcer issue a request for proposals to find and select the right partner. When choosing a BPO provider, prioritise strong security credentials (like ISO 27001 and SOC 2), regulatory compliance (GDPR, HIPAA and PCI-DSS), and robust technological capabilities including AI automation and system integration.

From scope to scale: Setting up your BPO for success

Outsourcing isn’t about handing off problems. It’s about accelerating transformation. For first-timers, the right BPO partner is more than a vendor – they’re a strategic co-pilot on your path to growth.

But success depends on preparation. Businesses that approach outsourcing with clear goals, a defined scope, and the right internal buy-in stand to gain far more than cost efficiencies. They build resilient operations, access untapped talent, and ultimately, unlock the freedom to innovate.

In a nutshell, outsourcing is about giving leaders the freedom to focus on the future, whether that’s entering new markets, launching new products, or finally solving the challenges they never had time to tackle.

About the Author:
Ruben Moggee joined Nutun as International CEO, bringing extensive experience in driving turnaround and growth for businesses worldwide. With a focus on stakeholder engagement, strategy implementation, and market expansion, He prioritizes people development and enhancing customer experiences and interactions. Ruben is genuinely passionate about the BPO sector and its capacity to uplift communities. His leadership journey includes roles as CEO at Digicall Group and OKS, where he managed large teams and led acquisitions in South Africa, Australia, and the UK. His background as a former partner at KPMG has equipped him with a strong foundation in navigating complex business environments.

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