Quality over Quantity: The BPO Usage and Investment Plans of Canadian Businesses

This document examines recent end-user survey data to assess the interest in outsourcing business processes by Canadian organizations. The data presented illustrates that business process outsourcing is not a mass-market solution. Instead, BPO is a service offering that is highly customized and requires significant self-selection on the part of prospects. "The BPO market is fragmented amongst a variety of configurations from processing services to administrative services to business transformation services. A critical assessment that vendors must undertake is at which stage of adoption is the prospect in and tailor solutions that don't oversell customer requirements or overcomplicate the solution. This assessment is critical for vendors to unlock the potential of business process outsourcing in Canada and allow customers to feel more comfortable with the use of external providers," says Jim Westcott, senior analyst for application and business outsourcing services research.