The development of service provider’s BPO-IT framework

Abstract

Purpose

The decision to operate BPO-IT organisational model by a business process outsourcing (BPO) service provider has far reaching benefits. The purpose of this paper is to develop a service provider’s BPO-IT framework that provides in-house IT function (software) required to process client services.

Design/methodology/approach

The multi-case study adopted an exploratory sequential mixed method research approach. In the first instance, seven BPO service provider organisations were investigated in the qualitative phase and 156 in the quantitative phase, respectively.

Findings

The adoption of the developed framework indicates that it could reduce failures in BPO relationships through reduced turnaround time in processing client services, improved quality of service, reduced cost, improved client and provider’s competitiveness, and confidentiality of client operations. Outsourcing clients could lay the foundation for a successful relationship by adopting a selection process that could choose the right provider.

Originality/value

The paper reveals BPO-IT organisation’s operation towards in-house provision of software required to process client services. A research exploring BPO service providers from a top outsourcing destination like India could provide offshore outsourcing clients the information to move towards onshore outsourcing.

Citation

Ikerionwu, C., Edgar, D. and Gray, E. (2017), "The development of service provider’s BPO-IT framework", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 897-917. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-10-2015-0146