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I get up close and personal in understanding the nuances of business process outsourcing, otherwise known as BPO to all you acronym-loving CEO/COO/CFO/VP/EVP/CKO-types out there.

My theory is that BPO is quickly solidifying itself as a huge, resourceful, practical tool in today’s market for two reasons.

First – and perhaps most obvious – it’s an extremely cost-effective solution in today’s economic climate.  Just because the market is scrambling to pull itself up by its bootstraps, that does not mean businesses aren’t still scrambling to continue growing and increasing revenues. They’re just looking for cost-efficient, realistic, functional, outside-the-box alternatives to do so. An obvious alternative is outsourcing some of those day-to-day business processes.

Second, and maybe as a result of reason #1, organizations are seeing that outsourcing is simply an efficient tool in general to integrate into the overall business strategy … of any sized organization.

Why create an entire IT department when you can outsource some (if not all) of your tech needs to an already-established expert? Do you need to bring in an HR manager, when there are human resource consultants available on-call when you need them? And, my personal favorite, why hire an on-staff executive assistant to handle the details of your day, when there’s one right here who can do all the same things without the stress, cost and commitment of bringing on a permanent employee?

Every day I’m amazed at the new technologies I learn about that are easily and readily available for those of us in the BPO arena … tools that not only make our jobs easier, but also those of our clients.  Need to have a quick, few-sentence conversation? Click on your instant messenger and see if your service provider is online. Have a large file that needs to be sent? Check out some of the FTP or “drop” sites for quick and easy file sharing. Want someone else to be able to access files directly from your computer? Take your pick from several remote access tools.

The definition of BPO grows almost as quickly as technology changes. Back in the day, “outsourcing” brought images of larger-than-life corporations sending production lines offshore to other countries. Today, the one-person consulting firm down the street outsources her bookkeeping to a bookkeeper, sends her marketing materials and newsletter copy to her virtual assistant to produce, and emails her list of prospects to an off-site appointment-setter. 

What does she get in return? The equivalent of a three-person staff and the time to focus on what she does best – consult her clients and grow her business.

Before embracing the Brave New World of BPO, a little due diligence is always in order.  There’s a good BPO 101 article that was published on SourcingMag.com that outlines a few of the first considerations. But, do a Google search, and I’m sure you’ll be up against countless other resources.

But, you’ll find any BPO-related service provider is just as interested in making sure you understand the benefits and potential challenges as you are in discovering how to make it a workable solution for you.

Last spring, I had the good fortune to start meeting with some of my local virtual assistant colleagues for an occasional breakfast gab-fest. It was a pretty small group, but we got along famously and had fun talking about our businesses, sharing referrals and tossing around ideas.

It didn’t take long, and we got to thinking: Are we the only ones doing this? The only people getting together to network and build a little local support network?

After a little digging, we found … well … nothing.

We couldn’t find any other groups in the state. So, being the freakishly organized people we are, we decided to start one.

The Wisconsin Virtual Assistant Network officially launched earlier this month, with the introduction of our Website to as many Wisconsin-based virtual assistants as we could find.

In a matter of days, we got responses from almost half the VAs we contacted, filling out their membership profiles to be posted to the new site. The goal is to profile all the active virtual assistants in Wisconsin, allowing both the business community to meet us and learn more about adding a VA to the team, and providing tools and resources for VAs to grow their practices.

As the interim marketing and communications person for our new statewide group working to get the word out, I’m beyond thrilled about this venture! I’m excited to introduce VAs to each other and build support networks for our local industry; I’m excited to promote the industry to the state’s business community; I’m excited to help plan and develop workshops and seminars; I’m excited to educate everyone I talk to about the benefits of having a VA on the team.

So, to my fellow Badgerland VAs, welcome! And to the Wisconsin business community, let us know what we can do to support you and your efforts for growth!