Both of the terms refer to numerous business functions performed inside an organization, however, to grasp the distinction between Front-office and Back-office in an exceedingly BPO, you should first understand what ‘BPO’ stands for? Business process outsourcing refers to subletting non-core business activities and operations to a Third-Party organization, that was antecedently performed by an associate degree in-house team. These operations encompass all the tasks administrated inside a corporation by its employees, with the distinction between the front office and therefore the back office outlined by the character of the functions executed.
- Types of Business process outsourcing
- Front office operations
- Back office operations
- Back office vs Front office | The difference between front and back office operations
- Which one should you outsource?
Types of Business process outsourcing
has become a smart business strategy to minimize cost, work relationship intensity, and focused productivity. When you outsource your business process from an international location typically at a low cost it’s called offshoring, and contracting with your closeby region to expand your talent base is called nearshoring and expanding your talent base by contracting to the same country but another state in onshoring. All of these options have their different advantages and disadvantages, but the idea of having an external team to perform your business functions remains the same.
BPO firms handle a wide array of day-to-day business functions. Sometimes the work of these two departments may stirrup. Both the departments have a set of functions, in conjunction, they create a well-lubricated machine that runs smoothly, and none of them can function independently. Tradinationally these business functions were specifically outlined various trends are sometimes causing them to fuse to deliver amplified results.
Front Office Operations Outsourcing
In basic terms front office operations refers to all the customer-facing functions within the company or the individual who acts as representative of a particular company and deals with or handles the customers or clients on its behalf. Like, Sales management, Marketing management, CRM, etc. These roles are the frontline of a company meaning they’re what a customer or clients deal with while interacting with a company and they’re directly responsible for generating revenue while also handling customer feedback, queries, etc.
There are certain must-have soft skills that an individual has to have to work on these roles and those are
- Outstanding Communication
- People skills
- and Instant problem-solving ability
These are the core skills one must develop to successfully perform the front office business functions. They also need to have a clear vision and understanding of the customer’s needs and wants & in-depth knowledge of the products or services of the company that they’re representing
The typical front office services offered by the BPO firm comprise
- Customer Care
- Marketing and sales
- Scheduling and public relation
- Contact center services, such as Inbound/outbound calling, texting services
- IT enabled services such help desk, Technical support, after-sales service, etc
These front office duties consist of
- Collecting information
- Creating customer/clients profiles
- Opening up new accounts
- Scheduling meetings/appointments
- Managing orders
- Addressing customer/client concerns
Back Office Operations Outsourcing
To simply put back office operations are non-consumer facing or administrative tasks. It’s called the back office because these employees have little to no interaction with companies’ customers/clients, they operate at the back end of the organization. The font relies on the back office operations to run smoothly in the background for the overall performance delivered. These are the internal functions of an organization such as human resources, account management, etc.
The soft skills that back office roles require are
- Strategic thinking
- Decision Making
- Managerial skills
- Budget Making
- Cost minimization, etc.
These are some of the skills back office employees need to have other than that they also need to have various technical knowledge and skill of their particular industry to successfully perform.
Finding a candidate that has all tips and tricks to do these jobs can be a bit difficult, which is understandable. That’s why companies think outsourcing some of these business processes that are tailored to their needs.
The back office services consist of but are not limited to
- Accounting
- Human resource and payroll
- IT Functions
- Web/software design, development and testing
- Content creation and management
- Graphics designing
- Video editing
- Digital Marketing
- Manufacturing & Compliance
- Quality Assurance
- Administration
- Data-entry & management
- Reporting
The back office duties and responsibilities
- Accounts Receivable/payable, Billing, processing payments
- Invoicing
- Asset management, Budgeting
- Record keeping
- Compliance management
- Email, Web, Social media live chat support
- Indexing, Data-entry & management
- Risk assessment
- RCM, ROI, CRM management
- Web/software development and engineering
- Product designing
- Branding
- Strategic planning, etc
Back office vs Front office | The difference between front and back office operations
Nowadays some of these operations overlap due to their similar functionalities, but some difference remains the same. The back office work is critical and also supports the ones in front. Because of the overlapping nature, some actions may fall under the middle office function. But the barrier is lessening with the help of advanced technology.
- The front office is consumer-facing, but the back office is not consumer-facing
- Front office deals with customers while the back has the face to face interaction, the back office operates in the background and doesn’t interact with the customers
- Front office is focused on revenue-generating, back office focused on cost reduction and revenue boosting strategies
- Front office creates demands in consumers while back office provides strategies and manufacture products and assures quality.
Which one should you outsource?
When it comes to business process outsourcing, businesses do have to settle for either front or back-office support services. It depends on the situation your business is facing and even both of these forms of outsourcing can be utilized simultaneously to create various advantages.
While outsourcing either the front or back office process may sound easy but acquiring a quality full workforce can be difficult. Partnering with a Managed service provider as an extension of your workforce can help minimize the burden.
At Try Solutions, we are streamlining the management of human resources so you can focus on the core and more critical functions of your business.