The 8 most common challenges in an outsourcing project and how to overcome them

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It is now very easy to outsource one or more tasks, nevertheless, it may happen that the company faces certain challenges. Here are easy solutions to implement so that the experience turns into a long-term partnership.

Why do modern companies choose outsourcing?

Once associated with offshoring, outsourcing has gained momentum. Now an integral part of the company’s business strategy, it allows it to increase its profitability, access a larger pool of workers, but also to gain efficiency, since the firm can finally focus on its core business and its main objectives.

Outsourcing is now a tool that can be used by all companies, from SMEs to large international firms. According to Statista, in 2019, the global outsourced services market was worth $92.5 billion.

Even so, the implementation of outsourcing can be messed up with some challenges that are perfectly avoidable. Here’s how:

The company’s lack of experience in outsourcing

Not all companies are naturally familiar with best practices, common concepts, workflow, etc involved in the outsourcing process. The company that has never had to pass on its vision to a third-party company that it is not acquainted with can complicate the task.

Always choose an experienced provider

An experienced service provider is always ready to support his clients throughout its outsourcing process. He accompanies them in defining their needs, calmly going through the discovery phase and building the best teams to achieve the expected results.

At ProContact, we have the experience you need, with several years of presence on the market and in the region. ProContact is an established name in the outsourcing sector! Our approach:

  • A highly qualified and positive team able to ensure a customised follow-up of each operation;
  • A demanding recruitment process;
  • A dense and continuous training on incoming calls, outgoing calls, marketing, webmarketing;
  • A motivating and human managerial management, supervisors who listen to employees and listen to you;
  • An independent quality department with a single goal: customer satisfaction

The lack of expertise on the outsourced task

Companies often outsource tasks with low added value, but there is not enough talk about those who turn to outsourcing due to a lack of expertise on a particular task. By entrusting this task to outsourcing, the company is also not able to correctly assess the results of the work done.

Train your resources to fill the knowledge gap

If the company intends to outsource a task due to a lack of in-house skills, it can fill this gap by setting clear performance standards. This task can be entrusted to an in-house person, who can also take care of monitoring the work performed by the provider. If here too, the lack of human resources does not allow you to allocate a person to supervise the operation, at ProContact, our experience guarantees a constant workflow and concrete results.

An incorrect cost estimate

It is true that outsourcing makes it possible to streamline costs, nevertheless, the condition is that the company take the time to organise its outsourcing project. The calculation of a fairly accurate estimate of costs is carried out by establishing precise requirements, deadlines, resources, etc.

Establish clear requirements for the project

It may be difficult for the company to set exact requirements, nevertheless, it is quite relevant to take up the services of a specialised company to perform this task. Bilateral communication is essential so that each party understands the limits of the budget.

The choice of a credible and effective service provider

It is difficult to find a service provider that is large enough to adapt to the needs of its customers or that is small enough to offer a personalised approach at competitive prices.

Finding the right balance between the two types of providers

Take stock of the size of your company: its payroll, its growth potential, its revenues, its brand awareness, etc. If you are in your early stages, you should preferably turn to a service provider with a human dimension, able to adapt to your budget. Paradoxical as it may seem, do not opt for the cheapest provider, which risks having to deal with hidden costs and other unpleasant surprises.

The lack of cultural openness

Not all companies have the geographical reach to collaborate with other cultures. With diversity, innovation and long-term financial results involved, the beginnings can be destabilizing, or even, create errors and misunderstandings.

Find a service provider equipped to answer this problem

ProContact is more than a contact centre. Thanks to trained, qualified, handpicked, multilingual agents, we allow companies that choose us to gain credibility and above all to satisfy their customers regardless of the situation and in complete transparency.

Contractual and legal processes

While the standardisation of processes is making its way in the outsourcing sector, we are not yet fully there. From one country to another, the formalities can be different and it can sometimes generate serious legal misunderstandings.

Show the utmost clarity and alertness

Your service provider will have to sign a confidentiality agreement with your company. Exchange as many times as necessary about the stages of the process, risks and safety. The contract must contain clauses relating to remuneration, working conditions, the responsibilities of the provider, information about the property and other relevant elements.

Knowledge transfer

Any wrong transfer of knowledge can lead to a malfunction in the partnership. Successful outsourcing requires clear documentation and transparent knowledge transfer procedures.

Create and always have at hand a clear and complete documentation

The knowledge transfer plan should be as detailed as possible, with the functionality, technology and logic of the code. This document should allow the provider to get into action quickly. Let’s add to this face-to-face or remote meetings and your human resources involved in the outsourcing project.

Communication problems

Communication is the key to successful outsourcing. Due to cultural differences, it is quite possible that communication is practically, or completely, non-existent.

Continuous communication

Calls, teams, video, meetings… today there are a plethora of methods for exchanging information 7/7 and 24/24.

How to motivate your employees to work with outsourced agents?

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It can be difficult for a company’s employees to get used to the idea of collaborating with agents from an outsourcing company. Indeed, the news can be destabilising, especially when it generates the fear of job loss. If used well, outsourcing is a solution, a modern tool for the company. To ensure that it can reap all the benefits, it must be handled fluidly to reassure internal teams.

What does the labour law say about dismissal on economic grounds?

It is a good idea to remind employees of French companies that “A dismissal for economic reasons must result either from the abolition or transformation of the employee’s employment, or from the modification, that is not accepted by the employee, of an essential element of his employment contract. That is, economic difficulties, necessary reorganisation to preserve competitiveness, the introduction of new technologies or the termination of the enterprise’s activity constitute an economic cause of dismissal only if they lead to the termination of the employee’s employment or the modification of his employment contract”. (Texts: C. trav., S. L. 1222-6; C. trav., Art. L. 1233-3; Ord. No. 2017-1385, 22 Sept. 2017, OJ 23 Sep.).

Two theories about job cuts

The post and its corresponding tasks disappear: In case of cessation of activity of the enterprise, all jobs are eliminated. Similarly, in the event of a partial cessation of activity or outsourcing of one of the company’s activities (without the conditions for applying Article L. 1224-1 of the Labour Code being met), the corresponding tasks and jobs disappear. A job position and the corresponding tasks can also disappear without there being a total or partial cessation of activity of the company. This is the case, for example, when the employer decides to review the workforce to match the decline in activity of the enterprise.

Example: a sales department is oversized in view of its declining activity for several years. The employer decides to remove certain positions from this service.

When the company decides to close one of its establishments and to transfer its activity and the corresponding jobs to another establishment or to relocate its activity to another country, are there any job losses or a simple change in the place of performance of the work entailing a change in the employment contract? According to the Court of Cassation, the reality of job loss must be assessed at company level: the relocation of the activity from one establishment to another company of the group established abroad entails the elimination of jobs from this establishment (Cass. soc., 5 Apr. 1995, No. 93-42.690). On the other hand, the transfer of the activity from one establishment and the corresponding jobs to another establishment of the company does not entail the abolition of these jobs.

The position disappears, but the corresponding tasks are still there. – There is also the deletion of a job post when a position is eliminated and the corresponding tasks are either taken over by a volunteer employee (most often, a member of the employer’s family: Cass. soc., 20 Jan. 1998, No. 94-45.094), or distributed among several employees already present in the company (Cass. soc., June 2, 1993, No. 90-44.956), or entrusted to a single other employee who was already working at the enterprise, in addition to his initial duties (Cass. soc., July 21. 1994, No. 92-44.870).

IMPORTANT NOTE: in both cases, a job loss does not necessarily mean a decrease in the company’s workforce. Indeed, the abolition of certain jobs may be accompanied by the creation of new jobs which entails different tasks. The reclassification of employees whose posts have been abolished should be considered in these new jobs, provided that they have the appropriate qualifications. (see No. 170-25).

(Source: 170-15 Quelles conséquences la cause économique de licenciement doit-elle avoir sur l’emploi ? – liaisons-sociales.fr)

Outsourcing is not synonymous with offshoring

It is essential to make and understand the difference between outsourcing and offshoring.

  • In the case of outsourcing, the company simply transfers certain business operations to third parties.
  • In the case of offshoring, the company transfers its activities to any other country where the cost of managing these activities is lower than that of the country of origin.

How is outsourcing likely to affect an employee’s motivation?

While it is highly unlikely that outsourcing will take over the tasks and responsibilities of an employee internally, it can create a feeling of frustration, and therefore destroy his motivation, loyalty and satisfaction with the company employing him. This phenomenon is often noticeable at the level of basic job positions, but also among those located higher in the organisational chart. Let’s add to this that the Covid-19 pandemic and the health crisis are not fixing the situation.

As a result, when outsourcing is mentioned, companies must prepare for a wave of resignation, unless they take the problem seriously.

How to prepare internal teams for outsourcing?

To be successful, outsourcing must have a strong following within the company. A prepared meeting, with clear words and numbers can help the company convince its human resources of the relevance of such a choice. Here are 3 important points to implement:

The benefits of outsourcing for employees:

  • Outsourcing has built its reputation on its ability to reduce the workload of internal teams;
  • It makes it possible to better distribute the work between each resource;
  • It helps to drastically reduce the stress level;
  • It offers a better work-life balance.

Team introductions

After the first step, introduce the internal teams to the outsourced agents and explain clearly that these agents will take over, for example:

  • Telephone reception
  • Remote secretary services
  • Studies, research, satisfaction surveys
  • Remote marketing and prospecting (making appointments, prospecting …)
  • File classification
  • Database management and enrichment
  • Customer loyalty
  • Technical assistance (hotline, webhelp, technical support)
  • After-sales service, customer service
  • B2B/ B2C Prospecting
  • Customer relations
  • CRM tool and CRM software
  • Satisfaction surveys
  • Human resources
  • Digital outsourcing

These are the offers set up by ProContact.

Once the outsourcing process is up and running:

Set calendar meetings according to which your internal and outsourced teams can exchange regularly.

Organise a hybrid Zoom meeting with internal and outsourced teams in one room.

Contact us!

Outsourcing is our business! At ProContact, we closely accompany you in the inclusion of this solution in your business strategy. We offer you without delay an unprecedented adaptation of your way of working thanks to the arrival of resources located elsewhere, without wasting time and money and without compromising on quality.

ProContact is more than a contact center. Thanks to trained, qualified, handpicked and multilingual agents, we allow companies that choose us to gain credibility and above all to satisfy their customers, regardless of the situation and in complete transparency.

Outsourcing has become a tangible and concrete business strategy for the development of the company. To find out more about our services or for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us at (+33) 1 77 75 04 50.

How to explain the success of outsourcing in the post-pandemic era?

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The COVID-19 pandemic has left its mark on the outsourcing world, which must not only adapt to technological developments, but also respond to new demands and expectations. How does outsourcing manage to continue to develop in such a context?

More and more companies are delegating to gain efficiency

Another effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is that more and more companies are focusing on their core business by streamlining their activities in order to gain positioning, innovate, expand, all the while minimising risks, but above all by reducing costs.

Outsourcing has therefore become a strategy that companies are now happy to turn to, in order to refocus on their core business while offering increased quality. Let’s add to this that they have realised that outsourcing is easy to set up, especially since it can grant them more freedom and flexibility, which was hitherto impossible to achieve.

ProContact, the picture of competitiveness

Faced with the increase in outsourcing needs, it is imperative for the sector to increase its competitive rate. This is a good thing, since this phenomenon allows us, at ProContact, to innovate and to explore all possibilities in order to propose new offers designed to meet the changing demands of our current and future customers.

At ProContact, we offer a wide range of services, to be adopted according to the needs of your company and your evolution plans:

  • Telephone reception
  • Remote secretary services
  • Research, studies, satisfaction surveys
  • Remote marketing and prospecting (making appointments, prospecting …)
  • File qualification
  • Database management and enrichment
  • Customer loyalty
  • Technical support (hotline, webhelp, technical support)
  • After-sales service (after-sales service), customer service
  • B2B/ B2C prospecting;
  • Customer relations;
  • CRM tool and CRM software;
  • Satisfaction surveys;
  • Human resources;
  • Digital outsourcing.

Massive digitalisation: another consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic

Among the previously unthinkable consequences that can be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic, there is the massive digitalisation of companies. Indeed, the successive lockdowns put in place by the various governments have pushed companies to set up remote working.

Of course, this practice has allowed employees to continue working safely from home, but most importantly, it has made it possible to break down the geographical barriers that companies have faced so far.

Thus, we can say that the term “globalisation” is now taking on its full meaning, with the possibility of meeting remotely, via the touch of a simple button…

The time has come to evolve with the times!

We now know that the outsourcing sector has evolved rapidly and is becoming more and more competitive. Let’s add to this that now, it does not hesitate to diversify his offers, as we do at ProContact with our Digital Service. It is aimed at web agencies, e-commerce sites, digital marketers, start-ups, pure players, etc., with digital needs:

  • Website maintenance/ redesign;
  • E-commerce or social media management;
  • File processing;
  • Design & graphics;
  • Content creation.

Our goal is to constantly improve and progress; to strengthen our services through innovation.

What does the modern company gain by choosing outsourcing?

Legitimate question: why choose ProContact to outsource? Here are our answers.

Save time: How much time do you and your employees have? With the economic recovery slowly but surely taking shape, your time is going to become a scarce commodity that must be used in the most sensible way. Outsourcing allows for a more agile and efficient distribution of everyone’s time while professional and trained agents take over time-consuming and low-value-added tasks.

Keep growing: no company can reasonably remain at the same position as when it was created. Outsourcing encourages growth thanks to its reduced costs, which allow the company to continue to develop, and therefore, to grow.

No in-house expertise: by choosing ProContact for your outsourcing project, you will delegate your low-added-value tasks to experienced and permanently trained people. The result is definitive: these tasks are performed with the utmost professionalism, but also by leveraging skills that may not be present internally.

What tasks can you outsource?

What tasks are essential for the smooth running of the company, while being very time-consuming? Payroll, recruitment, social networks, remote secretary, application maintenance… just consult the list of offers offered by ProContact to understand that our range is wide enough to assist you in a concrete way.

Let’s add to this a multilingual team of qualified, versatile and expert actors, dedicated entirely to customer satisfaction; yours of course, but also that of your customers.

Indeed, our outsourcing platform offers the same quality of service as in inshore thanks to our three production sites. Moreover, our mastery of technological resources both in terms of CRM software and office equipment as well as the control of production costs, allow us to offer remote services with a very competitive price/ quality ratio.

Contact us!

Outsourcing is our business! At ProContact, we closely accompany you in the inclusion of this solution in your business strategy. We offer, without delay, an unprecedented adaptation of your way of working thanks to the availability of resources located elsewhere, without wasting time, money and quality.

ProContact is more than a contact centre. Thanks to trained, qualified, handpicked and multilingual agents, we allow companies that choose us to gain credibility and above all to satisfy their customers regardless of the situation and in complete transparency.

Outsourcing has become a tangible and concrete business strategy for the development of the company. To find out more about our services and for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us on (+33) 1 77 75 04 50.

How to think strategically about outsourcing?

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(Source of this article: https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/how-a-strategic-approach-to-outsourcing-can-build-process-resilience)

Outsourcing is no longer just a way to reduce non-essential costs for the company. Today, the real challenge of outsourcing is for it be used as a tool capable of creating strategic value, transforming the company and even fundamentally changing the dynamics of the sector. The key is to forget what you think you know about outsourcing.

Outsourcing has changed its face in recent years

Once considered a simple cost-cutting technique by offshoring low-value-added functions, such as payroll and IT, outsourcing had no brilliance. It was never considered a strategic or revolutionary movement within the company. In the early 90s, the perception of this practice began to change, as companies began to outsource more strategically important functions, such as manufacturing and logistics, product design and other innovation-related activities. Suddenly, outsourcing has turned into an essential management tool.

Nevertheless, companies had to deal with an unattractive, or even very discouraging, flip side of the coin. In theory, it was pretty simple to set up, but outsourcing was actually much more complex to put in place. Another serious issue, it often struggled to keep its promises. Therefore, companies do not outsource the right processes, choose this solution for the wrong reasons and do not benefit from sufficiently qualitative support to achieve concrete results.

However, outsourcing is currently one of the best strategies to implement. Its status as a solid and reliable tool has not changed and to take full advantage of it, it is imperative for companies to shed the image they have of it.

By choosing outsourcing, the company finally gives its managers the necessary time and latitudes so that they can finally focus on more strategic tasks with higher added value.

It also needs to build and maintain a longer-term vision and innovate by implementing measures that have results at the enterprise level, such as a better return on investment or a better return for shareholders, as explained by Jane Linder, research associate and associate director of the Institute for Strategic Change at Accenture in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She adds that “In general, this means that outsourcing must be focused on external results – for example, repositioning itself on the market or changing its value proposition to customers, rather than using outsourcing to save 5% on the cost of an internal administrative process”.

In other words, outsourcing, when entrusted to a company that truly knows its business, is transparent in all aspects, is capable of generating strategic value and it is well used, it can transform companies and fundamentally change the dynamics of the sector.

Outsourcing is no longer synonymous with offshoring, but a major step forward for the company and the teams that participate in its development every day.

Reduce costs and add value

When used appropriately, outsourcing continues to go beyond the background functions and embellish the strategic services of the company. To achieve such a result, the company should not turn to a provider offering the lowest prices, but to suppliers that have proven themselves. At ProContact, we offer a wide range of services, to be adopted according to the needs of your company and your human capital:

  • Telephone reception
  • Remote secretary services
  • Surveys, researches, satisfaction surveys
  • Remote marketing and teleprospecting (making appointments, prospecting …)
  • File classification
  • Database management and enrichment
  • Customer loyalty
  • Technical support (hotline, webhelp, technical support)
  • After-sales service (after-sales service), customer service
  • B2B/ B2C Prospecting
  • Remote secretary
  • Customer relations
  • CRM tool and CRM software
  • Satisfaction surveys
  • Human resources
  • Digital outsourcing

Outsourcing is a catalyst for change

“Companies are not very good at change”, says Jane Linder. “Whether it’s changing their business model, implementing innovations or reengineering, it’s hard work and people don’t get everything they expect”.

However, some forward-thinking leaders are beginning to understand that outsourcing is a change management tool capable of leading to a major transformation at the company level: competitive positioning, increasing market share or share price. According to Jane Linder: “Companies have tended to use mergers and acquisitions to get into new industries and change the boundaries of what they were doing. This is a very blunt instrument and difficult to use correctly. With outsourcing, you get a finer tip on your pencil”.

This is called transformational outsourcing, which is capable of going outside to look for the missing piece essential to the company, relying on the expertise of a partner who can be operational from the start. Often faster and more efficient than major internal changes, such as acquisitions or large movements, outsourcing can become a precise and reliable instrument.

Contact us!

Outsourcing is our business! At ProContact, we closely accompany you in the inclusion of this solution in your business strategy. We offer you, without delay, an unprecedented adaptation of your way of working thanks to the arrival of resources located elsewhere, without wasting time, money and quality.

ProContact is more than a contact centre. Thanks to trained, qualified, handpicked and multilingual agents, we allow companies that choose us to gain credibility and above all to satisfy their customers regardless of the situation and in complete transparency.

Outsourcing has become a tangible and concrete business strategy for the development of the company. To find out more about our services or for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us on (+33) 1 77 75 04 50.

How to develop your start-up through outsourcing?

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Outsourcing is one of the practices adopted for a long time already by many start-ups. They understood that this solution was particularly suitable for their development. Today, in this economic and pandemic context that we are experiencing, if you have such a structure, it is time to give up your fears to save time, skills and money, all thanks to outsourcing.

Numbers that make you think

In his article “Over 1,000 UK start-ups collapse amid coronavirus”, the website sifted.eu tells us that “According to new data from Plexal and Beauhurst, the number of start-ups that filed for bankruptcy reached its highest level in 10 years in September (ed. note 2020), while the impact of the coronavirus is wreaking havoc on new businesses.

More than 1,000 companies have filed for bankruptcy, liquidation or dissolution since the UK lockdown began in March. In September, 273 companies filed for administration, an increase of 181% compared to August.

According to the report’s analysts, these data highlight the delayed impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy, as government support programs artificially delayed the problems until September”.

Outsourcing helps to stimulate the growth of the startup

However, the current economic context should not make any start-up lose sight of its objective: to grow! Thanks to outsourcing, this goal becomes much easier to achieve, provided, of course, that you find a trusted provider who truly knows his job. This is the asset that the start-up needs to optimise deadlines and deploy faster in new regions, while focusing on its core business.

At ProContact, we have understood that the simplest and most time-consuming tasks in appearance actively participate in the proper functioning of any start-up. In order for it to continue to develop, grow and gain position, it must be able to count on trained and professional people who are available to take care of them. Here is a range of services to adopt according to the needs of your startup:

  • Telephone reception
  • Remote secretary
  • Surveys, research, satisfaction surveys
  • Remote marketing and teleprospecting (making appointments, prospecting …)
  • File classification
  • Database management and enrichment
  • Customer loyalty
  • Technical support (hotline, webhelp, technical support)
  • After-sales service and customer service
  • B2B/ B2C Prospecting;
  • Remote secretary;
  • Customer relations;
  • CRM tool and CRM software;
  • Satisfaction surveys;
  • Human resources;
  • Digital outsourcing.

When is the right time to outsource when you are a startup?

Wikipedia defines a startup as follows: “A startup or “young firm” is a newly created innovative company, usually looking for large investment funds, with a very high potential for economic growth and financial speculation on its future value”.

In front of the “youth” highlighted by this definition, we can legitimately ask ourselves if a start-up really needs to outsource and when to proceed? It is essential to take stock, because each structure has its own life-line.

As outsourcing specialists, we advise you to do this when the flow of activity has become too sustained for the start-up’s human resources, preventing it from managing the company’s expansion, its performance and at the same time as customer satisfaction.

ProContact provides startups with a multilingual team of qualified, versatile and expert remote actors that are fully dedicated to your satisfaction, but also, and above all, to the satisfaction of your customers. Our outsourcing platform offers you the same quality of service as in inshore thanks to our three production sites. Our mastery of technological resources both in terms of CRM software and office equipment as well as the control of production costs, allow us to offer remote services with a very competitive price/quality ratio. Our teams are ready to take on new challenges for you, both in the fields of remote marketing, remote prospecting, incoming call management, but also to handle outsourced tasks (HR, remote secretary etc.).

Finally, we offer you a partnership, based on respect and sharing the same values.

Ask yourself the right questions!

To live and continue to grow, the start-up often has to make complex choices, set priorities and ask itself the right questions, if it choose outsourcing:

What tasks are essential for its operation and cannot be outsourced? These tasks must therefore remain in-house. Nevertheless, internalisation is not the solution in itself, for example, for actions that require scarce skills or significant expenses, such as digital marketing, web development and customer services.

How can I reduce my costs without losing quality? It should be borne in mind that outsourcing is not always the best solution to reduce costs, because as a start-up, you need to continue investing in the formation of your human capital, recruitment and development. However, when calculating the return on investment from outsourcing, do not forget to take into account the expected level of service, the cost of internal management (including recruitment, training and development) and the criticality of the service for your operation.

Is outsourcing the best solution to save time and achieve faster operational results? It has been repeatedly proven that outsourcing can help a company accelerate its expansion and allow it to focus on more strategic goals. To achieve such results, start-ups that have chosen outsourcing have worked hand in hand with their provider!

Contact us!

Outsourcing has become a tangible and concrete business strategy for the development of any start-up. To find out more about our services and for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us on (+33) 1 77 75 04 50.

Outsourcing, a symbiotic partnership

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When it comes to outsourcing, it is essential to find more than one provider. Indeed, the first objective for a successful outsourcing project is to find and connect with a symbiotic partner who is aware of the impact it has on the customer’s value.

We are going through a favourable period for companies that are able to step out of their comfort zone in order to fully take advantage of current economic developments. Technology, organisational development, human capital… all the key elements are at the maximum of their potential to increase productivity and allow value creation.

More than ever, companies need to adapt and be agile, especially since there are few sectors where the organisation needs to be completely vertical in their functional areas. In the current competitive environment, the company must have all the tools it needs to concentrate its energy, and that coming from outside, and its resources towards its core business.

Business process outsourcing is the solution

Once mocked at, outsourcing of business processes has fully revealed itself to be finally recognised as a precise tool for companies looking for a strategic advantage and eager to increase their overall value.

If outsourcing was previously associated with job loss and knowledge leakage, today its importance and effectiveness are recognized.

To be able to innovate and evolve, the company must constantly work to understand its consumer base in order to link clients with its offers from a strong position. If the processes are in place, they can be even more efficient if the non-essential functions are outsourced to trusted providers who recognized for their understanding of ethics and the company’s value proposition.

ProContact is one of the leading providers in the region. Acting as business partners, we strive to clearly understand the impact of our service on the value chain of each customer, and therefore, the customers of the latter. This way of thinking makes it possible to create agility in our customers, optimising their ability to evolve, to grow, thanks to greater adaptability.

Outsourcing through ProContact is a way for the company to take advantage of international talent and exploit the advantages of our country of domiciliation in terms of costs and to improve quality.

If there are still companies reluctant to outsource, the process is easy to set up, when the time is right.

Provider evaluation

How does your service provider look like? Most importantly, what is his knowledge of the services he offers and how does he manage this knowledge? What is the process put in place to minimise the risks associated with the loss of knowledge?

Our approach at ProContact:

  • A highly qualified and positive team that is able to ensure a tailor-made follow-up of each operation;
  • A demanding recruitment process;
  • A dense and continuous training: incoming calls, outgoing calls, marketing, webmarketing;
  • A motivating and humane managerial management: supervisors who listen to employees and listen to you;
  • An independent quality department with a single goal: customer satisfaction

At ProContact, we offer a wide range of services, to be adopted according to the needs of your company and your human capital:

  • Telephone reception
  • Remote secretary
  • Surveys, research and satisfaction surveys
  • Remote marketing and teleprospecting (making appointments, prospecting …)
  • File classification
  • Database management and enrichment
  • Customer loyalty
  • Technical support (hotline, webhelp, technical support)
  • After-sales service, customer service;
  • B2B/ B2C Prospecting;
  • Remote secretary services;
  • Customer relations;
  • CRM tool and CRM software;
  • Satisfaction surveys;
  • Human resources;
  • Digital outsourcing.

A service provider always up to date

The modern company needs technology, which allows it to learn, improve the customer experience and gain efficiency, provided, of course, that it is used as it should be.

This rule also applies when the same company chooses its outsourcing provider. The latter must present the right combination of technology and specific expertise in its service areas. He must be able to use technology to enhance the value of his service delivery and create a lasting advantage for his client.

At ProContact, we are aware of the constant evolution of our environment, so we have all the necessary infrastructure to provide a compliant and technology-driven service. Our daily concern: to constantly increase the competitiveness of our customers!

As the Covid-19 pandemic has shaken the entire planet, you can count on ProContact to keep moving forward and gain positioning on the competition, even if the economic context may seem fragile. Together, let’s form a lasting and solid partnership, which will allow your company and more precisely your customers to win on all fronts!

Contact us!

Outsourcing is our business! At ProContact, we closely accompany you in the inclusion of this solution in your business strategy. We offer you, without delay an unprecedented adaptation of your way of working thanks to the arrival of resources located elsewhere, without wasting time, money and quality.

ProContact is more than a contact center. Thanks to trained, qualified, handpicked and multilingual agents, we allow companies that choose us to gain credibility and above all to satisfy their customers regardless of the situation and in complete transparency.

Outsourcing has become a tangible and concrete business strategy for the development of the company. To find out more about our services or for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us on (+33) 1 77 75 04 50.

Dos and Donts for small businesses to outsource successfully

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Outsourcing, when well-planned and implemented, allows a small business to improve its activities while generating savings. It allows it to grow and to make significant savings, while gaining in competence. As a small company, this strategy is full of advantages, provided of course that you follow certain rules and know how to balance the internal processes and those delegated to a trusted provider.

Outsourcing: an easy, fast and effective strategy to implement

Outsourcing should not be complicated for small businesses and for this, there are some good practices to follow and others to avoid:

The provider’s skills: as a small company, you have everything to gain by choosing your outsourcing provider with the utmost care. If the cost is significant, it should not be taken lightly. Indeed, take the time to compare the different charges, and also the opinions filed by current and departed customers. The idea is to avoid a poor performance or the provision of “talents” that are untrained or inconsistent at all costs.

Communication: As communication is one of the pillars of a successful and sustainable outsourcing, it is essential to select a service provider who has agents who speak at least two languages. Let’s add to this that they must be reachable at any time, especially in case of urgent requests. This avoids delays in solving problems, and therefore makes it possible to increase and maintain quality and customer satisfaction.

Security: Data leakage is one of the biggest fears of companies and rightly so. The outsourcing provider must be able to guarantee the integrity of its customers’ data. For example, at ProContact, our infrastructure is based on the state-of-the-art Dialogic-Vocalcom platforms, which offer high-level flexibility and reliability. The solutions used also allow advanced call/processing management.

As for Vocalcom, it is secured by a Vicidial solution running permanently in the “cloud”, which means that it is able to resume operations instantly. The whole process is. therefore, totally secure.

The right steps for a successful outsourcing

A simple mistake can be quite costly for the company, whether it is in terms of resources, time or energy. This goes against the objectives of outsourcing. Here’s how to make your outsourcing project a success.

Don’t aim for cost savings only

Do not focus your outsourcing project on cost reduction. Of course, some providers offer particularly low rates, however, always keep in mind that an offer that is “too good to be true” can have many repercussions on your business.

Compare offers between different providers covering a wide range of rates. Keep in mind that a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) provider must also be able to invest in its infrastructure, equipment, tools while remaining up to standard in order to convince and recruit the best talent.

Setting up the right strategy

Creating a plan and a strategy for outsourcing: these are the two reflexes to have for a successful outsourcing project on all levels. Companies that have successfully completed their outsourcing project have thought carefully about their needs, have visibility into the coming months and years, figures, etc.

A step-by-step outsourcing process

There is no need to outsource all processes at once. Start by developing a strategy on your measures and your goal by delegating each process and counting on ProContact, to take charge, over time, of your needs in:

  • B2B/ B2C Prospecting;
  • Remote secretary;
  • Customer relations;
  • CRM tool and CRM software;
  • Satisfaction surveys;
  • Human resources;
  • Digital outsourcing

Support your outsourced team

Regardless of its mission, your dedicated outsourced team needs to feel that it is included in the proper functioning of your company. To achieve this, it needs to be trained on your processes so that it is clearly informed about its responsibilities as a provider.

Accompany this team so that it is always in tune with your expectations and your brand image.

Have a Plan B

What to do if your service provider fails to meet your expectations? In order to avoid any conflict which consumes time, money and energy, in order to maintain the brand image of your company and to make sure its reputation with your customers is not tarnished, always have an alternative plan that can be implemented quickly and transparently by your provider.

Always analyse the structure of your company

It is not always necessary to delegate all the company’s processes to a service provider. By analysing the structure of your small business, you will be able to target areas, such as customer service or software development, for improvement.

Involve your internal team

A successful outsourcing project must take into account the feelings of each actor in the company, even if it is a small company. This makes it possible to create an atmosphere conducive to collaboration, creativity and innovation.

By involving your internal team in your outsourcing project, they will clearly understand your expectations and ambitions!

Contact us!

Outsourcing is our business! At ProContact, we accompany you, at every step of the way, in the introduction of this solution in your business strategy. We offer you, without any delay, an unprecedented adaptation of your way of working thanks to the arrival of resources located elsewhere, without wasting time, money and quality.

ProContact is more than a contact centre. Thanks to trained, qualified, handpicked and multilingual agents, we allow companies that choose us to gain credibility and above all to ensure customer satisfaction, regardless of the situation and in complete transparency.

Outsourcing has become a tangible and concrete business strategy for the development of the company. To find out more about our services or for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us on (+33) 1 77 75 04 50.

Why is outsourcing scary?

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Outsourcing has been around for a long time and it continues to incessantly scare some companies. Misconceptions and the fear of the unknown form a perfect combo to keep executives who are less inclined to trust a proven business strategy away. This article will look at the true face of outsourcing, as portrayed by ProContact, the first French-speaking Contact Centre in the Indian Ocean!

What are the most common fears about outsourcing?
Costs, communication barriers, quality, security, technical problems, time zones…. these are the most commonly expressed fears of companies tempted by outsourcing, but afraid to take the plunge. ProContact is here to reassure you…

Precise and optimised costs

The costs, especially hidden, are undoubtedly one of the biggest fears of companies. In fact, by finding the right provider, outsourcing allows you to save considerable amounts of money every year. It should be noted that the service provider must provide a complete price list that is above all, easily readable and understood by all.

ProContact’s solution: our outsourcing platform offers you the same quality level of service as achieved inshore thanks to our three production sites. Moreover, our mastery of technological resources both in terms of CRM software and office equipment as well as the control of production costs, allows us to offer you remote services with a very competitive price / quality ratio.

Communication barriers

Communication is the key word of a successful outsourcing partnership, whether you are looking for French-speaking or English-speaking agents. At ProContact, we offer a wide range of services:

  • B2B/ B2C Prospecting;
  • Remote secretary;
  • Customer relations;
  • CRM tool and CRM software;
  • Satisfaction surveys;
  • Human resources;
  • Digital outsourcing.

ProContact’s solution: to carry out each contract, we have set up a multilingual team of qualified, versatile and expert remote agents who are fully dedicated to customer satisfaction; yours of course, but also that of your customers.

Increased quality

Outsourcing makes it possible to have agents dedicated to quality control, supported by proven tools and processes that ensure the accuracy of data processing: the final project must always meet the customer’s requirements! Each project is subject to regular audits, so that everything takes place with the utmost precision.

ProContact’s solution:

  • A highly qualified and positive team that is able to ensure a tailor-made follow-up of each operation;
  • A demanding recruitment process;
  • A dense and continuous training on processes such as incoming calls, outgoing calls, marketing, webmarketinhg, etc.;
  • A motivating and humane management style: supervisors who listen to employees and listen to you;
  • An independent quality department with a single goal: customer satisfaction

SLAs and KPIs

In order to be precise in their actions, companies are setting up an ecosystem that is personalised to such an extent that many of them fear the intervention of outsourcing, which may adversely affect production.

ProContact’s solution: we implement SLAs and KPIs for data entry missions, independent data entry, outsourcing of business processes, such as accounts payable or receivable, and other processes.

A guaranteed level of security

Data is the liquid gold of business. The risk of losing it is always high in new companies, unless you can count on an experienced outsourcing provider that especially equipped to ensure data protection and security.

ProContact’s solution: ProContact customers feel safe! The infrastructure is, first of all, based on Dialogic-Vocalcom’s latest generation platforms offering high-level flexibility and reliability. The solutions used also allow advanced call/processing management.

As a result, they offer all the functionalities necessary for the activity of a general contact centre. Finally, Vocalcom is secured by a Vicidial solution running permanently in the “cloud”, that is, operations can be resumed instantly. Thus, the whole system is completely safe.

Technical problems

When a company decides to outsource its business processes, it requires the presence of technical support and even training. It is very likely that the internal resources of the company does not have all the necessary expertise in order to make the changes in the required time.

ProContact’s solution: we assign a dedicated and experienced project manager to each project. This ensures that all your requirements are met, including in the event of technical problems.

The question of the time zone

A successful outsourcing is coordinated and can be followed at any time by the sponsors. How does this happen when a service provider is on the other side of the planet? Can this affect the smooth running of the business? Will customers lose confidence and turn to the competition? Not with ProContact!

Procontact’s solution: ProContact adapts to your needs, wherever you are in the world! We adapt our schedules according to your needs, so that your company is always reachable, including outside of its opening hours and during holiday periods. Thus, you can gain credibility and reliability, two pillars that are important for customer satisfaction.

Contact us!

Outsourcing is our business! At ProContact, we closely accompany you in the inclusion of this solution in your business strategy. We offer you, without delay, an unprecedented adaptation of your way of working thanks to the arrival of resources located elsewhere, without wasting time, money and quality.

ProContact is more than a contact center. Thanks to trained, qualified, handpicked and multilingual agents, we allow companies that choose us to gain credibility and above all to satisfy their customers, regardless of the situation and in complete transparency.

Outsourcing has become a tangible and concrete business strategy for the development of the company. To find out more about our services and for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us on (+33) 1 77 75 04 50.

Outsourcing: a glossary of commonly used terms in the industry – 2

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Outsourcing is more than a sector; it is a rich and constantly evolving universe. If your company plans to outsource one or more services, here is a glossary to master the most commonly used terms in outsourcing, from Grid computing to Wide area network (WAN).

(Source : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781119201205.gloss – onlinelibrary.wiley.com)

Grid computing

See calculation on demand. The grid concept comes from the electricity industry. The power grid is a network of infrastructure components that generate, transport and distribute electricity. Analogically speaking, by tapping a switch, you can have outsourced business services routed directly and instantly to your office.

Homesourcing

This concept groups remote workers, whether they act as employees (insourcing) or independent contractors (outsourcing).

Compensation

Method of transfer of legal responsibility from one party to another by contract.

Insourcing

The transfer of an outsourced function to an internal department of the customer, which will be fully managed by the employees.

Intranet       

Private computer network, accessible only to authorized persons.

Responsibility

The legal obligation resulting from a failure to honour its legal liability to another party, for example in contract or tort.

Local area network (LAN)

A group of computers and associated devices that share a common communication line and typically share the resources of a single processor or server in a small geographic area (for example, in an office building). Usually, the server has applications and data storage capacities that are shared jointly by several computer users.

Managed security services (MSS)

Services that provide in-depth analysis to detect intrusion threats and respond to security vulnerabilities. MSS contains elements such as real-time web security information, best practice policies, in-depth monitoring, backup management capabilities, robust incident response and IT investigation services.

Massive outsourcing

Refers to the process in which the majority of business support processes are outsourced in a single transaction or a small number of related transactions. The purpose of mass outsourcing is to generate shareholder value by shifting operational responsibility for critical operations that do not provide a comparative advantage, or in which the company chooses not to invest due to relatively low returns on investment.

Near shore

Offshore outsourcing within a nearby territory, and accessible by short trips or by phone in the same or a neighbouring time zone.

Offsourcing

Offsourcing refers to the restructuring of a supply chain in which a company relies on its supplier for functions that were previously performed in-house. The outsourced functional unit is capable of generating greater value in the supplier’s business than in the customer’s. What makes outsourcing so powerful is that improving how offshored employees work in the new environment tightens the supply chain.

On-demand computing

A form of outsourcing agreement, sometimes referred to as utility computing, grid computing, or on-demand computing, that is based on variable payments for varying volumes of varying types of services over a long term that includes at least one refresh cycle for some, if not all, of the underlying technology. Aimed at enterprise customers, the key element is the scalability of IT resources (licenses, computers, networks, systems, storage, telecommunications and asset management) that the customer can purchase as part of the program. Customer engagement is equivalent to a requirement subscription or purchase agreement, but payment alternatives can cover the full range of a customer’s purchase, lease, or “for use” payment. This does not make the service provider a virtual CTO. Typically, the concept is designed to allow the customer to acquire the technology in the way that suits their individual needs.

Outsourcing

Transfer (or delegation) to an external provider of the operation and day-to-day management of a business process. The customer receives a service that performs a separate business function that integrates into the customer’s overall business operations. Sometimes the process is one that has historically been run by a vertically integrated company, such as data processing. More recently, outsourcing defines the service sector for services that were not part of the vertically integrated enterprise, such as telecommunications, website hosting, transportation services, logistics and professional services of regulated professionals.

Service Quality

Concept used to differentiate one supplier from another. As a general rule, the subcontractor customer seeks to improve its own quality of service by obtaining the quality of service from its subcontractor suppliers.

Renegotiation

Process of evolution of an existing outsourcing agreement. This process is facilitated by effective design and implementation of contract management processes from the outset of the outsourcing relationship.

Request for information (RFI)

A document that asks potential service providers to provide general information about capabilities and their overall business.

Request for proposal (RFP)

A document that asks potential service providers to propose terms, conditions and other elements of an agreement to provide specified services.

Scope

Identifies what is available for procurement from external service providers.

Service level agreement (SLA)

Specifications of the services to be provided. SLAs define the type, value and conditions of outsourcing services to be provided. SLAs define the overall relationship by establishing quality of service parameters.

Smartsourcing

A euphemism to express the fundamental challenge of outsourcing as a management technique.

Stalking horse

A competitor who never had the opportunity to get a contract. A stalking horse differs from the losing competitor, as the customer intended to only use the stalking horse to generate competitive quotes and challenge the preferred vendor (who ultimately wins the auction), and is not paid for this function.

Statement of work

Document that sets out the work to be performed.

Storage area network (SAN)

A high-speed special purpose network that interconnects different types of data storage devices with associated data servers on behalf of a larger network of users. Typically, a storage network is part of an organisation’s overall network of IT resources.

Subcontractor

Service provider directly responsible to the general contractor and may not have a contractual relationship with the subcontractor customer.

Supply chain management

An integrated process to manage all levels of information flow from a company to its suppliers and customers, including its own internal manufacturing resources.

Transfer of undertakings (TUPE)

A law implementing the legal rights of employees to continue in the same work if the business unit is transferred.

Utility computing

See on-demand computing. IBM attempted to dominate this market by naming its market offering-Next Utility. Purchasing information technology is supposed to be as simple as flipping a switch.

Virtual private network

Network established using telephone lines and/or the Internet to transmit digital information between defined receiving and transmitting stations, such as telephones, computers, and data routing equipment.

Wide area network (WAN)

A geographically dispersed telecommunications network. The term distinguishes a broader telecommunication structure from a local area network (LAN). A WAN can be privately owned or leased, but the term usually refers to the inclusion of public networks (shared users).

Part 1

Outsourcing: a glossary of commonly used terms in the industry – 1

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Outsourcing is more than a sector, it is a rich and constantly evolving universe. If your company plans to outsource one or more services, here is a glossary to master the most commonly used terms in outsourcing, from Application service provider (ASP) to Gain-sharing.

(Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781119201205.gloss – onlinelibrary.wiley.com)

Application service provider (ASP)

A company that provides individuals or businesses with remote access to applications and related services.

Backsourcing

Expiration or termination of an outsourcing agreement and the internal resumption of the outsourced function.

Baseline

Starting point to define your needs. As with any measure, the art of outsourcing is to define the relevant parameters.

Benchmarking

Method of comparing contract services to market services or other independent standards

Best of breed

Designates the best provider in its category of services. On the other hand, if a provider does not enjoy this reputation, it can be considered due to the superior integration of interoperable services and infrastructures. Therefore, when selecting a provider, the question is whether a leading provider is better than an integrated provider.

Best practices

These practices and procedures, followed regularly, reflect the relevance and experience of the companies. The collection, interpretation and assembly, as well as the redefinition and updating of best practices have historically been done by management consultants working in many industries and analysing lead wires.

Business-to-business (B2B)

The exchange of products, services or information between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers.

Business-to-consumer (B2C)

The retail aspect of e-commerce on the Internet. It is often opposed to business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce.

Business-to-employee (B2E)

Internal communications between employees and between departments enabling the former to achieve savings by reducing internal costs. B2E processes can be customised according to the business environment of the company.

Business process

A set of defined steps needed to achieve a business objective. Business objectives may include any business operation, including product design, marketing, sales, finance, accounting, manufacturing, logistics, supply chain management, customer relationship management, and other special business relationships.

Business process outsourcing (BPO)

The purchase of particular services that involve the continuous outsourcing of specific business processes. In some industries, design, manufacturing, inspection and logistics may be outsourced. More recently, BPO has integrated internal back-office functions such as internal audit, finance, invoicing, accounting and other operational support. Front-office BPO functions can include customer relationship management, sales, call centres, and fulfilment services, as is the case at ProContact.

Business process reengineering

Represents planned changes in how a business function is performed, such as information collection and reporting, manufacturing, finance, compliance, or administration.

Change control or change management

All structures, procedures and rules governing the adoption and implementation of changes in the commercial or financial relationship between the customer and the service provider.

Clawback

Provision in a contract that requires a party who has taken an advantage to return the advantage due to subsequent terms.

Common objects

Models of data representations exchanged between different software applications. These data are all categories that can be defined by category and associated metadata. For example, a common object may include a customer name, order number, or product (inventory management unit or SKU).

Competitive insourcing

Process in which internal employees can participate in tenders to compete with third-party bidders for a defined scope of work.

Consequential damages

Damages resulting from breach of contract that are measured by loss of revenue or loss of business opportunities.

Control without ownership

Result of well-planned arrangements in which the client obtains efficient use of its sources from the external service provider (otherwise known as magic).

Co-sourcing™

The term used by an external service provider to refer to its brand of outsourcing services. See also smart-sourcing; outsourcing

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Marketing and execution system that typically includes a call centre, databases, software, and marketing strategy. Like enterprise resource planning (ERP), CRM initiatives are complex and involve redesigning internal business processes and retraining. The success of a CRM outsourcing contract requires special attention to business, technological and legal issues.

End-to-end process

Completion of a business process from start to finish, including all intermediate steps of entering, processing, analysing, generating results, and in some cases implementing tasks specified by the logic (algorithm) that defines the business process.

Enforceability

Conditions under which the terms, conditions and obligations of the parties under an agreement will be adopted and confirmed by a court of competent jurisdiction.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Software that integrates the various functions of a company based on data sharing into a common database that, once processed, generates relevant management information for purchasing services, manufacturing, sales, delivery and associated internal processes (such as HR and accounting). In principle, ERP software is able to manage the company (and several companies) as an integrated operation.

Exchanges

Exchanges use the internet to allow qualified and registered users to search for buyers or sellers of goods and services. Depending on the approach, buyers or sellers can specify prices or call for tenders. Transactions can be initiated and completed, and ongoing purchases can allow customers to benefit from volume discounts or special offers.

Extranet, extension of the intranet (see intranet)

Information solution for users outside the company. Extranets are used to provide access to information that can be used by suppliers, customers, banks and other financial institutions, and others needing access to a company’s data.

Facilities Management Solution

Solution by which the customer entrusts to an external provider the responsibility of the operations and software applications and the management of the associated instruments (hardware, software, application programming personnel, etc.), while maintaining the guardianship and general supervision of its information technologies. More broadly, facility management can be applied to other areas, such as maintaining, updating, or revising applications.

Fraud

An intentional deception, for an unfair advantage, that causes a loss or disadvantage to the party relying on the false or misleading statement. In contractual matters, fraud is the cause of an error in a material part of the contract.

Gain-sharing

Long-term risk and reward sharing technique. Euphemistically, gain sharing does not qualify as risk sharing, so care must be taken to identify what is being shared and why.

Part 2

Our tips for a better outsourcing experience

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Why outsource? This is a good question and at ProContact, we have the answers. This business strategy allows you to gain speed, reduce costs and in many cases allows you to increase the amount of resources and gain skills and experience for one or more tasks in particular. The result has been seen by many companies: outsourcing makes it possible, in practice, to focus on growth and development.

The company has a real personality

Today’s business has several aspects that need to be polished, cared for and evolved. For this, it is important to focus on the reason for its creation, which is called the core business. By being able to focus on your core business, resources work more efficiently, and therefore, cost-effectively.

Why outsource?

Outsourcing has definitely gained momentum in recent years, so much so that many companies have truly understood the processes and the importance of customer support, marketing, etc. Nevertheless, there is still a sense of hesitation among some, even if the competition has had success with outsourcing. Here are some good reasons to take the leap when it comes to outsourcing:

Tangible reduction in operating costs
The reduction of operating costs is undoubtedly the main reason why companies are turning to outsourcing. There are many reasons to try to make savings. For instance, in order to optimise the use of suppliers, to cope with increased material costs, to remain competitive, or even because of the need to downsize due to a merger or acquisition.

Savings on training costs

Thanks to cost reductions resulting from outsourcing, the company also manages to save on salaries, benefits, but also, above all, on training expenses. By choosing ProContact, the client company eliminates the training period usually provided for new employees through the intervention of trained and qualified agents for an immediate position, as from the start of the outsourcing contract.

Feeing up of resources
Your company is working on a project that requires specific expertise, but is not available internally. Such a situation may arise, for example, in the context of an evolution of the company, prompting the addition of additional tasks. Optimise the use of your resources by delegating the least critical processes to ProContact! According to the specialised site Business.com, many companies consider outsourcing as a concrete tool to free up capital, which can then be invested in urgent and essential tasks.

Restructuring of the company

Sometimes a company may have to restructure its business model. As a result, the tasks supported by the present resources change and evolve. What can be done when these resources do not have the necessary skills to carry out their missions? Hiring talent certainly does not fit with the restructuring period, so outsourcing is an effective and quick method to implement in order to fill the gaps. Outsourcing opens the way for companies to look for skills that are missing from their workforce, without allocating substantial sums for recruitment.

Improve productivity and efficiency

Which company does not want to improve its efficiency? Here is an overview of the range of outsourced services handled by ProContact, specialist in B2B/B2C prospecting, remote secretary, customer relations, CRM tools and CRM software, satisfaction surveys, human resources, etc.:

Prospecting

  • Outgoing calls, remote prospecting, potential customer searches
  • Call handling
  • Traffic creation
  • After-Sales Outsourcing

Loyalty

  • Incoming calls,
  • Optimised qualification of the customer database thanks to our CRM,
  • Data entry,
  • Email routing,
  • Commercial and administrative management,

Webmarketing:

  • KPIs management, dashboards and performance analysis, customer engagement analysis,
  • Satisfaction survey, customer satisfaction analysis,
  • Web Moderation (sites, social networks)

Order taking

Remote secretary:

  • Calendar management,
  • Appointment confirmation,
  • Mailings

Reduced business risks

The company can fully delegate certain specific functions, which are certainly essential, but which have a cost both in financial and human resources. Outsourcing has been proven time and again to reduce financial risk. This is especially true when a company turns to a particularly experienced outsourcing provider, as is the case at ProContact.

Perfect response to compliance requirements

The company having to adhere to compliance requirements, such as payroll, may outsource the compliance team instead of overexploiting internal employees.

Lower wages

ProContact offers you existing services in your country of location, but at much more competitive costs! Indeed, our geographical situations are not subject to the same pressures in terms of employee and employer contributions, which is good news for the company’s finances.

A modernisation of the company’s systems

The modern enterprise must have and use up-to-date tools. As an outsourcing specialist, ProContact has the duty to implement state-of-the-art hardware and software, capable of meeting the exact needs of its customers.

Contact us!

Today’s business faces several challenges that it must be able to overcome while remaining competitive. If you find that your business is losing efficiency lately, that your customers are expressing a start of discontent, do not wait until it is too late. In this time of pandemic and economic uncertainty, be agile by signing a strong and transparent partnership with one of the leaders in outsourcing in the Indian Ocean zone.

ProContact is more than a contact centre. Thanks to trained, qualified, handpicked and multilingual agents, we allow companies that choose us to maintain their credibility, continue to develop and above all to satisfy their customers. To learn more about our services and for a quality partnership, click

There are many reasons why a company may consider outsourcing. Outsourcing remains a choice for companies that need cost-effective labour solutions.

Outsourcing: How will contact centres evolve?

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(source: A look at how contact centers are evolving for the future – www.itproportal.com)

Contact centres are defined by Wikipedia as being “a set of means, human, real estate, furniture and technical, which enables the support of long-distance relationships between a brand and its market”. If their objective is laudable, these structures cannot afford to remain frozen, at the risk of presenting a very large discrepancy between their operating model and the needs of companies that choose outsourcing.

The ITPro Portal, an aggregator of information, reviews, features and IT guides from around the world, features an article by Lee Cottle, who has more than 20 years of experience in the software, hardware and services industry, ranging from start-ups to established multi-billion dollar companies. The latter looks at a vital evolution.

Contact centers : essential relays for companies and in evolution

Contact centres serve as fundamental intermediaries between businesses and their customers. They pave the way for a healthier customer experience. For this, they need to master and use various channels. Contact centres aim to assist client service in terms of technical and sales support. They typically integrate call centres into their processes while maintaining other forms of customer contact, such as emails, online chats, social media interactions, and website support.

There are four main types of contact centres:

  • Physical contact centre
  • Cloud-based contact centres
  • Hosted contact centres
  • Virtual contact centres

Regardless of the form a company uses to manage its interactions with its customers, changes will be seen. Changes that will impact on the contact centre as we move into the future.

Machine learning and AI

For decades, contact centres have taken advantage of cutting-edge technology, primarily artificial intelligence (AI) applications, which gained traction in the 2000s with exponential impact since. The mass adoption of smartphones, social networks and other user-friendly applications has dramatically changed customer expectations. Consumers are now accustomed to short waiting times, instant and free communication with family, friends and companies, and new technological advances are being adopted permanently. As a result, customer expectations are continually rising for constant improvements, little or no wait times and more personalised customer experiences.

Contact centres have succeeded in meeting these expectations by increasing their use of machine learning and artificial intelligence. So much so that business leaders today cite customer experience as the main reason to invest in AI. So how did machine learning and AI affect the different agents?

Customers

AI-supported contact centre agents are the latest trend, becoming able to quickly identify and deliver specific information to callers. The only downside is that these same callers quickly grew tired of interactive voice response (IVR) systems, which were deemed to be a waste of time and not very effective. As a result, call centres quickly found themselves overloaded with requests for human interactions.

Management

As customer expectations have increased in recent decades, new technologies have made it possible to meet these expectations. Customers can now communicate using the channel of their choice during more flexible times. Businesses are more expected to use social media, in addition to traditional phone lines and more recent chat services, as a customer service tool.

Let’s add to this the increased use of “bots” allowing customers to perform real actions without interacting with a person. For example, Amazon’s chat assistant is able to automate certain activities such as refunds, new orders, replacements, and other simple tasks that would otherwise take up the time of customer service agents. In addition, these bots are able to use big data to analyse the reliability of customers and their information at higher rates than humans, allowing to optimise and even increase success rates and KPIs.

Business leaders

The increasing use of AI is expected to lead to cost reductions in contact centres due to the increase in self-service. In a traditional contact centre, it is important to have sufficient human resources to avoid exceeding the average waiting time. As mentioned above, in the face of ever-increasing customer expectations, customer experience becomes the predominant factor in converting one-time customers into repeat customers while a poor customer experience can easily ruin the chances of achieving this.

Focus on ProContact

With ProContact, you have a contact centre equipped with the best tools and a team of specially trained advisors to guarantee you quality support with real results ! Indeed, by bringing together all the services on the same platform, we offer a global and sharp expertise on all the businesses essential to the development of your company and which are not part of your “core business”.

All economic sectors call on our contact center, a multi-service platform

Contact and customer relationship centres manage multiple activities related to the relationship between the client (the company) and prospects/customers. Depending on the contracts and the needs of the companies, the services can range from a simple remote secretary service to a global support of the customer relationship.

The services we offer:

  • Telephone reception
  • Remote secretary
  • Surveys, researches, satisfaction studies
  • Remote marketing and teleprospecting (making appointments, prospecting…)
  • File qualification
  • Database management and enrichment
  • Customer loyalty
  • Technical support (hotline, webhelp, technical support)
  • After-sales service; customer service

Based in Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, we operate in European and global markets!

Let’s look back at the fundamentals of outsourcing

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Why does a company choose to outsource some of its processes? There is a long list of answers! Outsourcing is more than just a method of obtaining tax benefits; it has become, over time, a business strategy in its own right, but it is not just that. Let’s have a look at the arguments that summarise why this solution allows a company to modernise, grow and surpass the competition.

Why choose business process outsourcing?

Outsourcing is not a decision that must be taken lightly. It should be based on real needs, which can be optimised once taken in hand by a specialist. Thus, at ProContact, we offer a wide range of services:

  • B2B/B2C Prospecting;
  • Remote secretary services;
  • Customer relations;
  • CRM tool and CRM software;
  • Satisfaction surveys;
  • Human resources;
  • Digital outsourcing.

To achieve the best result, we have a unique approach in the offshore sector:

  • A highly qualified and positive team capable of ensuring a tailor-made follow-up of each operation;
  • Demanding recruitment processes;
  • Dense and continuous training on incoming calls, outgoing calls, marketing, web marketing, etc.;
  • A motivating and humane management strategy, supervisors listening to employees and listening to you;
  • An independent quality department with a single goal: customer satisfaction

We work daily on the market, use the most relevant measures and practice continuous training in the areas in which we offer our services. Unlike the internal resources of companies, we remain competitive.

Outsourcing so that the company can focus on its key functions and core business

Outsourcing allows the company to redirect its efforts towards the major functions that constitute its core business. For example, instead of devoting time and resources to payroll management, they will use these same factors to innovate and effectively increase their profits. Thus, it can more easily strengthen its competitive advantage as well as its interaction with the value chain. As a result, customer satisfaction and profits will both surge exponentially.

To optimise the results of features that are not key to the business

Outsourcing is mainly oriented towards the support of non-essential functions of companies, while offering increased quality. Let’s take the case of ProContact. As a market leader in the Indian Ocean, we have specialised processes and use innovative technologies that our customers may not have. As explained in our description, our infrastructures are based on the latest generation Dialogic-Vocalcom platforms, which offer a high level of flexibility and reliability. The solutions used also allow advanced call/processing management.

Therefore, they offer all the functionalities necessary for the activity of a general contact centre. Finally, Vocalcom is secured by a Vicidial solution running permanently in “cloud” and able to resume operations instantly. The whole operation is, therefore, totally secure.

In addition, choosing ProContact is choosing:

  • More than 20 years of experience on all types of operations;
  • 400 tele-operators spread over 3 multi-skill, complementary and highly secure sites;
  • A management team fully focused on customer satisfaction;
  • Multilingual, qualified and versatile employees who are motivated by the tasks entrusted to them.

If you are, for example, a company specialising in the development and design of mobile games, what is the point of investing in payroll software, when we can quickly and concretely take over this part of the operation of your company?

At ProContact, we have the best tools and a team of specially trained advisors to guarantee you quality support with real results!

Indeed, by bringing together all the services on the same platform, a contact centre offers global and sharp expertise on all the professions essential to the development of your company and which are not part of your “core business”.

To reduce costs

Business process outsourcing is a perfect solution to reduce the company’s labour costs. Thanks to this strategy, the company no longer needs to find the budget for recruitment, training or workspace equipment.

Let’s add to this that with outsourcing, the client company only pays for the services that are rented to it thanks to tariffs adapted to the real needs of the customer.

To compete on a global scale

At ProContact, our agents are multilingual and intervene in real time, giving your company a greater opportunity and opening to the world!

Fast and efficient services

Outsourcing providers take on tasks that are considered low value added, but by doing so, they optimise these tasks, save time, increase capacity and improve accuracy.

The customer company thus manages to save time and resources, but also money, because it becomes able to improve its operation.

Jumping in the digital era

It’s a fact, companies that opted for outsourcing before the pandemic are now able to act quickly thanks to digitalisation! Indeed, in just a few months, they have re-entered the digital age thanks to their provider. At ProContact, we offer services designed to reduce security issues and social media and network access restrictions. We have all the technologies your business needs to work in a highly secure environment, with waterproof communications systems.

Contact us!

Outsourcing is our business! At ProContact, we support you closely in the inclusion of this solution in your business strategy. We offer, without delay, an unprecedented adaptation to your way of working thanks to the arrival of resources located elsewhere, without wasting time, money and quality.

ProContact is more than a contact centre. Thanks to trained, qualified, handpicked and multilingual agents, we allow companies that choose us to gain credibility and above all to satisfy their customers regardless of the situation and in complete transparency. Outsourcing has become a tangible and concrete business strategy for the development of the company. To find out more about our services and for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us on (+33) 1 77 75 04 50.

Everything you need to know about outsourcing recruitment process, a key strategy for companies

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By choosing to expand its recruitment process, the company transfers all or part of its recruitment process to a third-party company which is specialised in this type of assignment. A real strategy, outsourcing recruitment allows resources to save time, but above all to optimise the distribution of work. It makes it possible to find the best talents and to quickly find the profiles adapted to the objectives of the company. Here is what you should remember.

ProContact, human resources outsourcing specialist

At ProContact, we believe that the outsourcing of human resources is a social issue. With this in mind, like a real recruitment firm, we take charge of the entire recruitment process to help companies properly evaluate candidates for each type of position, to make the most of the skills of internal recruiters, to streamline costs and effectively prepare for the integration of new employees. This whole process involves the following missions:

  • Pre-recruitment;
  • Administrative management of the recruitment process;
  • Integration management (organisation and monitoring of the trial period, astonishment report, etc.)

Indeed, at ProContact, we put our teams of Human Resource experts at the service of companies looking for efficient and proactive solutions in personnel administration and HR management.

Outsourcing recruitment: a temporary or sustainable solution

Outsourcing is a flexible solution that gives companies a lot of flexibility. More specifically, by entrusting their recruitment to a specialised provider, they have the opportunity to integrate a third-party recruitment team on a temporary or long-term basis into their human resources department.

Temporary integration is ideal during periods of high recruitment, while the second is relevant when the company wants to devote its human resources department to larger, resource-intensive and time-consuming missions

What are the benefits of outsourcing the recruitment process?

Outsourcing the recruitment process has evolved to shift from traditional hiring methods into an era of modernity and economic efficiency. For example, your provider relies on databases to find the appropriate profile. It uses tools often unavailable in companies to select the most appropriate candidates in relation to the needs mentioned by the sponsor.

Outsourcing for a recruitment that is truly adapted to the company

The company does not have the same recruitment needs throughout the year; the needs vary depending on the upcoming objectives. In such a framework, it is complex to accurately determine the amount of resources needed to carry out the various recruitment campaigns. At ProContact, we are ready at any time to lend you a hand!

Together, we take stock of your requirements, whether it is an on-demand recruitment process or for a long-term project.

A faster and more efficient hiring process

For an optimal operation in the long term, the company must adapt to a constantly changing economic environment. The delay in hiring qualified people delays the achievement of objectives, so it is essential to be one step ahead of the competition.

Outsourcing the process to a specialised supplier is the most appropriate response to maintain the rhythm, but above all to avoid the famous “casting errors” that can damage the operation of the company and its positioning in the market.

Outsourcing recruitment to strengthen the employer brand

As a company, you need to continually look for high-value candidates. In order to convince them that you are the perfect company to welcome them, you must first of all project an image in this sense. This mission goes back to your human resources, a real showcase of the company.

Count on ProContact to reflect the values of your company and to present a convincing image. Choose an outsourcing provider that can quickly and efficiently transform into an extension of your human resources department!

Remote recruitment that is respectful of the salarial regulations of your country

Labour laws are essential and it is in the company’s interest to comply with them. How does this happen in the case of outsourced recruitment? ProContact has a trained workforce that is always up to date with wage legislation. Through a clearly structured recruitment process, we protect your company from the risks that may arise in the event of non-compliance with legal rules.

Outsourcing recruitment processes is the perfect opportunity for the company to update its law and compliance knowledge.

A better use of human resources

By choosing recruitment outsourcing, your company will relieve the existing pressure on its human resources department, which will increase efficiency and productivity. By delegating this part of your operation to ProContact, you will allow your internal resources to focus entirely on solving internal problems.

A strong recruitment service

ProContact’s experience makes it possible to provide companies that need it with a complete recruitment service, with clear pre-recruitment processes for processes, fluid administrative management of recruitment and concrete management of integration (organisation and monitoring of the trial period, astonishment report…).

Outsourcing recruitment, a concrete solution for modern companies

At ProContact, we have a skilled workforce that is constantly trained to find the best talent for your business. By choosing a provider with all the necessary human, technical and material resources, your company will have a recruitment process in accordance with its policy. Moreover, it will, at the same time maximise the productivity of its own HR department.

Choose outsourcing with ProContact to improve your company’s internal employee selection processes and streamline your existing recruitment system. Outsourcing is more than a solution, it is a tool that companies have at their disposal to optimise their operation since they are entering a modern era during which efficiency is not an option, but a strategy.

With outsourcing recruitment processes, attract the best talent and above all, retain them!

Outsourcing or how to increase your human resources at a lower cost?

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As a business, you need to have a strong, proactive business strategy that can respond quickly to customer needs and above all designed to streamline costs. If internal resources give the impression from the outside that they are perfectly capable of taking all the tasks in hand, often the reality is different. Indeed, between the core business of the company and the small ancillary tasks, time often runs out, concentration is biased and general motivation runs out. Outsourcing is the most suitable solution to win on all levels. Between risk sharing and cost reduction, outsourcing is also an opportunity to intelligently increase your workforce.

What is staff augmentation?

The company increases its workforce when it finds a lack of skills within its organisation. However, in France, for example, hiring staff requires considerable resources, with regards to time and especially finances. Let’s add to this a glaring lack of local skills…the market is getting poorer!

In the numbers, to recruit in France, it is necessary to invest between 5000 and 8000 euros, because it is necessary to provide:

  • Internal costs: recruiters’ salaries, structural costs, operational costs;
  • External costs: tools, recruitment firms, service providers, etc.

For the training of a new employee, it will be necessary to count between 1000€ / day and 2500€ / day!

As part of the outsourcing of your human resources, these aspects are the responsibility of the provider!

Increase human capital through outsourcing

Outsourcing allows you to increase your human resources by hiring a trained and skilled workforce, with the skills required for important but time-consuming tasks. ProContact’s offer covers a wide range of needs on a sustainable or temporary basis, depending on the needs of the company. We offer in particular:

Prospecting

  • Outbound calls, remote prospecting, potential customer searches;
  • Call handling;
  • Traffic creation;
  • After-Sales Outsourcing.

Loyalty

  • Incoming calls;
  • Optimised customer database qualification through our CRM ;
  • Data entry;
  • Routing emailing

Commercial and administrative management          

  • Webmarketing: KPIs management, scoreboard establishments and performance analysis, customer engagement analysis;
  • Satisfaction survey, customer satisfaction analysis;
  • Web Moderation (websites, social networks) ;
  • Taking orders

Remote secretary

  • Calendar management;
  • Appointment confirmation;
  • Sending mail.

Outsourcing, a key solution

Outsourcing is now to be included in any business strategy. It allows the company to delegate certain tasks to a specialised company, often located outside borders. One can use a service provider in outsourcing durably, for a period or a particular project.

By adopting this strategy, the company has an additional workforce that is perfectly qualified to take on the tasks required while being based remotely. Let’s add to this:

An advantageous reduction in operating and labour costs: the offshore outsourcing provider systematically offers prices which are much more advantageous than those practiced nearshore or onshore.

Better focus on the core business of the company: freeing up the internal workforce allows it to focus, more effectively, on the internal processes of the company.

Mitigation of risk factors: offshore outsourcing allows the company to reduce risks which are shared with the provider. Of course, it is important to mention the risks covered by each party.

A global expansion of the company: by moving closer to an offshore outsourcing provider, the company enters new markets.

A pool of skills always available: by entrusting certain tasks to an outsourcing provider, the company benefits from a pool of different skills. To help build a strong team, the same provider will help the company accurately determine its needs, assess existing skills and then choose the amount of manpower to put in place.

When to use outsourcing to increase your staff?

It is not uncommon these days for a company to go through outsourcing to strengthen its internal teams. If you are still hesitant to go through this, here are the cases in which outsourcing can turn into a paid strategy:

  • In-house staff work overtime and new projects need to be delivered quickly;
  • A new project requires specific skills unavailable internally;
  • An employee with knowledge / skills is in prolonged absence. So you need a temporary resource to fill the gap in skills;
  • The company wants to streamline its recruitment expenses without losing quality;
  • The company must meet strict deadlines;
  • The firm wants to gain flexibility to grow.

The benefits of outsourcing to increase your workforce

Companies that went through outsourcing to hire additional resources quickly realised that they are winning on several levels!

Wage expenses: The absence of a traditional hiring process saves companies production time and money.

Reduced workload: Small tasks can quickly amount to hundreds or even thousands of production hours. By outsourcing these tasks, teams can finally focus on the essentials, without having to do, for example, overtime.

Flexibility: outsourcing allows the company to increase and decrease the volume of its teams according to its projects and especially without financial consequences.

ProContact, your offshore outsourcing partner!

Present in Mauritius for more than 18 years, ProContact has become a reference in the contact centre world. Today, the company uses state-of-the-art techniques in the field of outsourcing and offshore call centres (telephone call centres). Thanks to trained, qualified, handpicked and multilingual agents, we allow companies that choose us to maintain their credibility and above all to satisfy their customers. To learn more about our services, for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us on (+33) 1 77 75 04 50.