Technology Resourcing vs. Business Process Outsourcing

At first glance, the shift from business process outsourcing to technology resourcing seems like vendors have pulled a fast one and shifted work back to their clients. Nonetheless, the market response to joint administrative human capital management through shared cloud-based software has been vastly favorable.

Why? Perhaps it’s because companies saw a value in retaining some fluidity and accessibility to their employee data afforded by cloud-technology resourcing.  

Consider the rise of business process outsourcing for functions like payroll, benefits administration, and HR compliance to the major data processing firms of the last 50 years. Onboarding a new vendor meant offloading tremendous amounts of employee data: data that grew increasingly entrenched in legacy systems as time went on.

Without a doubt, businesses benefitted from offloading routine administrative processes with off-site experts managing their more technical workforce management functions. However, with offloaded and “siloed” employee data, to include; time and labor tracking, PTO, FMLA administration, and benefits enrollment data, employers lost significant insight into their total cost of ownership (TCO) per employee—arguably the most valuable metric a business leader could have when setting the pace for company expansion and business development. 

{{cta(’32aada53-030c-4404-98e0-cd708dd92338′,’justifyleft’)}} Why 94% of Businesses are Choosing Cloud-Technology Resourcing 

Today, as cloud technology helps make data increasingly streamlined and accessible, and technology resourcing makes in-house total workforce management more feasible, businesses have less of a need to outsource many of their workforce management processes. With resourcing, they leverage technology backed by consultants with technical expertise to create efficient processes that are manageable collateral duties amongst current staff members. The efficiency lies in the increased agility of accessibility of employee data, and the growing ability to get key TCO-analytics swiftly into the hands of decision makers.

In some cases, there is also a decreased need for in-house technical experts, as many integrated HR software companies pair their payroll and employee benefits portals with consultant hours and technical experts. This is especially beneficial to mid-size employers who prefer consolidating much of the tradition payroll, benefits administrative, and HR compliance tasks under one savvy employee. 

So, what’s the biggest argument for the cloud in the business process outsourcing vs. technology resourcing debate?

Companies move forward only as fast as they can make strategic decisions, and their decision making is only as swift and confident as their ability to access pertinent data.

In the era of the cloud and its ability to bring key workforce data back into the hands of decision makers, we can expect more companies seeking greater TCO analytics to shift from traditional business outsourcing to technology resourcing in 2015.

Related Blog: 6 Considerations When Looking for a Total Workforce Management Tool