How we evaluated and provided recommendations for offshoring business processes for corporate functions
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Executive Summary
A global multi-billion-dollar renowned historic media company was suffering due to transformation of the market with digital media and increased competition by providers of cheap and easy access to news and analysis. Pressure on costs meant that wherever processes could be offshored to a more cost-effective location then it should occur. The client needed to identify which parts of what processes could be offshored, what the effort and savings involved would be. Through detailed interviews with client staff and review of client documentation, the Business Process Services team was able to build a redefined location strategy for all processes and present the outcomes to the CFO and senior client leadership.
The Client
A global multi-billion media company based in New York City with a historic household name.
The Challenge
High costs of operation in Lower Manhattan meant that margins and profitability were tightly squeezed with related pressures from investors (this was a public company at the time). There was very significant pressure to reduce costs. Pressure on costs meant that wherever processes could be offshored to a more cost-effective location then it should occur. The client needed to identify which parts of what processes could be offshored, as well as what the effort and savings involved would be.
The project was a second phase of offshoring for the company as approximately 800 full time employees were already offshored to India for transaction-based processes and some customer service tasks. The company needed to discover if they could offshore additional corporate functions and save additional costs.
The Approach and Solution
Our team performed detailed process analysis using process mapping tools and procedure writing best practices. Tasks were separated by judgment needed and high or low complexity. Rationale was given for which tasks and processes were candidates for offshoring. Where process enhancements or duplications could be noted, they were brought to the client’s attention. A full analysis was presented to the leadership (CFO) with complete buy-in from the client executives – functional heads. The results were incorporated into the Global Transformation of the company.
The Results
After the engagement was completed, 80 business processes were in scope, along with the full New York based staff in the corporate functions addressed (over 200). A proportion of the corporate functions were agreed to be offshored with the company actually moving to a solution to offshore even more processes than the recommendation and incur some additional risk – such were the benefits noted. The assignment was a four-month fixed price engagement, delivered on time with excellent reviews and feedback from the client.
Digital and Technology Transformation
