From the moment your company first considered merging with another to the moment the lawyers finish and the nanosecond the announcement hits the PR wire, the leadership of your two companies has been fully involved. And you know you have much more to do, from meshing technological solutions and company cultures to engaging the combined workforce and configuring new lines of authority.
On top of all that, you must consider either or both companies’ existing BPO relationships and how to use BPO as you move forward as a single, and much stronger, company.
Business process outsourcing is the delegation to external sources of key departments or functions beyond a company’s core strengths. Businesses might adopt BPO solutions in their call center, inbound and outbound sales, IT, back office, HR, or any of many other areas of operation.
Here are five actions your newly merged company can take to leverage the power of BPO solutions to grow and thrive as you move forward.
1. Reexamine Your Core Strengths (and Weaknesses)
Things have changed. You have introduced to the marketplace a new company following the merger. That’s why it’s time to first reexamine all the BPO relationships the two newly married companies have had with whatever external service providers were engaged.
By combining your strengths, you might be able to do some things better — while other skills or disciplines might be overtaxed. If both of the merged companies had BPO relationships in the same areas of operation, you might have unneeded and wasteful overlap. For example, if both companies used BPO for accounting and collections, it makes sense to combine those into one operation. On the other hand, you’re likely to discover new areas of weakness as your combined operation grows in complexity. Maybe an outbound sales call center may be in order. Those areas might give you some ideas of where a BPO partner can help.
2. Keep Your Existing BPO Partners in the Loop
Your focus has been on fully and transparently communicating and updating your merger plans to management, team members, shareholders, investors, and other stakeholders. But does that stakeholder list include the outside service providers one or both companies rely on for IT, accounting, your inbound or outbound calls, or other critical delegated duties?
It should, because the services this BPO partner (or partners) provides are critical to your ongoing success. Plus, a good BPO partner will be able to offer valuable input and help your merged company move productively forward against marketplace challenges.
3. Reconfigure Those Existing Outsourcing Relationships
As we’ve already pointed out: Things have changed. Your new company suddenly runs differently in a number of ways. Hopefully, you’ve adopted your BPO resources as trusted partners by now (or ended relationships that no longer seem fruitful). Nevertheless, your company now has different needs.
For instance, if you have a BPO call center partner focusing on outbound or inbound calls, your agents need retraining. That’s because they now have a lot more to promote. They represent new product lines. They have unfamiliar customer questions to answer. Maybe their sales scripts must be changed, or outlined explanations of the new company added to their arsenal.
How about your BPO partners in IT? Everything has changed for them, too. They have new technological solutions to merge into your existing system, in addition to new cybersecurity practices and considerations to incorporate. Finally, it must all work seamlessly and almost immediately. Mistakes in this area could be devastating to the new company.
4. Consider New Partnerships Where Needed
The first days, weeks, and months of a merger can go by in a confused blur. Still, every day you will do a little better job of sorting things out. Over time, as we said, you will start to see your new company’s weaknesses as well as its strengths.
What’s missing? Where are the fracture points? What are areas of operation being lost or neglected in the changeover? Every successful company has core strengths, or it wouldn’t be successful. However, not every company — even the combined operations of two successful organizations — is strong in every area. Instead of trying to cover these areas yourself on top of everything else going on, think about how new BPO partnerships can help, at least in the short term, if not for a much longer engagement.
5. Use New BPO Partners to Keep Your Combined Teams Involved and to Improve Morale
Corporate mergers and acquisitions can seriously impact your combined workforce, and not always in positive ways. Your people might have seen bosses and co-workers being let go as a result of overlap with the merging workforce. In fact, the cost-savings possible with workforce realignment are often the motivation for a merger — or part of the solution for paying for it.
Engaging new BPO partnerships, whether short term or long term, can support what your staff is doing, make their workdays easier, and begin to rebuild and strengthen the morale lost or shaken in the merger, in addition to the other benefits.
For instance, a new IT partner can help rebuild a digital infrastructure and reduce employee frustrations in trying to use a technology that might have initially been cobbled together by two companies with different ways of working.
You might hire a BPO human resources operations partner to support your expanded HR department needs in training, the promotion of new benefits, and other internal communications needs triggered by confused and frustrated workers.
Your newly combined sales department might also need all the support and augmentation it can get. A BPO call center operation can team up with your combined internal sales staff to handle inbound calls or place outbound calls to generate referrals.
The point is, an effective BPO strategy can boost your capabilities and assist your transition from two separate companies to one strong workforce and corporate entity. You owe it to all your stakeholders to explore your opportunities with BPO and see the various ways you might gain winning results.
Your BPO Partner Can Help Smooth Your Merger
At Confie BPO, our commitment is to be a seamless partner in your merger and after-merger capabilities. Call us at (800) 684-2BPO (2276). You can also send us an email at contact@ConfieBPO.com or fill out a brief form online.
