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5 Business Continuity Principles Adopted by Leading Outsourcers

The end is hopefully in sight regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccination programmes are being rapidly rolled-out, lockdown regulations are relaxing and there is activity in streets, parks, and beachfronts. Although, the global economy is still in a state of flux and will be for some time.
Emerging from the aftershock, arise new unexpected, innovative business trends that can create a pathway to business recovery. In fact, the 2021 Global CxO Business Continuity and Evolving Work Models for Outsourcers by Knowledge Executive, Ryan Strategic Advisory and CxOutsourcers provides insights into the prevailing trends and business best practices from a customer experience (CX) and business process outsourcing (BPO) delivery hub context.
This article reveals some best practice business continuity principles organizations are deploying.

1. Responding swiftly to disasters or pandemics and continuing to provide essential services

If the COVID-19 pandemic taught the business world something, it was responding promptly to disaster-related curveballs. Regarding business continuity practices that have already been implemented, the majority of the survey’s respondents deployed data center continuity plans. Remote/mobile workforce and working-at-home-agent (WAHA) was also a core focus in business continuity amongst global outsourcers. Working from home (WFH) models is an intervention that has swept across all sectors globally and is a dominating trend of business, including with Egyptian outsourcers such as Xceed. The figure below reveals the agile interventions outsourcers have implemented and plan to implement to support business continuity. What agile business continuity and contact center recovery initiatives has your organization deployed, or plans to deploy, over the next 12 months?

Key facts and highlights: 88% of global brands and outsourcers have virtual business continuity plans. Multiple hybrid physical and virtual work models have been implemented by 80% of outsourcers. Over 75% of outsourcers offer mental wellness programmes to their employees. 81% of outsourcers have communicated and updated HR practices for new work-at-home models.

The graph also indicates how the customer was a major focus. The prioritization of essential customer demands/requirements, as well as creating clear and concise communication with customers have been crucial reaction tools to mitigate the pandemic-led disruption on CX. Although it is not the dominant business continuity and contact center recovery initiative going forward. Disaster recovery simulations, conducting regular business impact analyses and outsourcing to third-party operators will be the top trending interventions over the next year.

2. The adoption of alternative/remote and work-at-home models in tandem with on-premise models

During the COVID-19 pandemic, outsourcers have found that their operations performed well in the WFH transition. As vaccination plans are rolled out and ‘’normalization’’ sets in, there will be a gradual return to onsite operations. However, things will not be the same as they were pre-pandemic. Survey data has indicated that operators will retain a hybrid model, where some agents will work remotely, while those considered essential will work onsite. Outsourcers maintaining a blended working model will continue to transition to cloud-based omnichannel solutions to support hybrid working models and digital transformation. Operators have realized the cost benefits of having some agents WFH, as well as the benefit of having access to a global skills base. Higher workforce productivity, reduced workplace density and better business continuity are other core factors cementing the adoption of hybrid work models amongst outsourcers.

3. Adapting business continuity plans and processes for virtual and work-at-home environments

COVID-19 has altered the way in which we engage in the economy and society, impacting the way outsourcers engage with customers and their workers. Life has become more digitalized, resulting to a significant shift towards online interactions, such as e-commerce. As a result, outsourcers have deployed digital contact center channels and have adopted unified agent communication tools to adapt to the new forms of digital engagement with customers. As time goes by and the hybrid model becomes more entrenched, operators are looking towards more advanced engagement platforms and technologies. The utilization of chat and voice bots will be more common amongst operators over the next 12 to 24 months. Other advanced technology that will emerge throughout contact centers will consist of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to support agents. The virtualization of CX will also lead to the use of video chat services to customers. The graph below illustrates current WAHA initiatives that are being used as business continuity best practice, as well as future deployment of WAHA trends and developments. What innovative work-at-home agent trends and developments are impacting your organization?


4. Utilizing always-on secure, cloud-based solutions

Cloud technology has been the most vital solution in supporting business continuity, especially from a WAHA perspective. Cloud-based systems have enabled a smooth transition to a WAHA set up without negatively affecting employee performance, engagement, and collaboration. Operators that already had cloud-enabled infrastructure, such as cloud-based telephony platforms, proved to have a distinct advantage when transitioning to a WFH environment and monitoring agents. In addition, cloud solutions have offered critical layers of data protection and security, enabling outsourcers to meet regulatory and compliance standards during the pandemic, especially in a WFH context.

5. Formulating detailed crisis management plans with ranked recovery priorities

Long-term disruptions can occur without notice, compromising your CX operations. A clearly defined business continuity plan (BCP) can make a stressful experience into a manageable one. Respondents from the survey ranked various crisis management plans highly as business continuity and recovery initiatives for future deployment. In addition to the business continuity measures already mentioned in point one, emergency response training, alternative/back-up recovery sites and secondary or back-up suppliers were rated as the top crisis management interventions.

Conclusion
One of the most notable indications from the analysis is that WAHA models as a business continuity best practice has been prolific in molding future trends in the CX contact center environment.
“The WAHA catalyst brought the rapid adoption of new technologies and digital infrastructure, particularly cloud-based solutions," says Rasha Ezz El-Din Mohamed, Sales and Marketing Director of Egyptian BPO/ITO outsourcer, Xceed. “AI, digital contact center channels, and productivity and staff management tools are the most common digital technologies that have and will continue to be rolled-out in CX delivery hubs.” Planning for a crisis is also something that Ezz El-Din Mohamed points out as a new, yet vital action in the CX contact centre industry.
Xceed deployed their ‘Xceed Resilience Strategy’, a business continuity plan developed in the early stages of the pandemic to ensure the safety of their employees and business continuity. Clear guidelines on solutions and models were detailed for the organization to follow to not only maintain operational stability, but to achieve growth with the input of all employees. The solutions were designed in a way that they could be seamlessly implemented. Our approach to the situation started at the very early stages of the pandemic. We planned for various risks and anticipated all possible outcomes and modeled different solutions. When actions needed to have been taken, the implementation was immediate without any disruption to the business", says Ezz El-Din. WFH was one of the main interventions of the Xceed Resilience strategy, where over 8,000 employees shifted to remote working.
A ‘Work from Hotel’ model was implemented for over 700 employees serving specific clients in Morocco and Egypt whose requirements did not allow for WFH agents. Interestingly, for those remote-working employees, Xceed noticed lower-levels of agent attrition and higher adoption of split shifts. For agents that needed to be onsite, work areas were physically re-structured to ensure social distancing, where mask-wearing was compulsory. Data protection was another priority area, where the organization ensured global data protection and security standards were consistently being met. Based on the above precautions, Xceed has been able to maintain business continuity till date without any risk of interruption of its operations nor impacting employees' job security. Ezz El-Din Mohamed notes that the post-pandemic world in a CX contact center context will not be what it was, as there are strong considerations in maintaining some WFH agents combined with an onsite workforce, creating a hybrid operating model. "The road to normalization is characterized by a vindication of adopting business continuity and disaster recovery plans to prepare operators for future global disruption,” she says. “While we hope that does not appear too soon - or at all - operators like Xceed are now ready and fully prepared for such crises and ensuring that we still deliver essential services for our clients.”

Sources:
(2021). 2021 Global CxO Business Continuity and Evolving Work Models for Outsourcers. Knowledge Executive, Ryan Strategic Advisory and CxOutsourcers.

Did you know: Throughout history, global disasters and pandemics have forced us to be innovative and find newer and better ways of doing things. The plague that ravaged Europe in the 1300s brought about the renaissance, a rebirth of artistic, social, economic, cultural, philosophical, and political advancement.

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