What is BPaaS?
BPaaS, or Business Process as a Service, is a way of using Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) through cloud computing.
Today's modern business has numerous ways to grow. There's no such thing as a "traditional business structure" anymore. With the advent of cloud technology, artificial intelligence and automation, the sky is the limit.
Into this world of opportunity comes products built on the cloud services model. SaaS (Software as a Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service) are all built on cloud technology. They can all be found in use throughout business - sometimes even in the same business - whether as a hybrid cloud service that mixes cloud tech with on-site hardware, or full cloud computing with nothing on premise.
The cloud has made operating a flexible business much easier, yet handling business processes in a productive, non-wasteful way is still a challenge for many. How does an organization combine human resources with simple and complex processes to best reach their business objectives?
Business process services (BPS) have risen out of this need, in which specific organizational processes can be handed off to companies that specialize in those particular activities. Payroll, for example, is a commonly outsourced process.
Even Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) hasn't gone untouched by technology, however. As more service providers turned to the cloud, another service was added to cloud services: the BPaaS model.
Frequently Asked Questions About BPaaS
What Can BPaaS Do For Me?
The need for a product like BPaaS is directly driven by the need for the optimization of business processes. As a method of BPM, its objective is to help organizations achieve more effective, efficient and adaptable workflows. BPaaS allows more flexibility and less cost to reach these goals.
Automation is a key component, allowing organizations to get things done quicker and with fewer mistakes than they otherwise might. A closer look at the benefits of BPaaS reveal that it:
Modern Technology
SaaS has traditionally had a more enterprise-level market, due to the amount of in-house expertise and resources needed to fully utilize it. BPaaS, on the other hand, enables smaller business a technology upgrade, providing the necessary management level needed to enjoy the full capabilities of SaaS.
Always Up to Date
With some technology, there’s always the worry of the platform becoming outdated. With a good BPaaS provider, however, this worry should be in the past. The right provider will make sure its technological capabilities are staying updated with the abilities and availabilities of the cloud sector.
Flexibility
One the biggest benefits of BPaaS is scale. Providers use a pricing model that is built on the idea of customization. This means your solution grows with you, rather than having to upgrade or downgrade your systems as your business fluctuates.
Cost Effective
Few things are as cost effective in business as pay-as-you-go pricing models. Rather than a major upfront investment, your payments grow only as your service needs grow. This makes BPaaS services very cost effective, in that businesses aren’t over paying for a solution that’s too large for them, and they don’t have to settle for a BPM that doesn’t quite cover what they need.
Process Effectiveness
BPaaS services are often provided through Robotic Process Automation, or RPA. RPA takes over the mundane, day-to-day business tasks that don't require human creativity. For example, diving through big data to create a report that is created the same way every time. This makes the process of combing through and combining data more effective and less likely to contain human errors.
Better Customer Experience
Because RPA is a part of BPaaS, human users are able to have more reliable big data at their fingertips. A user in a call center, for example, would be able to pull up the customer via their phone number. The RPA would help them see what the customer has purchased in the past, what they might be having issues with, and what processes may have gone on before the current phone call. This reduces the number of unhappy customers, helping them to feel as if the company cares about them and wants their business.
Who is Using BPaaS?
BPaaS is routinely used in specific industries and for certain business functions. Several healthcare organizations, for example, rely on this approach to process claims related to medical procedures. Accounting departments across industries avail themselves of Business Process as a Service to automate tax preparation.
IT teams leverage these capabilities to manage and monitor networks, troubleshoot infrastructure, and support user needs. HR departments automate processes for provisioning and de-provisioning employee resources. Supply chain and logistics realize better control over planning.
Specific use cases include:
Healthcare
Claims processing can be extremely time-consuming in healthcare and costly if mistakes are made. Outsourcing this series of tasks with Business Process as a Service ensures they’re done correctly and efficiently, so organizations can concentrate less on processing claims and more on getting patients the care they need.
Accounting
When BPaaS is used for accounting, organizations get the most up to date tools for automating the particulars of processing invoices, order-to-cash requests, and reconciliation jobs. Plus, they can rest easily knowing things are handled in a compliant manner that’s auditable for demonstrating regulatory compliance.
IT
This business function is one of the most frequently used by BPaaS customers, as it allows them to save money and time hiring professionals to do complex backend processes like monitoring networks, configuring cloud resources, and ensuring applications and databases have the right data required for end users.
Human Resources
The automation provided by BPaaS is important for several HR functions like onboarding employees, implementing measures for feedback and employee engagement, and using analytics to make the best decisions for this business unit. Plus, this option enables organizations to profit from modern, as opposed to legacy, systems for completing these processes.