CIOIN

Sanjay Jain

CIO & Head Global Transformation Practice, WNS Global Services

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Sanjay Jain is CIO & Head Global Transformation Practice, WNS Global Services

There’s a chance for BPOs to use cloud computing to evolve to the next set of services: Business Process-as-a-Service.

At the 2009 Oracle Open World, Larry Ellison dismissed cloud computing as the future of computing. He said that cloud computing has been and still is the model for computing. I almost agree with that. The concepts or technologies that constitute cloud computing aren’t new, but here’s what is: The way the cloud is approached, adopted, and leveraged innovatively. I’ll highlight this with an example from my vertical: Outsourcing services or BPO. 

The hassles associated with owning and maintaining IT infrastructure—even as IT scrambles to address dynamic business needs—is beginning to plague enterprises everywhere. It's that challenge that has made many organizations look to BPO service providers to deliver innovative services. Hence, it has become increasingly important for those in the outsourcing business to spur its delivery engines and move to a higher level of arbitrage and efficiency—both internally and for its customers.

"I see a golden opportunity for BPOs to adopt cloud computing to go beyond IaaS, SaaS and PaaS and evolve to the next set of services: Offering BPaaS."

From my vantage point, I see a golden opportunity for BPOs to adopt cloud computing to go beyond IaaS, SaaS and PaaS and evolve to the next set of services: Offering Business Process-as-a-Service or BPaaS. Conceptually, BPaaS is an evolution of the existing platform-based BPO services. But it transforms the way BPO service providers extend their offerings by leveraging the cloud to enhance the benefits an organization accrues while outsourcing its business processes. Applications can now effectively be made available over the network, on demand, running like any other utility service—and thereby eliminating the need to invest in IT. This reduces costs significantly. With access to applications and platforms that are being provided much faster than local, on-ground installations, BPaaS allows BPOs to offer solutions that are ‘customer-ready’ without the upfront cost-exposure of the existing ‘pay-per-use’ models.

Naturally, security concerns around the cloud need to be addressed. I believe that this risk can be effectively mitigated by simply allowing third-party assessors to conduct security reviews of a vendor. But a careful examination of a BPO service provider, and a transparent policy that should build trust with an outsourced partner, can go a long way in realizing the benefits of BPaas. The other factor that will drive this trend is the commoditization of cloud computing. It will then become a more widely-accepted platform for enterprises to outsource their business processes using a shared-service model, and revolutionizing the way organizations do business.