What can an outsourced operations team do?
Operations teams are typically highly specialized and differ according to the needs of the organization. They streamline processes, identify issues and opportunities for improvement and respond to very particular business needs. They’re something like a cross between a butler, a personal trainer and a quality inspector – or even better, a team comprising all three.
Ops teams do everything from identifying log jams in the supply chain, evaluating developments in technology and isolating poorly performing products, to ensuring legal compliance and certification, processing data and analyzing risk. They can get involved in forecasting, developing metrics and KPIs, and ticking the boxes needed for reporting and accountability. As they say, if you want the numbers, ask the operations team.
The operations team can also oversee operational sections of the business, for example if you have outsourced a number of other teams, you may decide to let your operations team take care of managing them. As mentioned, anything that’s not core business, and draws focus from the key strengths of your company, can be outsourced to a tailored operations team.
Why outsource operations to the Philippines?
For most companies, one of the biggest influencers on the decision to outsource to the Philippines is probably price. Educated professionals with the required flexibility, attention to detail and baseline usefulness don’t come cheap. At least not in the US (where the average salary of an Operations Manager is US $96,5804), Canada (C$73,1255) or Australia (AU$82,9206). In the Philippines you can hire a whole operations team with a wealth of expertise for the same outlay.
And that wealth of expertise is the other big influencer. Operations may not be your company’s core business, but it just so happens to be ours. The design of effective and efficient outsourced operations solutions for our clients is our mission and our passion. We’ve helped match and manage more than 5,000 Filipino professionals for over 380 client companies operating with various workflows, supply chains, team structures and flexible-delivery arrangements for over 13 years. We’ve even won awards for it. As experts in outsourcing operations management, we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. We know the pitfalls and how to avoid them, and we’re happy to share our expertise with you.
Which operations teams can be outsourced?
Your outsourced operations team is most useful when it’s molded to your company’s needs. Here are some examples of the specialists you might include on your team:
Operations specialists
These specialists manage workflow and optimize daily activities. They match up customer needs with business processes and streamline processes. The two watch words for operations professionals are efficiency and effectiveness – and that’s what you can expect this team to deliver. These specialists can be known as:
- Senior Operations Manager
- Operations Manager
- Assistant Operations Manager.
Administration Specialists
Job No 1 for these professionals is often to support the management team. They may handle communication, clerical support, event coordination, document management and many other duties. They go by titles like:
- Administration Manager
- Administration Officer
- Administrative Assistants.
Quality Assurance Specialists
Keeping the standards of your business high, this team implements quality control, including identifying and resolving quality issues, conducting product testing and product audits, implementing standards, documenting procedures, evaluation and monitoring. They can be known as:
Workflow Planning Specialists
Often the bridge between onshore and offshore employees, the workflow planning specialist makes sure everyone is on the same page and that work has been received, assigned, tracked, completed and evaluated.
- Workflow Planning Specialist
- Workflow Planning Assistants.
In addition, organizations commonly structure their operations team to include teams or representatives from any of the following
How does it work? A typical operations team structure
The beauty of an operations team is that it’s built to be responsive. In fact, once your outsourced operations team is up and running it can advise you on an optimal team structure tailored to your business. For this reason, many businesses outsourcing their operations team to the Philippines begin with a small team of operations specialists and task them to look for efficiencies that might be gained by expansion.
Here’s an example of how your team could be structured:
