Offshore outsourcing losing its appeal?

14 July 2011

Santanders announcement last week that they are bringing their call centres back to the UK from India after a flood of customer complaints is just one example of a growing frustration with offshore outsourcing. The allure of lower cost clouds real issues around quality, confidentiality and data security, customer retention, cultural gaps etc.

Both legal process and business process outsourcing are gathering pace within law firms. Within the Magic Circle, Allen & Overy's plans to move legal work from London to Belfast was an example of a firm looking to lower their cost base but not at the expense of quality. Managing partner, Wim DeJonghe was quoted as saying "If the costs were the driver then we could've done something else, but we never wanted to compromise on quality. It's one of the reasons we went for onshoring not offshoring. We weren't going to take any risks with quality."

In a similar move, Buckinghamshire law firm, BP Collins pre-empted Santander and brought their transcription service back onshore by changing to UK service provider Voicepath. HR Manager Jacqui Symons commented "We were sending work offshore but found we were paying a high price for a service that could be delivered more efficiently and reliably from an onshore provider. The benefits of using Voicepath's service have been felt by the firm, our fee earners and ultimately our clients."

Richard Bate, General Manager of Voicepath comments "BP Collins are one of a number of firms who were initially attracted by the headline of lower costs overseas but went on to question the results that were achieved. Our clients are pleasantly surprised to find that onshore work, carried out efficiently, can be more competitive than offshore with the added bonus that the quality of service and confidentiality requirements are both guaranteed and backed up by relevant legislation."

He added "The new SRA regulations will force firms to take a more structured risk based approach to their business process arrangements.  Onshore providers of transcription, telephone answering and similar services will allow firms to meet these obligations far more easily."

For more information on the Voicepath service, visit www.voicepath.com or  call 01926 821904.