*NEW RESEARCH* Business Process Services Predictions 2019

TechMarketViews’s theme for 2019 is “The Year of the Relationship” which fits neatly with what we can expect to see in UK Business Process Services (BPS) next year. Stakeholder relationships right across the BPS value chain are changing. Traditional relationships between suppliers, partners, customers and employees are all being disrupted at record pace ensuring that 2019 is guaranteed to be an interesting year for anyone involved with UK BPS.

In 2019, we can expect to see relationships between suppliers and their clients continuing to develop with new commercial and operating models becoming increasingly common. Relationships are becoming less about outsourcing and more about creating genuinely mutually beneficial partnerships.

The repositioning and rebranding of BPS service providers

As the blurring of the boundaries between BPS and enterprise software and application services continues the language, labels and brand positioning are changing. Outsourcing is very much out, almost a dirty word. Firms will continue to swap their BPS / BPO labels for a variety of alternatives looking to better communicate their propositions. 

It’s all about the ecosystem

Ecosystems are becoming key market differentiators where having the right partners in place is vital to winning and delivering next generation contracts.

‘Virtual BPS’ takes a big step forward

As the market matures Intelligent Automation solutions are the direction of travel and promise even greater market disruption. One such approach is offered through the development of ‘Virtual BPS’, combining strategic consulting expertise and cloud-based Intelligent Automation-as-a-service solutions. 

Employee experience on a par with customer experience

The most advanced BPS players are already seeing significant shifts in company culture, recruitment and training to accommodate the workforce of the future. Improving the employee experience and developing workforce skillsets to better complement an era of automation may ultimately elevate staff from ‘doers of work’ to ‘trainers and managers of technology’.

Consolidation continues

2018 was a very active year for M&A activity in the BPS market and this is a trend that we expect to continue throughout next year. Squeezed front office specialists are looking to increase economies of scale and buy into higher value activities. Whilst deep industry domain expertise is becoming a real differentiator and we expect to see more acquisitions here as market demand moves towards specialisation. 

An RPA reality check

Whilst we fully expect growth to continue, 2019 might be the year where reality returns to the valuations of the big RPA players. Whilst growth has been impressive there are still many organisations struggling to scale their implementations and where the benefits are taking longer than expected to be realised. This expectations gap coupled with an increasing emphasis on other cognitive technologies as the market matures towards more intelligent automation, are starting to shift the focus beyond RPA.

Brexit clarity releases investment

It’s almost impossible to publish 2019 predictions without reference to Brexit. Sooner or later we will (finally!) have greater clarity on the withdrawal, transition and future trading arrangements with the EU. Each of these milestones will provide public and private sector decision makers with greater clarity and confidence needed to help release investment.

Business Process Services Predictions 2019 provides a deeper dive into these topics and the report is now available for download. If you’re not a current subscriber, please contact Deb Seth for details about how to take one out.

Posted by Marc Hardwick at '17:27' - Tagged: predictions   newresearch