Professionals seek govt intervention on regulating outsourcing firms

Lack of established guidelines by regulatory agencies and inability of service providers to have meaningful inputs in composition of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) have been identified as the bane of outsourcing in the country.

Indeed, for outsourcing firms to thrive effectively within its workspace, there is need for government to streamline its guidelines for new entrants.

These were the assertions of professionals at the workshop organised by the Association of Outsourcing Practitioners of Nigeria (AOPN) yesterday, in Lagos.

Speaking at the event, Chief Executive Officer, Lington & Bernie Consulting Limited, Gholahan Ayodele, said regulatory agencies needs to weed out touts within the profession thereby setting standards for people coming into the profession and eliminate those who are not qualified to manage outsourcing services.

He said there are a lot of touts who would take any amount to be in business adding that some of the services they engage in cannot work even as they handicap the services of professionals, which in turn affects both the employers and the individuals engaging them.

Besides, he said outsourcing is a business model and practice used by companies to contract business processes that are non-core to another party for improved efficiency, greater productivity and the opportunity to focus on the core products and functions of the business.

Ayodele who presented a paper titled, ‘Making outsourcing marriage work’, said for any marriage to work, both parties have to make compromises. Outsourcing is first about getting a good vendor match who will share an organisation’s vision and partnership at a reasonable cost.

Marriage he said is similarly about life partnerships, having someone with similar aspirations and objectives that see the value of partnership being greater than personal benefits.

“Outsourcing is a win-win situation for clients and vendors alike. The purpose of the relationship is delivering services for commercial and financial benefits for both partners.

In achieving a better outsourcing marriage, Ayodele said, there must be mutual understanding, lasting commitment, trust, respect, empathy, both parties must take equal responsibilities for the success of contract and they must also ensure that the operating model is fit for purpose.

In his remarks, President, AOPN, Dr. Austin Nweze, noted that outsourcing is capable of creating the jobs that government needs.
According to him, outsourcing is key.

“The jobs that government is looking to create, outsourcing is capable of doing what we need. India and Mauritius have created jobs through outsourcing. It is more beneficial to outsource than to retain”, he added.

He disclosed that clients and providers must have clearly defined expectations, which must be adhered to achieve optimal productivity.
He said the association is looking at taking advantage of opportunities within economic crisis.

“We are planning strategically to tackle the crisis, putting on our thinking caps to get out of recession. At the end of the day, we improve business relationships built with strategies on how to build lasting relationships with our partners, Nweze added.