A 90-day plan to improve efficiency through outsourcing

Key takeaways

A 90-day plan to improve efficiency through outsourcing has four stages: measure and score in weeks 1 and 2, fix and document in weeks 3 and 4, pilot one process from week 5, and review at day 90. It needs about 2 to 4 hours a week of owner time. The aim is one process running faster and more accurately, with proof, before anything else is handed over.

• Weeks 1 to 2: baseline and score your processes.
• Weeks 3 to 4: fix and document the top process.
• Weeks 5 to 12: pilot with a weekly scorecard.
• Day 90: review against the baseline and decide.

Weeks 1 and 2: measure and score

Start by logging lead time, touch time, corrections and senior hours for your ten most time-consuming routine tasks. Score each on the efficiency gain scorecard: flow, focus, accuracy, capacity and visibility. Pick the highest-scoring process that is not your core service.

• Log ten routine tasks for two weeks.
• Record lead time, touch time and corrections.
• Score each on the five efficiency gains.
• Pick one process to start with.

• How outsourcing can improve business efficiency
• The efficiency gain scorecard: where outsourcing helps
• Run a time audit to find what to outsource

Weeks 3 and 4: fix and document

Remove steps, approvals and duplicate entry that add nothing. Write the process, the top ten exceptions and the acceptance criteria. Set approval limits, name the internal process owner and plan system access so the team can start on day one.

• Simplify the process.
• Write the SOP and key work instructions.
• Agree acceptance criteria and approval limits.
• Name the process owner and plan access.

• Should you fix a process before you outsource it?
• Work instructions vs SOPs: which one does your team need?
• System access for outsourced teams: fast but safe

Weeks 5 to 12: pilot

Run the process with a managed team for eight weeks. Agree turnaround targets and a one-page weekly report. Answer questions daily at first and turn each into a written rule. Move from checking every item to sampling by week 8. Hold a short weekly review and log your own time spent.

• Agree targets and a weekly report.
• Turn every question into a written rule.
• Move to sampling by week 8.
• Log your own review time weekly.

• Run an outsourcing pilot before you commit
• Turnaround time: what to agree with an outsourced team
• Outsourcing performance report: what a good one shows

Day 90: review and decide

Compare the baseline with the last two weeks: lead time, on-target share, right-first-time rate, backlog age and senior hours. Note what went well and what needs fixing. Decide to continue, adjust or stop, and whether to add a second process.

• Post-implementation review: did outsourcing work?
• Outsourcing efficiency KPIs: prove the work got faster

What does the plan look like in numbers?

In an illustrative plan, the owner spends about 4 hours a week in weeks 1 to 4, 3 hours a week in the first month of the pilot and about 1 hour a week by the end. The process chosen, customer email, moves from a one-day first reply to about three hours, and the owner's time on it falls from eight hours a week to one. Example figures only.

• How to measure the time outsourcing saves you
• How much of your time does an outsourced team need?

What does it cost?

As indicative UK market ranges, managed offshore teams cost £9–£18 per hour and onshore providers £20–£35. Neither is a GBL price. The other cost is your time, about 2 to 4 hours a week through the plan. Weigh both against the senior hours returned and the effect of faster turnaround on customers.

• BPO cost per hour in the UK
• Outsource for efficiency or cost? Why the motive matters

When should you not follow this plan?

Do not follow it if no routine process scores above 5 on the scorecard, if the business is about to change its systems, or if you cannot spare 2 hours a week. In the first case, the process is already lean. In the others, wait until the change settles or the time is available.

• When not to outsource
• Is it too early for your business to outsource?

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: businesses that try to hand over five processes at once spend months answering questions. Those that start with one, prove it in 90 days and then add the next, reach a larger gain sooner.

Across our client work, owners have got 31 hours a week back once routine work was documented and run by a managed team.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

90-day plan checklist

Tick these off as you go.

• Baseline recorded for ten tasks.
• One process chosen and scored.
• Process simplified and written down.
• Owner, limits and access in place.
• Eight-week pilot with weekly reports.
• Day-90 review booked and held.

• Outsourcing efficiency checklist: 20 checks
• Outsourcing mistakes that make a business less efficient

Next step

Send us your ten most time-consuming routine tasks. We will help you score them, choose the first process and set out the 90 days with you.