The quarterly business review with your outsourcing provider

Key takeaways

A quarterly business review with an outsourcing provider is a 60-minute meeting that looks at cost, quality, scope and improvement over the last three months and agrees actions for the next three. It is where savings are protected. Weekly calls handle today's issues. The quarterly review is the only place the direction of the arrangement is examined.

• 60 minutes, four times a year, with a fixed agenda.
• Cover 5 things: cost, quality, scope, improvements, next quarter.
• Bring cost per task against the baseline.
• Leave with no more than five actions, each with an owner.

What is a quarterly business review?

A quarterly business review (QBR) is a structured meeting between a client and a supplier, held every three months, to assess performance against agreed measures and plan the period ahead. It sits above day-to-day management and below contract renewal.

• How BPO can help businesses reduce operational costs
• A simple BPO governance model

Why does it matter for cost?

It matters because the forces that erode a saving all act slowly. Scope drifts by a task a month. Cost per task creeps with rework. An annual increase arrives. None of these shows up in a weekly call about open tickets. A quarterly look at trends is how they are caught while they are still small.

• Scope creep in outsourcing: how extra work erodes savings
• Indexation clauses: how outsourcing prices rise each year
• Why outsourcing sometimes fails to save money

What should be on the agenda?

Keep the agenda to five items in the same order each time, so both sides arrive prepared.

• 1. Performance: volume, quality and turnaround against target.
• 2. Cost: cost per task against baseline and last quarter.
• 3. Scope: what has been added, changed or dropped.
• 4. Improvements: proposals from the provider and decisions needed.
• 5. Next quarter: expected volumes, changes and actions.

• Cost reduction KPIs: the numbers that prove savings are real
• Continuous improvement in outsourcing: savings past year one

What numbers should you bring?

Bring six numbers on one page, with the baseline and the previous quarter beside each. In an illustrative review: volume 12,400 tasks, cost per task £2.05 against a £3.00 baseline, right first time 96%, average turnaround 1.4 days, hours billed 2,340, and in-house review time 36 hours.

The provider should supply the first four. You add the cost figures. If either side cannot produce its numbers, that is the first action.

• Volume handled.
• Cost per task.
• Right first time rate.
• Turnaround time.
• Hours or units billed.
• Your own review time.

• Cost baseline: measure today's cost before you change it
• Right first time rate: the quality number that cuts cost
• Process cycle time: how to measure and shorten it

Which questions get the most from the meeting?

The most useful questions are the ones that invite the provider to tell you something you do not know. Their team sees your process more closely than you do.

• What are the top three reasons work came back for correction?
• Which tasks take longest, and why?
• What do we ask you to do that seems unnecessary?
• What would you change if this were your business?
• What do you need from us that you are not getting?

• Exception handling: the few cases that drive most cost
• Failure demand: the customer contacts you pay for twice

What makes a QBR fail?

A QBR fails when it becomes a presentation. Forty slides of green indicators, no discussion and no decisions. It also fails when the client sends someone with no authority, so every proposal is taken away to be considered. Keep it to one page of numbers and send a decision-maker.

• The weekly operations review that keeps a lean team on track

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see where reviews have lapsed: the arrangement runs for a year on weekly operational calls, and the first strategic conversation happens at renewal, when positions have hardened. Firms that hold a short review every quarter rarely have a difficult renewal, because nothing in it is a surprise.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

QBR checklist

Prepare with this list.

• Date fixed a quarter ahead.
• One-page data pack sent three days before.
• A decision-maker attends from each side.
• Scope changes are listed.
• At least two improvement proposals are tabled.
• Five actions or fewer, each with an owner and date.
• Notes circulated within two days.

• BPO SLA examples you can adapt
• BPO scorecard and KPIs

Next step

Tell us what you outsource and how you review it today. We will send back an agenda and a one-page data pack you can use at your next review.