Assessing the Role of Information Technology (IT) & Enterprise Software in BPO

The original market assessment findings illustrated that these BPO decision makers were very positive about the role of IT in general and enterprise software in particular in supporting BPO efforts. They clearly recognized that while BPO was focused on "business process," it was not advisable to disassociate it from the underlying IT applications and systems. BPO buyers also had clear preferences on the commercial enterprise software vendors they would like to use in their BPO efforts. Commercial software vendor preferences, however, typically were based on strategic IT investment decisions that had been made prior to, and separate from, BPO decisions and investments. The overall challenge, however, is not so much appreciating the value of IT and enterprise software to BPO.