It needs to improve and enhance it offering in order to stay competitive. If company "A" fails to do so it can be sure that company "B" will..thus outflanking and outperforming the business. Business is after all survival of the fittest.
The outsourcing industry is no different. Starting from very humble beginnings, operating mainly call centers, it quickly evolved into taking over administrative tasks. What were simple processes at first became more and more complex over the years. At one point entire business processes were outsourced..and the BPO industry was formally recognized.
The question and issue faced by many organizations is what is next?
The clients of BPO companies are always looking for another avenue to reduce costs further. The BPO companies, attempting to safeguard and increase existing revenue are trying to capture a bigger slice of the pie.
One avenue pursued by companies and their BPO partners is OaaS. (Operations as a Service).
Oaas in its simplest form is the outsourcing of entire departments. It is not limited to simple process but it is considered all encompassing. Often times significant business decisions are taken by the outsourcer, in accordance with the Master Service Agreement.
An example would be to have the entire procurement and related accounting and payment outsourced to a BPO provider. The BPO provider might have been involved in the process before. But rather than being limited to one or two processes which are parts of the puzzle it now is made responsible for all aspects of procurement.
Certain aspects of the business might have been operated in the form of SaaS. By taking over the entire operations area related to the SaaS solution the company effectively combines a SaaS solution with the operation of the solution into what is termed an OaaS solution.
A good way to think of it is to outsource a business division as opposed to outsourcing a department.
There is an obvious challenge to outsource entire business divisions. Any company deciding to go that route is effectively reorganizing the company..similar to a corporate reorganization.
The concept can be as limited or as all encompassing as a company wishes. As such the associated challenges can be managed in accordance with the scope of the project.
At the end of the day it really comes down to what the company believes should be its core competency.
If management beliefs that anything outside of its core line of business is open for an OaaS solution...then the process can be rather disruptive and transformative.
It might not be for every company but for those companies trying to reduce expenses even further and improving efficiency while doing so OaaS might be the only option to do so in a substantial manner.