The Nuts and Bolts of Business Platforms

Business platforms are the next generation of outsourcing offerings that combine business process outsourcing with enabling technologies and services, and the world’s largest providers are beginning to invest aggressively. To better understand the evolution of these services, HfS polled 21 service providers and evaluated 112 business platforms as part of its Business Platform Map™ market survey.  What we found were alternatives to the “mess for less” outsourcing proposition that are currently delivering business value to buyers. For example, providers of business platforms are 1) integrating the key components of service delivery:  infrastructure, middleware, application, people and process, 2) driving economies of scale through higher standardization and 3) investing in technology development and support to improve the offering.  All of which drives greater efficiency for the provider. More importantly, buyers are benefiting too through no longer needing to administer the key components of service delivery, instead relying on an expert for service assurance and accountability.

This Rapid Insight outlines the nuts and bolts of business platforms, essentially the delivery and technology models that underpin the business platforms we reviewed as part of HfS’s Business Platform Map™ market survey.  Buyers need to understand how services providers are building their business platforms. Too little client traction may indicate that the business platforms are not much more than a bespoke service that risks limited future funding.