After having a look at Google Trends, it is evident, that the interest in outsourcing has gradually declined over the last decade. However, this happened not because outsourcing as a service has lost its potential value or commercial appeal, but because it had evolved into more complex phenomena since its peak time. Nowadays, companies are seeking more than a simple service provider to handle the administrative tasks or to do bookkeeping, but instead are looking for strategic outsourcing partner to relocate whole business processes and functions to the lower-cost environment. This way, these companies are becoming the valued business partners and the strategic alliance, that is created in this junction is about much more than a client buying a service from a supplier.
At this very moment, a co-creation is taking place, where providers are contributing to internal business processes. They are helping companies to reconstruct and refocus business development and improvement according to the changes in the new market.
“At this level, service providers offer not only management of pure operational, day-to-day tasks in a standardized way but also expertise at a more strategic level. In other words, your partner not only delivers your routine regulatory submissions but also challenges your internal activities to increase the quality of the output.”- Susanne Andreae, Head of Regulatory Informatics and Submission Management, EMD Serono
Therefore, as the importance of a service provider steadily evolves and develops, Strategic Partnership is the only approach for systematic and functional outsourcing to succeed. For this reason, Baltic Assist team are confident, that in 2017 partnership will be used far more synonymously alongside outsourcing than ever before.
What is the Strategic Partnership?
The next important step is based on understanding how Strategic Partnership is different compared with traditional business engagements and what makes it successful for both parties. Generally speaking, Strategic Partnership is broader in commitment and is based on mutual investment in resources, systems, and processes, as well as, aligned around overall motivation and expectations.
Nevertheless, the transition to has service providers handle considerably larger parts of business operations and processes rely on the element of trust, transparent communication and performances management between both parties.
What is more, the factors of success are greatly dependent of what is described as to be an outcome of a successful relationship. From our experience, we can separate few different outcome types, that can be used to define a successful business relationship, i.e., satisfaction, expectations and realization of them, and most importantly, a predictable performance of the partner company.
So why do partnerships fail? The reasons are, naturally, related to the factors of success: lack of trust and shared goals, poor communication, up-front planning and relationship management, as well as, unsuitable performance indicators.
Therefore, when both parties have clearly defined expectations. When there is a commitment, constant coordination, mutuality and trust in the place. When information is shared, and problems are solved together, and most importantly, the quality of the work has a high value, and both parties are pleased with the results – then the strategic partnership has the right attributes to be successful.
Why Baltic Assist?
Through our experience working with various companies from Denmark, Norway, UK and many more, we have established a clear foundation of what a successful partnership is all about. Because of that, we have worked towards creating an efficient work environment business processes, that would make us a valuable business partner for every client we have. Therefore, we decided to share with you 7 reasons, why you should consider Baltic Assist to be your strategic outsourcing partner.
We assure instant & open communication with our clients
There is no surprise, that communication plays a fundamental role while creating and maintaining any form of relationship or partnership. Especially, if you are working in a virtual setting, effective communication should be a focal point, due to the fact, that the quality of results goes in line with clearly defined expectations.
Instant Communication
Baltic Assist team assures, that every inquiry, e-mail or question coming from our business partners or clients are answering instantly. By doing so, we want to create a feeling that our team is working next door to your business.
We take time to manage relationships & build trust.
As we have mentioned before, the overall agreement is that to be successful, the business relationship and the established partnership has to be based on trust. We believe, that trust, which is created in the process of building and managing relationships, consistently grows through partners reliability, consistency, predictable performance and responsiveness when dealing with certain situations and issues. On the other hand, we know, that the key to a successful partnership that goes beyond a one-time project is all about providing value to the clients on a consistent and ongoing basis.
Your Goals – Our Goals
We continuously work towards our clients’ goals, as if they are ours. We take the time to create a structure of accountability, by taking responsibility and ownership for our client’s goals. By doing so, our team takes pride in knowing they are making an impact on the success of the partner company.
Measure The Performance
We invest time and effort to measure the performance and the results that our team delivers daily.
We drive innovation to improve business processes & efficiency
We believe that to be successful, competitive and relevant in the current marketplace is all about understanding the value of efficiency and productivity. So we put extra effort to improve operational performance and business activities to reduce cost, enhance the quality of our service and sustain the competitive advantage.
We offer our partners to relocate their business operations to cost-efficient environment.
As we have stated in our previous blog post “Why should you hire a talented employee from Lithuania?”, labor cost in Lithuania is 4 times lower than the EU average. So due to low-profit taxes and office rental expenses, we can offer highly experienced professionals and the best specialist for a lower price point than everywhere else in Europe.
In Conclusion
Baltic Assist is a trusted partner for small and medium-sized enterprises, that want to relocate their business operations to a lower-cost environment. Contact us to have a free consultation on creating a virtual team for your business.
Just like virtually every sector under the tech umbrella, the possibility of having a virtual assistant at your beck and call has been made more realistic by evolving technology. Heck, virtual assistants don’t necessarily even need to be human anymore. The evolution of different software has made it possible for apps and platforms to help us handle our daily routines nearly as well as a human could, and at a fraction of the cost.
The integration of Smart Virtual Personal Assistant (SVPA) platforms into apps is in high demand. Tech giants Google, Apple, and Yahoo shows a clear sign of the need for an affordable sidekick in a time when productivity is harder to maintain than ever. Every professional could use that virtual assistant to save them time and money while freeing up more personal time, and this VA software and apps are the best options for doing just that.
Communication Software
Without platforms to facilitate remote communication, virtual assistance wouldn’t be possible. Fortunately for us, the increasingly cozy global marketplace has been retrofitted with tools that allow assistants, employers, and coworkers to remain in near-constant contact.
RingCentral is the all-in-one cloud phone service of most professionals’ dreams. At any level of the business world, from Fortune 500 to mom and pop shops, a missed call could mean compromising a potential partnership. RingCentral allows stress to be taken out of the equation. It gives professionals an array of capabilities regardless of whether they are in a Holiday Inn in Kansas or their office in New York City.
Since it’s cloud-based, there’s no need to shell out big bucks for the service. Nevertheless, the lack of physical setup doesn’t compromise RingCentral’s quality, either. The platform is offered for both Android and iOS operating systems. It allows users to set up and attend conference calls as well as send and receive SMS messages, faxes, high-definition phone calls, and other notifications. And, as is the case with much cloud-based software, you won’t be tied to outdated technology, which means you’ve got an already stellar yet evolving communication software for just 25 bucks.
Slack has become one of the most trusted names in online messaging for one-on-one and team collaboration. It not only has a user-friendly interface and an array of chat options. Also, it allows for easy integration with tons of external applications. It makes Slack a sort of open-source messenger for creatives and business people alike.
- Microsoft Teams (Alternative Zoom)
Microsoft Teams is an excellent tool for video calling. Whether it is one-on-one, conference with clients, or virtual meetings with your team. Notably, in a remote work environment. If your company is widely using Microsoft apps – Teams are the tool to go. Nevertheless, this tool is highly integrated with Microsoft’s environment. If your company is, for example, OS user – Zoom would be the best choice.
Time Tracking Software
Remote employees know that trust is vital to establishing credibility with a client. Time tracking technology has become so widely available that the client doesn’t need to wonder whether their remote team member is honest with their timesheet. Meanwhile, the remote assistant can rest easy knowing their client knows exactly what services they are receiving on a specific time frame.
Hubstaff is a pretty basic tool but really useful if you need to evaluate the performance of your employee. Especially these days, when the majority of employees are working from home. The manager can track time worked in total and/or tasks or projects separately. It is beneficial to see how your employee is performing daily, weekly, or/and monthly.
Moreover, the manager can implement the hourly wage and monitor how much each project costs. It is also useful if you are working with contractors or freelancers by following their time spent and costs in one report.
This tool has a useful freemium version, but the cost of premium versions, starting from 7$ month/user, is quite reasonable.
Wrike is so much more than just a tool to track the time your remote employees are putting into their work. It’s a one-stop-shop platform that allows for remote collaboration in a way that is cleaner, simpler, and more multi-faceted than its competition.
With Wrike, you can do your business and track project production in the same place. No extra analytics or processing platforms necessary. Its 3-paneled view allows the work and data to be seen without changing screens. Besides, Wrike’s built-in communication features allow its users to bring attention to specific issues or functions on the screen.
There’s a great reason why Wrike receives rave reviews from creatives, professionals, and virtually anybody who objectively tests out the platform. It’s robust yet simple, merging analytics, time tracking, communication, and the ability to complete a given project collaboratively and remotely.
Business Administration Software
When it comes to the glut of software that is in the marketplace and aimed squarely at the massive array of professional spheres, ‘business administration’ could mean virtually anything. So, we figured that the best option was software that applied to almost every professional: document creation, sharing, and signing.
Not only does the PandaDoc brand name bring to mind one of the most adorable, mood-lifting mammals ever to walk the earth, but it’s also one heck of useful service. No matter what you do for a living, there’s going to be a time when you need to either create, share, or sign a document. Whether you are on the hiring side or the one being hired.
With PandaDoc, remotely creating, sending, receiving, sharing, and signing on the dotted line has never been more simple. From PDFs to Docs and other digital formats, PandaDoc facilitates the transmission of original or second-hand documents remotely with legally-binding status inherent to the platform.
Don’t let yourself get burned by a business partner because you didn’t take the time to shoot them over a document or sign an agreement yourself. With PandaDoc, sending and receiving a John Hancock is a breeze.
File Sharing and Storage Softwares
Sometimes, the most widely recognized names in the game are so widely known because they’ve earned their sterling reputation. In the case of remote file storage, no name gets more tread than Dropbox, and yes, it’s for a good reason. But when Dropbox aimed its sights on creating a platform primarily for the business world, they messed around and made a good thing even better.
Regular old Dropbox has been adopted by countless individuals who don’t have the storage on their hard drive. Also, those who have lack of patience to continuously un-plug and re-plug an external physical device. And why not? Their reputation for security is well-earned, and it’s just so darn easy to use!
Dropbox Business has all of Dropbox’s best features. Starting from simplicity, security and a range of file storage capacities to ease of access. It puts a professional twist on the winning formula. Its intended use by businesses means that the storage options are more significant than ever. Meanwhile, security measures stepped up a notch to reflect the sensitive information often shared between clients.
You may wonder why your deleted files of virtually any format can be recovered. Even months after you threw them in the virtual trashcan. It’s Dropbox’s trademark file recovery that makes this platform second to none. The option to set custom permissions and passwords allows you to treat individual files with their level of security measures. Not to mention, the easily integrated Dropbox Business doesn’t require you to break the bank. It’s available for as little as $8.
During these times of quarantine and work from home, a safe and reliable file sharing app is a must. If your company has a Microsoft Business package, why not to use One Drive (included in the package). It has seamless integration with other MS products allows revealing the full potential of an app.
With the business account, you can get 1TB of data storage, which is more than enough sharing and storing files.
To Sum Up
With these virtual assistant apps and software, you will have your professional bases covered. Those tools are especially crucial during these times when employees have to work from home. Without them, it is hardly believable that any of remote employees could work efficiently. Besides that, if you employ or contract remote assistants, or building a remote work culture, each of these tools can still be made useful regardless of what job you do.