The Ultimate Guide To Optimizing Back Office Management
In every business, back office management plays a core value. The back office is the submerged part of the iceberg that supports the front-office or customer-facing part of a company. Without an adequate back office management, the foundations of your organization can crumble.
For example in a contact center, the back-office will make it possible to process customer requests, manage stocks and administrative tasks and also, offer them solutions for real-time monitoring of the processing of their request.
But how does a back-office management work? Read on to learn the role of a back office in businesses, and why optimizing it can be vital in internal processes.
What is a back office?
A back-office refers to the part of a company where all the processes responsible for the smooth running of daily activities take place. Unlike the "front office", which includes all activities related to direct contact with customers, the "back office" is responsible for the provision of infrastructure, administration, or production. This is why a well-structured back office is the backbone of an effective customer service. If the technical infrastructure in the background does not work perfectly, communication with customers at the front office level cannot be effective.
The back office includes the personnel department, accounting, IT support, and the switchboard. The back office acts in the “background” and is responsible for maintaining the main activity. It designates the employees of the administration of the secretariat who take charge of the organizational progress of the internal commercial processes.
What functions are contained in the back office management?
Back-office jobs are those found everywhere in any company and which are not linked to the core business. You can work in the back office for a car dealership or for a company that develops computer software.
These are the professions that make the life of the company possible. Without their support, the front office could not function. Here are some examples:
- Accounting: drafting of invoices, control of payments, sending of reminder letters in the event of late payment.
- Personnel department: selection of candidates, drafting of employment contracts, drafting of employment certificates.
- Legal department: formulation of general conditions of sale and data protection declarations, internal advice, representation of the company in the event of a dispute.
- Project management: project assistance, drafting of protocols, documentation of risks, reporting, and organization of kick-off meetings.
- Sales: sales support for master data management, creation of offers, or follow-up after closing sales.
- Product development: documentation, management, creation of a traceability matrix.
- Process management: maintenance, documentation, and automation.
This list of tasks is highly dependent on the different areas of your business. For example, the back office of a real estate agent is responsible for establishing and documenting contracts, initiating payments, reminders, and management control as well as all accounting activities.
What is optimization of back office management?
Back office optimization refers to the activities involved in streamlining, automating, managing, and measuring the work, and is often done by using call center concepts such as workforce management and task queuing. Back office optimization aims at increasing the efficiency of a company through the perfection of its processes and making better use of its resources.
In this way, by using call concepts, back-office optimization creates strategies to streamline workflows optimize communication, anticipate changes, and eliminate redundancies.
Importance of optimizing back office management
Efficient management of back-office operations allows the company to focus on its core competencies and servicing its customers. Below are some reasons;
lncreases efficiency
Back office operations allow the delivery of products and services with agility and quality because by correcting faults and standardizing processes, more can be generated, in less time and with higher quality.
Time management
Activities that do not add value can be eliminated without any negative consequences. This allows you to optimize time and create more agile workflows.
Improved Customer Satisfaction
Back-office operations are a significant source of customer satisfaction due to their multiple touchpoints across the business.
Increased productivity
In the first place, when administrative management is used correctly, it allows all processes to be applied in a simpler and easier way. This optimizes the operation of all the activities of the company. Generating an increase in productivity, since all the processes that negatively affect productivity can be modified and adapted
Reduction in cost
When processes are optimized, waste can be easily identified. Thus, it is possible to find bottlenecks that compromise productivity, failures, misuse of resources, etc., which helps to solve these problems and reduce costs.
Easy Compliance
When you have standardized and monitored processes, it is easier to maintain compliance. Furthermore, in the case of an audit, the transparency of the processes optimizes the procedure and contributes to the expected results.
How to deal with back-office operations in your business?
The optimization of back-office operations must be something continuous and we must be attentive to the new possibilities for improvement that arise along the way, because only then will it be possible to maintain the competitiveness of the business.
At the same time, it is important for employees to understand these optimizations are intended to make the company more productive and make their jobs easier.
In short, back-office management clearly improves the efficiency of an organization and allows it to offer more value to customers by optimizing the resources used to the maximum.
In this sense, technological platforms help transform your company's processes, as well as comprehensive management of these operations, can optimize and even revolutionize your business. Join us in our training courses on back office management.
