As you transition in-house responsibilities offshore, working with a business process outsourcing partner can initially be slightly challenging. One of the important tools that can strengthen your relationship and help you achieve positive outcomes is milestones. A milestone is a specific goal set for a specific day. They tell your outsourcing partner exactly what is expected and when. If developed and implemented effectively, milestones can make business process outsourcing efficient and easy.

Importance of Milestones

When it comes to outsourcing, milestones are important because they help to keep you and your partner in alignment. Remember that when you outsource work, it is not always possible to maintain constant communication with your partner. If you outsource work to an offshore partner in the Philippines, for example, you must account for the time zone differences.

Milestones serve as reminders and keep your outsourcing partner on track in lieu of daily face-to-face interaction. As an added bonus, milestones are especially efficient if you are planning a large scale project over a long period of time. Outsourcing a responsibility that will have a long-term impact on your organization is easier to do if you have strong key milestones in place.

SMART Milestones

Developing milestones is not as easy as picking out a few dates and setting goals. The milestone you use with your outsourcing partner need to be SMART:

• Specific – The more specific your milestone is, the easier it will be for your outsourcing partner to achieve it.
• Measurable – Use a combination of deadlines AND quality assurance to measure the success of the milestone.
• Attainable – A milestone should be a goal that your outsourcing partner can reasonably accomplish.
• Realistic – Milestones also need to be realistic in terms of the time given to complete them and the task to be completed.
• Timely – Timing is everything, and milestones need to be planned accordingly to meet your business needs and your outsourcing partner’s abilities.

Measuring Success

The success of your outsourcing projects will be heavily dependent on the types of milestones that you develop. Milestones will make your relationships with business process outsourcing partners stronger. Whether you are utilizing a call center in the Philippines or a local company, outsourcing is best when it is used in conjunction with milestones.

If interested, check out a few interesting resources we’ve found regarding outsourcing and the Philippines.