• By quade
• 6 August 2024

Wal-Mart to Increase Overseas BPO IT Support

As one of the largest retailers in the world, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has immense IT requirements that have grown too large for its IT team to handle. To help manage their system, they have tapped into different BPO IT support to take the strain off them.

The company has announced plans to further increase its Overseas BPO IT services this year. They have begun talks with major BPO hubs such as India to accomplish this goal and plan to release new contracts for their BPO support.  

Wal-Mart Overseas BPO IT Expansion Plan

Wal-Mart’s global chief information officer (CIO), Karenann Terell revealed their expansion plans in the recent Nasscom summit. They have started talks with top Indian BPO firms such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Wipro Ltd, and Infosys Ltd. They were speaking at a leadership summit where they currently have ties with existing overseas BPO IT services from India like IBM, Accenture, and  SofTech.

They said that this is in response to their rival Target Corp. and their expansion plans. Target has been gaining an edge in technology solutions, providing digital services and allowing them to gain a lead with younger customers.

Wal-Mart hopes to increase its IT services by working with these BPO services. While Wal-Mart has previously acquired social media technology, they hope that working with this IT support can help them save operation costs. Recruiting BPOs has been getting popular for companies as it can provide them with immediate expertise and save time and resources. 

This is because BPOs specialize in different tasks so businesses can hire them as they need without having to worry about training and recruitment. 

Fighting in the Tech Space

Wal-Mart’s chief technology officer for e-commerce Jeremy King gave an interview in September last year where he explained the current situation. According to him, the digital space has become the next battleground for retailers as they try to gain influence in this area. 

“To give you a couple of stats—50% of the orders are done online and then picked up at the store. So customers buy online and come to the store and pick up. We launched a product called pay with cash. It was really surprising, within the first couple of months it accounted for about 2% of our online transactions. What that showed was that not all consumers are comfortable with putting their information online. That opened up a category of consumers that were blocked from shopping online previously,” 

-Jeremy King, chief technology officer for e-commerce of Wal-Mart.

“If you listen to our boss, Mike Duke, talk about his strategic priorities, e-commerce is always in the top three. And this was not the case three or five years ago. And when Wal-Mart puts their mind into something, it happens. You’ve seen that in the last 25 years, in the last 50 years,”

-Jeremy King, chief technology officer for e-commerce of Wal-Mart.

However, with e-commerce becoming more important, businesses need to manage their costs while still providing excellent service. This requires striking a balance and the best way companies can do that is by recruiting overseas BPO IT support as they can handle most of the work without the extra overhead cost of investing in this department themselves. 

“What all companies that look into outsourcing have in common is that they look for more efficiency not just with costs but also with the whole organizational efficiency which is behind that, and the companies that you mentioned (General Electric and Wal-Mart) are not any different,” said Frank Ridder of researcher Gartner Inc. “You have to identify how much of your own IT is specifically outsourcable in a very standardized way and what requires more dedication and utilization. For example, General Motors realized they needed much more insurance.”

-Jeremy King, chief technology officer for e-commerce of Wal-Mart.

Walmart understands this necessity and is now investing in overseas BPO IT support in India to manage these issues. With an IT sector worth an estimated $70 billion, India has become the go-to place for many of the top companies. Other places like the Philippines and South Korea are not far behind India in overseas BPO IT services. Like India, they boast a highly literate and English-speaking population, education, tech-savviness, and low labor costs.

How to Benefit from Overseas BPO IT Services?

The expansion of Wal-Mart into places like India should be seen as great news for overseas BPO IT services. These show that the BPO industry is still a force to be reckoned with and can get the attention of big businesses like that. 

Working with a major corporation like this can also help BPOs gain experience in handling large-volume tasks like this. That requires effective resource management, using advanced technology, and more. By taking on these tasks, overseas BPO IT services can handle weight and manage smaller clients much easier.

Lastly, it allows innovation among overseas BPO IT services. Getting a big client like this requires considerable knowledge and creativity, even with BPO services. That requires them to find new solutions to problems.