Competition in the business processing outsourcing in the region is likely to take shape this year as firms gear up for huge opportunities that have come with advanced technology. Today, the country is seen as one of the fastest growing BPO centres in the world. According to Datamark, Inc., one of the biggest process outsourcing companies in the U.S., advancements in technology will drastically change how the BPO industry works and new outsourcing options will be reviewed. Apart from that, the company also released a roster of the hottest trends in the industry next year.

Increase in mobile apps. With the easy access to tablets and smart phones, mobile apps will continue to increase next year. Expect BPO providers to provide clients with mobile apps for monitoring and auditing outsourced processes. Features will incorporate business intelligence, dashboards, analytics and instant messaging with the provider.

The “social” contact center. Utilizing Facebook, Google+, and Twitter for customer service will increase, as well as using chat on social networks, therefore decreasing the use of phone calls and emails.

The rise of gamification. Business process engineers will apply game theory to more and more business processes as a way of driving innovation into the enterprise. Using gamification makes tedious and repetitive tasks more fun so more of it will come forth

Latin America will become more popular as a nearshore destination. With a 20 to 40 percent labor differential, an excellent BPO workforce, and a good deal of those who are bi-lingual, Latin America will see more action.

Technology proving grounds will clear up the clutter. Technologies such as robotics, embedded sensors, QR codes and language recognition will all be part of a toolkit to lower costs and increase efficiency and reliability. BPOs will pilot-program many of these products, either with their own internal processes, or with clients’ processes to meet a demand for innovation.