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Your phone buzzes with another notification. Three teammates need expense report approvals, your inbox is overflowing, and those vendor contracts still haven’t been processed. Meanwhile, that strategic planning session you’ve been trying to schedule for weeks keeps getting pushed back by the daily flood of administrative tasks. Shouldn’t you be outsourcing administrative services?
Sarah*, VP of Operations at a fast-growing startup, recently found herself in the same situation. (Sarah is a fictional composite based on Enshored customers.) Last month, she discovered her sales team had blown a deal because of missing paperwork—one that had been a slam-dunk up until then.
Her experience mirrors that of countless others—perhaps even yours—who are realizing that administrative work is silently reducing their company’s growth potential. She serves as a great example of why more businesses are turning to administrative outsourcing as a solution.
When BPO providers talk about outsourcing admin services, they’re referring to more than basic data entry or calendar management. Today’s outsourced admin services cover a wide range of business functions that keep your business running.
Document Management and Organisation
Outsourced teams can create and maintain your documentation systems, from contract tracking to policy updates. This includes version control, digital filing structures, and ensuring that the right people have access to the right documents at the right time.
Data Entry and Reporting
Data entry involves more than just typing numbers into spreadsheets. It also involves database creation and maintenance, custom reporting, data cleaning and validation, and turning raw data into actionable insights. Outsourced teams can handle everything from sales data entry to expense report processing.
Travel Arrangements and Expense Processing
Outsourcing here covers end-to-end travel management, from booking flights and hotels to reconciling expenses after the trip. Teams can enforce travel policies, find cost-effective options, manage itinerary changes, and process reimbursements while ensuring company compliance.
Calendar and Email Management
Beyond basic scheduling, outsourcing calendar and email includes prioritizing communications, managing complex meetings across time zones, RSVPs, and ensuring executives and teams are focused on high-priority activities. It also includes email triage, response drafting, and maintaining an organized inbox system.
Meeting Coordination and Follow-up
This can include scheduling, preparing agendas, gathering pre-meeting materials, taking detailed notes, tracking action items, and making sure commitments are followed up on. Teams can also manage virtual meeting technology and troubleshoot technical issues.
File Organization and Digital Records Management
This is about creating and maintaining logical filing systems, digital and physical, document retention, access permissions, and naming conventions. It includes regular audits to ensure systems are efficient and compliant.
Virtual Executive Assistant Services
BPO teams can also provide support to leadership teams, including inbox management, travel arrangements, personal scheduling, presentation preparation, research tasks, and handling confidential information with discretion.
When Sarah’s tech startup tripled in size within six months, she assumed their administrative growing pains were normal. Their CTO was spending hours processing team expense reports. Their sales leader personally handled all the contract paperwork. And four different people maintained separate customer databases with conflicting information.
It wasn’t until they lost a major deal because of misplaced contract documents that Sarah realized how much their DIY approach to admin work was really costing them.
“We were so focused on keeping administrative services in-house because we thought it gave us more control,” Sarah said. “But we were actually losing control—and hemorrhaging time and money in the process.”
Unfortunately, her story isn’t unique. While many companies hesitate to outsource admin support services, the hidden costs of keeping administrative work internal often outweigh the perceived benefits.
Here’s what’s really at stake.
Lost Executive Time
When directors and VPs spend 15-20 hours a week on administrative tasks, they’re not spending time on strategy, growth, or innovation. At typical executive salaries, this amounts to $50,000+ per year in wasted time per leader.
Missed Opportunities to Improve
Fifty-four percent of businesses report maintaining consistent quality levels—while even more actually improve on quality—after outsourcing administrative services. The business case is clear, especially if you can reduce errors and improve efficiency.
Delayed Decision-Making
Without dedicated admin support, critical decisions are delayed while data compilation, report generation, or document processing is completed. These delays have real costs, from missed market opportunities to stalled projects.
Error Rates and Rework
When teams are stretched thin, mistakes happen. Whether it’s incorrect data entry or mishandled paperwork, the cost of fixing errors often exceeds the cost of preventing them through proper administrative support.
Hidden Tech Costs
Companies underestimate the tech costs of in-house admin work. Beyond basic software subscriptions, there are implementation, training, updates, and maintenance to consider. Outsourced admin services usually include access to enterprise-grade tools and systems without the overhead.
Growth Bottlenecks
The biggest hidden cost is probably stunted growth. When your team is bogged down by administrative tasks, they can’t focus on scaling the business. Seventy-five percent of employers say they struggle to find suitable candidates for administrative roles, so many companies are limited by their ability to handle increasing administrative workloads.
Before diving into outsourcing your own administrative services, it’s crucial to understand where your biggest pain points and opportunities lie.
Rate each statement below from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) to assess your company’s readiness.
Administrative Load
Growth Impact
Resource Strain
Scoring Guide
Assign points based on your answers—1 point for every “1,” all the way up to 5 points for every “5.” Total them up and refer to the scoring categories below.
48-60 points: High Priority
Your company is experiencing significant administrative strain. Outsourcing administrative services could provide immediate relief and support your growth trajectory.
36-47 points: Good Candidate
You’re at an ideal point to explore outsourced admin services before current challenges become major obstacles.
24-35 points: Early Stage
Consider outsourcing specific administrative functions that cause the most strain while maintaining others in-house.
Below 24 points: Not Yet
Focus on optimizing internal processes before considering administrative outsourcing.
What Else is Your Score Telling You?
The scores above can also help you identify where admin outsourcing services could have the greatest impact on your business.
For example, if you scored high on Growth Impact but lower on Resource Strain, you might start with outsourcing specific high-volume tasks while keeping strategic administrative functions in-house.
Conversely, high scores in Resource Strain might suggest a need for comprehensive administrative outsourcing services to relieve pressure on your internal team.
When you start with outsourced administrative services, you need to plan and approach strategically. The most successful transitions we’ve seen have one thing in common: companies that take the time to prepare upfront see faster and better results.
The first few weeks are key. Spend two to three weeks mapping out your current state—not just documenting tasks but actually digging into how work flows through your organization.
One Enshored customer took this phase seriously and went beyond just task lists to document how administrative work impacted their product launches. They found that scattered administrative processes were adding two weeks to each release cycle.
Next comes partner selection, a two to four-week process. Don’t rush this stage. Look for providers who have experience with companies like yours. When an e-commerce customer of ours was evaluating partners, they prioritized providers who understood the unique challenges of rapid growth environments. Your mileage may vary, but the right partner should feel less like a vendor and more like an extension of your team.
The implementation phase is usually four to six weeks, but this investment of time pays off. Start small and specific; you might start with one department or process. For example, an Enshored customer outsourced just their contract administration process. Within the first two weeks, they transferred documentation and set up secure communication channels. By weeks three and four, they were running their new outsourced system alongside their old process, gathering feedback and making adjustments. In the final two weeks, they expanded to other departments, armed with insights from their initial rollout.
Finally, don’t rush. One medical tech company tried to outsource all their administrative functions at once and ended up with chaos and bottlenecks. Instead, start with basic data entry and expand your outsourced administrative services as you see success.
Most of all, don’t let pricing be your decision-maker. Focus on finding a partner who understands your industry and can grow with you. The most successful transitions we’ve seen prioritize clear communication channels and robust security over cost.
As your company grows, your outsourced administrative services should too.
Think integration, not just support—modern administrative outsourcing isn’t about handing off tasks but about creating workflows between your in-house and outsourced teams.
Smart companies are using administrative outsourcing partners like Enshored as strategic partners in building scale.
Above all, they remember that the decision to start outsourcing administrative services is about building a foundation for tomorrow’s growth. Whether you’re drowning in paperwork or planning your next expansion, the right administrative outsourcing partner can turn administrative chaos into a competitive advantage.
Ready to explore how outsourced admin services could transform your operations? Start with the assessment tool above, then take the first step toward administrative excellence by contacting us today.
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