Beyond the Basics: Finance and Accounting Outsourcing
There are numerous tasks of a company that are being outsourced today, from a company’s main services offered to the market to a company’s human resources duties. However, there is one that has been around since the birth of the concept of outsourcing as it is one of the internal corporate tasks that need expert attention and this is none other than finance and accounting outsourcing. It would be permissible for the general public to assume that accounting is one of the major solutions being outsourced today.
Most people would only think about accounts receivable, accounts payable and general accounting upon hearing the words finance and accounting outsourcing but it seems that there is another degree to it that is on the rise, which is financial planning & analysis. This particular branch has been present for the past few years but it is outsourced less frequently as it has not yet penetrated the market compared to the more popular ones.
A recent study by Everest Research Institute suggests that financial planning & analysis has a significant movement in terms of finance and accounting outsourcing contracts. The market research firm reported that between the years 2005 to 2009, the sealed contract renewals included a financial planning & analysis scope. In addition to this, it was also mentioned that the key players in the contract signing are from the manufacturing and retail industries.
Global leaders in outsourcing offering this kind of service, such as Genpact (NYSE:G), Wipro (NYSE:WIT), Infosys (NASDAQ:INFY), and Accenture (NYSE:ACN), are now enhancing their Financial Planning & Analysis capabilities since they are seeing that there is still room for improvement and there is a great possibility that this specific degree of outsourcing will see a boom in the coming years. Vengroff, Williams & Associates, a global service provider for order to cash processes, predicts that finance and accounting outsourcing will gain higher value this 2011. Accenture (NYSE:ACN), which is one of the companies mentioned above, has added another set of services to offer the market, to be delivered through their facilities in Cebu, Philippines. These services are focused on non-voice solutions which consist of finance and accounting solutions, among others.
However, as great as the idea of outsourcing financial planning & analysis may sound, it seems that not all countries are capable of extending their services yet, since there is a certain level of expertise needed to perform such tasks. This particular branch of finance and accounting outsourcing requires a higher level of expertise and training, compared to that of the other offerings under the same category. Taking into account the Philippines, the country may be regarded as one of the top destinations for outsourcing, especially for contact center solutions, but still financial planning & analysis outsourcing is still at its infancy in the country.
In the coming months and years, we may expect that the popularity for this degree of finance and accounting outsourcing service will increase and that the countries that promote outsourcing will be fully capable of extending their services to companies around the globe.
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