According to a new study by KPMG and HfS Research, the global financial and accounting business process outsourcing (F & A BPO) is set to cross 25 billion dollars in 2013 and will grow at an annual compound rate of 8 percent through 2017. The study covered 399 major global businesses and 745 current enterprise level F & A BPO engagements. The study reached the following conclusions:
- Businesses are looking for new strategies for performing low cost operations in F & A rather than relying on in-house services. Quality and accuracy are top priorities and they expect processes to be standardized.
- Up to 90 percent of the BPO engagements have been consistently meeting the low cost objectives and initial delivery performance.
- Enterprises are looking for radical strategies to increase business productivity and global competitiveness
Another survey conducted in January this year asked businesses about their 2013 outsourcing plans. The businesses listed application development and maintenance, IT infrastructure, human resources, legal process outsourcing and marketing operations as major sourcing areas. Up to 43% cited cost advantages as driving their outsourcing decision, while 37% reported greater flexibility to scale operations as the push factor. The ability to standardize processes, transform/re-engineer processes, meet compliance, and perform more effectively on a global scale is also important drivers of the outsourcing decision in 2013.
Outsourcing has become hard to ignore for the many advantages it offers. However, what’s important is finding the right BPO company. As a KPMG leader points out, a reliable service provider is one that works as an extension to your firm’s capabilities and not as a substitute.
