Financial
aspects of business may not be the core of a business, but they are by no means
an aspect that can be overlooked or taken lightly. After all, it’s finance that
we all work for. However, handling financial operations of a business is no
longer as easy or as simple as plain old book-keeping oriented accounting as in
past.
It
is because the environment today is technology driven as technology is what
brings in security, accuracy and precision. Also global businesses and
operations require multi-cultural, multi-policy-compliant approach to finance
and accounting.
Most
businesses today therefore, prefer to hire an outsourcing service provider to
handle their in-house F&A services, in order to be cost, efficiency and
performance-driven by hiring quality-centric service providers.
If
a business plans to hire a shared service partner, it is always prudent to
check for a few basic non-negotiable parameters as listed below:
- · Fast-paced ability to keep up with regulatory and accounting changes.
- · End to end process delivery expertise.
- · Excellence driven work culture.
- · Impeccable data security.
- · Global delivery model potential.
To
elaborate on the above, a brief understanding of the current business scenario
helps. In today’s business environment, stringent policies and regulations are
a part of everyday financial and accounting domain. Governments, tax
departments all across the globe constantly bring in new regulations that
businesses are supposed to be compliant to. In such a scenario it is of
paramount importance that your service partner has a potential for fast-paced ability to keep up with
regulatory and accounting changes. This is only to ensure that your
business isn’t later penalized for some violation that happened only because
your service provider wasn’t upbeat.
Finance
and accounting can be never isolated as a process in business. Hence it is
important that your expert understands the various multi-domain relationships
that affect the financial performance of your business. They should have end to end process delivery expertise
to ensure that if need be they can begin from scratch and can drive your
financial management to its peak.
It
is only a service partner who performs in an excellence driven culture that any business deserves. Irrespective
of the size of the outsourced operations, it is paramount that your business
outsourcing partner just doesn’t believe in fulfilling the execution of the
work but also in driving it towards excellence and strives for perfection.
Data security is an absolute non-negotiable. The
data of a company, specially the financial data is one of the most valuable
resources and should be kept confidential at any cost. There is no way that the
security of your data can be compromised upon. Hence it is important that your
outsourcing solution expert has the necessary know-how and technical strength
to maintain the confidentiality of your data.
Global delivery model
potential is a must –
have for your outsourcing service provider specially if they are not a part of
your domestic market but are located internationally. This means that
irrespective of where they are located, they can deliver their services
according to the rules and regulations of your country and follow the law of
your land. It also means that their technical and manpower resource has a
potential of addressing your eventual global needs as well, if you choose to
expand.
As
discussed above, before you decide to opt for a financial services outsourcing model, it is important that you plan
it with a longer vision and select a service provider with a potential of
addressing your growing business needs in the longer run.
