SITE. They say they re currently processing tax returns,

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1 p16-20 Offshore_FM JulAug 05 v2 10/6/05 11:34 am Page 16 SITE Does offshoring destroy jobs, or does it create cost savings that will allow a company to maintain high-value roles back home? Sanjeevan Valanju examines the trend and considers how to mitigate the risks that come with packing off key functions abroad. They say they re currently processing tax returns, doing accounting work and managing payroll, but they re ready to work on monthly management accounts and provide management information systems, too. This sort of remark is being heard more and more in the CFO s office or at strategy meetings in UK and US firms today. The term offshoring is now in common use and much has been written about the reasons behind it. The types of activities being outsourced abroad in the financial services industry, for example, range from general ledger accounting, payroll processing and mortgage loan servicing to treasury management, equity research and even investment management. There are also several specialist industry-specific functions that can be transferred outside the organisation, such as share-transfer registry work, superannuation fund accounting and trust administration accounting. The economic case looks compelling. The US banking, financial and insurance services industry is estimated to have saved close to $6bn ( 3.3bn) in the past four years by offshoring to India. Consequently, its costs are seven to ten per cent lower 16 MANAGEMENT July/August 2005

2 p16-20 Offshore_FM JulAug 05 v2 10/6/05 11:34 am Page 17 UNSEEN? than those of its European counterparts. And it s not only the multinationals that have caught on; it can also make sense for small and medium-sized enterprises that need to recruit more qualified people but can t afford western salaries. There are reverse economic benefits as well: in the US, the cost savings created by outsourcing helped companies to create jobs and register quality and productivity gains of up to 20 per cent. Despite this, offshoring is often perceived as a threat. The main concerns are that it comes at the expense of control, confidentiality, service quality and jobs. Some of these fears are justified, but there are ways to mitigate potential risks. As Patricia Hewitt, then secretary of state for trade and industry in the UK, said at a CBI conference in late 2003: It s much easier to see the short-term benefits of protectionism than to see its long-term costs to consumers and business competitiveness. Companies are improving their understanding of the issues of process migration, technology deployment and quality control. They have realised that they can offshore a great deal of work and use their existing workforce on more specialist projects with higher charge-out rates, thereby increasing profits already bolstered by cost savings. The ability to access competent, intelligent people with defined accountabilities, yet not have them on the payroll, is another key advantage. India is an extremely popular outsourcing destination and has proven capabilities at managing a range of processes of varying complexity in finance and accounting. The subcontinent offers vibrant capital markets, world-class investment management and financial services expertise and a talent pool of more than 200,000 qualified accountants, which is being augmented by over 50,000 new graduates every year. Indian accountancy firms are adapting rapidly to provide a wide range of outsourced services. These include preparing payroll and tax returns and using accounting records such as cheque registers, cash receipts, sales journals, bank statements and other items to reconcile bank accounts and create general ledgers and financial statements. Clients can give these firms journals or unadjusted trial balances and ask them to make necessary adjustments and prepare financial statements in accordance with their national Gaaps. Some providers will even offer low-cost modular Illustration: Steve Rawlings July/August 2005 MANAGEMENT 17

3 p16-20 Offshore_FM JulAug 05 v2 10/6/05 11:34 am Page 18 computer write-up software for use on their clients systems. For example, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Citicorp employ researchers in India who help to identify, design, document, implement and translate financial information to convert from, say, US Gaap into international financial reporting standards. Currently, 45 per cent of offshoring activity relates to the financial services industry a proportion that is likely to increase. Deloitte predicts that two million jobs in financial services could be relocated over the next five years, saving approximately $356bn in costs. Abbey has recently followed competitors such as Lloyds TSB, Citigroup and HSBC by moving operations to India in an attempt to streamline processes and reduce overheads. Initially it transferred its IT development and back-office processes, but in the past year it has routed customer calls (mainly banking enquiries) to MsourcE, its partner in Bangalore. This call centre is now Abbey s biggest, with more than 500 employees. It responds to up to half of all of the bank s customer calls. It s too early to put a figure on the savings it has achieved, but the company is confident that the move will prove successful. India is not the only possible location for offshore business operations. China has a large, low-cost labour pool, which is particularly attractive for high-volume business processes. On the downside, Chinese workers still lack in-depth experience in business process outsourcing and IT, while their general FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING OFFSHORING ACTIVITY Estimated costs per transaction in offshore locations India $0.29 Philippines $0.37 Thailand $0.37 China $0.52 Malaysia $0.54 Singapore $1.15 Hong Kong $2.03 fluency in English is not yet up to standard. More broadly, there are also concerns about whether the country will be able to sustain its economic growth. The Philippines, which has strong cultural affinities with the west, is another contender. Some of its business processes are 18 MANAGEMENT July/August 2005

4 p16-20 Offshore_FM JulAug 05 v2 10/6/05 11:34 am Page 19 comparable to those in the US it has similar accounting qualifications, for example which means that the workforce is accustomed to particular business requirements. A recent HR study highlighted the benefits of setting up call centres in the Philippines. It found that 64 per cent of Filipino agents spoke more than two languages, whereas only 40 per cent of Indian agents were multilingual. There was also a marked difference in employee turnover. Filipino call-centre workers spent an average of 15 months in a job, compared with Indian call-centre workers, whose average stay was only 11 months. The main disadvantages of the Philippines as an outsourcing destination are that it has a smaller pool of skilled employees and is in a less attractive time zone for western businesses. Offshoring presents special challenges for companies in the highly regulated financial services industry. They are typically responsible for the conduct of third-party service providers and must ensure that the outsourced activities also comply with all the relevant regulations. Many third-party relationships are, CASE STUDY: THE WORLD BANK The World Bank moved its back-office operations to India from Washington DC in March It started with 80 employees in Chennai and now has a 2,500sq m site and more than 200 employees Results It cut costs by 15 per cent. It reduced its backlog of accounts receivable and expense forms from hundreds to a handful. The bank chose to enlist Indian employees in process improvement work, such as data mining. The facility, which was built before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, now provides the unexpected benefit of a disaster preparation and recovery site. therefore, subject to the same risk management, security, privacy and other consumer protection policies that would apply if the organisation were performing the activities itself. Outsourced service providers should address these issues systematically from the initial client discovery meeting to the actual process migration and reporting. The person in charge of each assignment should ideally study the client s existing processes and translate its requirements for data conversion, reporting, information security and periodicity into defined standards. He or she should also get involved in writing service-level agreements that define clearly the expectations and obligations of each party so that they are properly understood and enforceable. The work should be handled by teams selected, trained and monitored according to the requirements of each assignment, and a member of the management team should be nominated as a single point of contact for the client. Indian businesses have a reputation for being averse to saying no to any kind of business opportunity and this is true July/August 2005 MANAGEMENT 19

5 p16-20 Offshore_FM JulAug 05 v2 10/6/05 11:34 am Page 20 of many offshore vendors. As a result, clients can face problems with service delivery when their providers knowledge and skills are not up to scratch. Some clients may also experience problems with quality control and/or the security procedures implemented by their service providers. Many outsourced providers may not possess the required operational expertise or resources to invest in training and development either, which can mean that the clients turn out to be the guinea pigs to support their own learning. But the most widespread problems associated with offshoring to India concern cultural differences. These are often manifested in the quality of presentation or in communicating operational issues or even in the business language used in such communications. Such problems are now being tackled as Indian companies become increasingly aware of their importance in sustaining a happy client relationship. For instance, clients should insist that service providers give a clear picture of their capabilities, competencies and constraints at the outset. It is also vital to research whether the provider is seeking projects that complement its existing skills, or those that it can undertake once it has invested in appropriate training and resources. Some innovative providers have in-house teams of IT experts and process-migration specialists who can recommend the necessary technological requirements for each project, taking into account regulatory compliance and customer data privacy often pre-empting the client s requirements for data integrity, scalability and accessibility. This, however, doesn t mean that they don t still have difficulties at operational level. If problems do occur, the best and simplest solution is usually to let the client know about the bungle, take responsibility and have adequate backup plans for remedial action. As worldwide interest in offshoring increases, so does the need for companies to review their approach to outsourcing abroad. Not every activity can be farmed out and not every activity that can be will generate efficiencies and cost savings if it is. It s vital that, if you are thinking about offshoring, you choose a service provider that not only understands your organisation, its needs and processes, but also has the ability to assimilate the essence of your business philosophy, service discipline and working culture. FM Sanjeevan Valanju is vice-president, business initiatives, SKP Crossborder Consulting, Mumbai (tel: or sanjeevan.valanju@skpgroup.com). POINTS TO CONSIDER BEFORE GOING OFFSHORE THE FUTURE OF OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING Only four per cent of administrative processes have so far been offshored (typically these are data entry, transaction processing and document creation). Executives in companies that already use offshoring believe that more than half of such processes could be outsourced abroad in future (source: IBM, 2004). The popularity of offshoring will continue to increase. Since 1998 Indian IT software and services exports have grown by more than 40 per cent on average each year. If this trend continues, the global offshore services market will be worth more than 130bn by 2008 (source: India s National Association of Software and Service Companies). Small and medium-sized enterprises are likely to take up offshoring in greater numbers, spurred on by the cost savings and the advantages of being able to focus on value-adding activities. More offshore service providers will emerge to serve the SME market. The political climate for offshoring will become more hospitable as the wider economic benefits become clearer. Although many people object to the practice of moving jobs offshore, 92 per cent of businesses would buy a List the processes that could be farmed out to achieve maximum efficiency and then decide which of these are suitable for offshoring. Draw up a compelling business case for offshoring and win the commitment and approval of your stakeholders in advance. Decide how to transfer knowledge effectively to the offshore centre. Select evaluation criteria by which to identify suitable service providers. Decide primary location selection criteria. List the skills and talents that you require of offshore staff. List the risks you need to mitigate while shifting operations. Plan how to maintain business continuity throughout the transition. Identify all the tax and legal requirements that will need to be met. Identify the change management issues that you will have to address. Identify and clarify the level of service that you will require. product at a lower cost regardless of their principles (source: a Ventoro study of 5,000 companies in America and Europe, 2004). India, with a current market share of around 80 per cent, will continue to be the leader in the offshoring industry for the foreseeable future. The Indian government is investing heavily in political, legislative and structural support for outsourcing providers, and the enormous lead the country has in English-speaking, IT-literate talent will maintain its popularity for years. This will also help more Indian companies to access the global market. The offshore industry currently centres on the cities of Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune. Advances in information and communications technologies will enable small towns and villages to offer services to businesses anywhere in the world, which should help the industry to develop a broad supplier base and to keep price rises in check. Jim Downey, managing director of Outspan Consulting, an international business consulting company based in Brighton with a service centre in Jaipur, India (visit or jim.downey@ outspanconsulting.com). 20 MANAGEMENT July/August 2005