-- Outsourcing of accounts payable and payroll processes accelerates as
the need for CFOs to focus on strategic activities increases and the
shortage of skilled accounting clerical staff worsens. Economic factors,
Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, -- and now the move to fair-value accounting,
which could affect everything from hedging strategies to emissions credits,
and a push to overhaul financial statements to make them better reflect
corporate performance -- has meant that CFOs more than ever have to focus
on strategic issues instead of spending valuable capital, time and effort
in improving low-value-added transactional processes such as accounts
payable and payroll. These factors, combined with the severe shortage and
rising salaries of experienced accounts payable and payroll staff, have
meant that CFOs are increasingly looking at outsourcing these processes to
stay ahead of the game.
-- Companies are outsourcing individual finance and accounting processes
such as accounts payable and payroll, rather than outsourcing the entire
accounting function. As the use of outsourcing has matured, companies have
realized that outsourcing of individual processes can achieve rapid and
significant results with minimal risk. Many outsourcing firms have single
process solutions utilizing advanced technology and best practices to bring
a true state-of-the-art solution to a client.
-- Shift away from use of pure technology solutions to best practices
enabled by technology to address back office issues. In the continual
search for ways to improve back office processes, CFOs have realized that
technology by itself cannot solve back office business process issues. A
good example is the use of document management and workflow software to
attempt to streamline and improve the accounts payable process. For most
companies -- except for those with plentiful resources such as the Fortune
500 -- this technology generates a negative return on investment if the
true costs and benefits are measured accurately due to the extensive scale
required to generate benefits. Companies now understand that technology is
simply an enabler of a process. In order to achieve real and lasting
results, companies need to develop and implement best practice processes --
enabled by technology -- while utilizing the best talent from across the
globe.
About IQ BackOffice
A division of R.C. Baral & Co., IQ BackOffice is headquartered in Southern
California, and is a known innovator in the finance & accounting
outsourcing industry. With more than a quarter of a century of service to
over 60 widely recognized clients in the restaurant/foodservice,
manufacturing, distribution, financial services and publishing markets,
clients typically reduce costs by 20% to 50% annually.
SAS 70 Type II compliant, IQ BackOffice keeps up-to-date on the latest
government-mandated regulations and delivers a complete solution that
includes both technology and finance-specific domain expertise aimed at
keeping clients in complete control, while significantly reducing operating
costs. For more information, visit www.iqbackoffice.com.
Contact Information: Media Contact: Aimee Quemuel Trier and Company (415) 753-9005 aimee@triercompany.com