Paystream Voices » Business Process Outsourcing as a Sign of Growth: Is that an Oxymoron?

Business Process Outsourcing as a Sign of Growth: Is that an Oxymoron?

Posted in PayStream Analyst, Purchase to Payment, Contributed, Voices by Sushmitha Koka on September 29th, 2007

The word “outsourcing” is still taboo in many finance and accounting circles. For many people, outsourcing conjures up images of large scale lay-offs and your friends and neighbors out of work. Or worse still, if the outsourcing mantra takes over your company, you could be the one looking for another job. As Harry Truman said “it’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.” We would like to ensure that there is nothing for employees to worry about when an organization has outsourcing on its agenda. Though it might sound like an oxymoron, outsourcing could, in fact, be the result of a company’s growth, rather than a downsizing effort.

A company that is growing rapidly might investigate outsourcing accounts payable functions to keep up with its growing invoice volume, instead of adding additional in-house full-time employees. Or a company might want to leverage the expertise of a third-party service provider to increase process efficiencies in its AP department, while allocating its internal resources to more critical tasks or redeploying them to other functions. Finally, another scenario where outsourcing makes perfect sense is when it is considered in lieu of large investments in the latest technology to manage AP processes.

Whatever the reason your organization may be evaluating outsourcing options, it is important to understand that it doesn’t necessarily mean job losses and unhappy employees; it can actually be a positive initiative for the AP department. PayStream is developing an in-depth Technology Insight Series report on “Accounts Payable Outsourcing” that will be released in early 2008. In addition to providing an overview of the finance and accounting outsourcing market, the report will profile leading providers of AP outsourcing services. We will keep you posted on updates to the report!

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