One topic that is sure to spark a lively debate in most circles is “outsourcing.”Accounts payable is no exception. Outsourcing, the practice of leveraging the experience and expertise of a third party firm to perform tasks that would normally be handled in-house, is still taboo in many areas.
For a lot of people, outsourcing conjures up images of large-scale lay-offs and employees lining up in droves at the unemployment office.
However, our research shows that outsourcing could, in fact, be the result of a company’s growth, rather than a downsizing effort, even though that sounds like a contradiction in itself. To validate this point, here are some instances where outsourcing is an appealing option:
- A company that is growing rapidly might investigate outsourcing to keep up with its growing transaction volume, instead of adding additional full-time employees to its in-house staff.
- An organization might want to leverage the expertise of a third-party service provider to increase process efficiencies, 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, if the company in question does not have the required technical and financial resources.
Whatever the reasons, an entire industry has evolved to meet the outsourcing needs of companies. Outsourcing has been gaining popularity over the last few years, especially in the finance and accounting space. Research from PayStream Advisors estimates that the Accounts Payable Outsourcing (APO) market generates in excess of $5 billion in revenues annually and is growing at over 25 percent each year.
Given this interest in outsourcing accounts payable tasks, PayStream has developed the Technical Insight Series report titled “Accounts Payable Outsourcing (APO): Breaking Accounts Payable Taboos” to provide an overview of APO options available in the market today and insights into the various players in the marketplace. This report gives an overview of the APO market, the benefits it delivers and profiles four leading providers of APO solutions and services – Archive Systems, BancTech, HOV Services and SourceNet Solutions.
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