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IQ Backoffice 2008 Prediction:Increased Use of Outsourcing of Individual Finance and Accounting Processes

(Nov 14, 2007)-- IQ BackOffice, provider of accounts payable, payroll management and accounting business process outsourcing solutions, announced its predictions for 2008.

The news come on the heels of recent research by EquaTerra, a research firm focused on business process outsourcing (BPO), that predicts growth in the outsourcing market with 51 percent of respondents saying that demand for outsourcing services was up in the third quarter of 2007, and the outlook for 2008 was optimistic
Based on feedback from clients, partners and industry experts, IQ BackOffice sees the following specific trends emerging:

-- 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.

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