Executive Summary

Initial Finance and Accounting outsourcing (FAO) relationships centered primarily on reducing costs and reengineering the Finance and Accounting (F&A) process to accommodate the service provider. The next three years will witness significant development in the evolution of FAO solutions. An organization currently exploring FAO options must look beyond those initial objectives if it seeks to optimize its F&A process.

Seeking more value from an FAO relationship brings into question the technology requirements necessary to deliver services to the buyer. These technology requirements become significantly more complex as companies add higher business-impact F&A functions to the outsourcing mix.