In finance and accounting functions can outsource the invoice-to -pay (I2P) process via BPaaS in a matter of weeks.

Traditionally, the biggest incentive has been the significant cost savings that come from automating and transforming the process into a digital format, reducing manual labour.

But should BPaaS stop at cutting costs?

The short answer is no. While outsourcing has historically been perceived as a way to reduce costs, it can – and should – also be used to drive solid performance outcomes, improve the decision making process and drive the value chain.

Welcome to business performance as a service, the new and improved approach to using BPaaS for finance and accounting functions.

What is the key difference between process and service performance? The traditional approach to BPaaS focuses on how a process is outsourced.

The business performance as a service concept enables organisations to place greater emphasis on the outcomes. The vendor becomes contractually obliged to produce a specific business outcome for a particular type of process.

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When this happens, the organisation benefits from a more consultative and results-driven approach to business process outsourcing. Let’s look at an example.

Under this model, a vendor would be contractually bound to minimise data errors (improve analytics) to a specific percentage. Or, the vendor may have to improve cycle times by a specific number in order to deliver the desired performance.

It’s a win-win approach. Outsourcing and automation drive cost efficiencies, and organisations have greater control over the business outcome they desire.

How does it work?

There are three types of processes within the finance and accounting functions that can be measured by business performance as a service:

• Order to cash
• Record to report
• Source to pay

Each process is governed by clear performance metrics to determine deliverables. These could include the speed of payment or the time taken to deal with disputes.

In this way, BPaaS targets, reaches and contractually sticks to a set of reporting performance metrics, enabling an organisation to measure and achieve the results they want.

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Additionally, this approach to BPaaS can be scaled to meet fluctuating demand and workloads and within each process as it includes a dedicated expert to advise and determine the desired outcomes.

This enables a deeper layer of consultation and analysis that encourages customers to strive for industry best practice, improving the overall customer experience.

The focus, remember, is on what the business is achieving in terms of the final outcome. This removes the temptation to approach BPaaS simply within the parameters of how many people or how many locations.

This type of solution already is available. Conduent recently partnered with Atos to launch a pay-as-you go, performance based approach to BPaaS for finance and accounting.

Benefits include low upfront costs, no additional infrastructure and implementation in a matter of weeks – delivering the fastest and most cost effective speed-to-value route.

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BPaaS makes it possible for businesses to feel safe in the knowledge that their vendor can handle processes and deliver the desired outcomes.

So looking ahead, what is next for BPaaS? Conduent expects more organisations will evaluate their current “business as usual” model.

As service performance gains traction an increasing number of organisations will achieve the desired business outcomes that drive world-class levels of efficiency and effectiveness.

Sourced by Cuauhtemoc Velasco Aznar, vice president, strategy, solutions and growth, finance and accounting services, Conduent