Our CEO takes a look at the recent FAO Today One Conference and discusses the formation of the industry association, Finance Forum, and why it is meaningful.

by Elliot Clark

We held our first FAO Today Conference, dubbed the “One Conference,” in Atlanta on November 15; The Hackett Group co-presented the event. It was a successful conference in every sense. We attracted a group of senior-level buyers, and, in polling the attendees, we discovered that they felt the conference gave them an opportunity to learn and to have fun. I would like to, once again, thank our sponsors, our attendees, and our speakers.

Executives from some of the world’s largest companies gave presentations on the best examples of globalization in action. We learned about all aspects of globalization and shared services, from legal issues to tactical issues to technological issues. We learned about the rapidly emerging area of procurement outsourcing from the CEO of an industry leader. The conference was also an opportunity for us to also look at the amazing growth of other economies. In this issue, you will find information on the US-India Business Council and its astonishing presentation on that emerging economic power. We also have considerable coverage of the conference, and we will share what we learned.

In spite of the success, however, I left Atlanta troubled.

The Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Industry is growing very rapidly and that is the cause for considerable pride and optimism. Buyers have had good outcomes for the most part, but some survey data remains murky about the word “satisfied” or “happy.” Fast growth is often undisciplined growth, and as new demand is met with new supply and new suppliers, one worries about outcomes. As I have often written, the difference between a fad and a trend is the quality of the service.

The world of finance and accounting is shrouded by a dense forest made up of standards and regulations, best practices, and statutory requirements. The Finance and Accounting Standards Board (FASB), Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) govern the U.S., as do state and municipal regulations, stock market listing regulations, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirements and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requirements. Each country has analogs for the regulatory bodies and its own specific and sometimes differing requirements and practices.

Before we all drown in a bowl of alphabet soup filled with “governing body” acronyms, we need to ask ourselves what governs the standards of the FAO industry? We all know that standards are important, and we all embrace them, but this industry itself is not yet self-governing. That is a problem in a time when new providers are entering the space each week and the services are broadening all the time. We want to be able to separate the “real” BPO providers from the “faux” PO providers.

We need an industry association similar to the increasingly active Human Resource Outsourcing Association. Affinity groups serve a valuable purpose. The HROA is developing standards and best practices, templates for RFPs and SLAs that buyer members can use. It is also developing buyer affinity groups that create the opportunity for both community and collegial learning.

FAO Today is going to help create such an organization for the FAO industry. In this effort, we have elected to partner with SharedXpertise, the organization that manages the HROA, and benefit from the knowledge they have acquired in forming HROA to more quickly develop a healthy and vital platform for the FAO industry membership.

Information exchange and community are the goals, as well as creating a forum (we are naming the organization the “Finance Forum”) for members to help define the standards so that buyers and providers can meet within the structure of the association and form a common vision for the industry. We have planned our first Finance Forum membership meeting and conference for June 2–3 in New York to begin the process.

We need to mature as an industry, and this is a necessary next step. I hope that all members of the industry will rally to help establish and become an active part of our own association—and I hope to see you in New York.