An interview with Brian Thompson, executive vice president, PacPizza, owners of 109 Pizza Hut restaurants.

by Jeff Bizzack

Many mid-market firms are constantly striving to find ways to grow their business, reduce operational costs, and improve process efficiencies. Frequently, they turn to service providers to support them in achieving these goals.

But when it comes to FAO, mid-market executives expect service providers to also deliver a special kind of service excellence where the F & A provider becomes a seamless extension of the customers management team. This requires service providers to have a deep understanding of their customers business and industry. The provider must also align their technology to meet the needs of their customers and empower their people with world-class processes to drive operational efficiencies. The result is an extended value proposition that goes well beyond cost savings as the service provider delivers strategic, economic, operational, and human resource benefits to its midmarket customer.

In this interview, Brian Thompson, executive vice president of PacPizza, describes the special relationship PacPizza has with its BPO service provider. He has successfully outsourced F&A and payroll services for 109 Pizza Hut restaurants.

Jeff Bizzack: How long have you worked with your F&A and payroll outsourcing supplier?

Brian Thompson: PacPizza has worked with the same service provider for six years now. And I have been working with the supplier ever since I left Pizza Hut corporate to join PacPizza in 2000.

Bizzack: What is your internal structure like? 
Thompson: In the field, we have 2,300 employees, including 109 restaurant managers, 14 area coaches, and two operations directors. In the office, were about as streamlined as companies comewith one HR director, two HR assistants, a manager of business operations, a threeperson audit team, and two administrative assistants.

Bizzack: How has the use of an outsourcer positively impacted your business? 
Thompson: Our service provider has strengthened our business in many ways. Through our service provider, we are able to pull daily sales and operational data from a password protected Web site. We use this information to adjust our staffing levels, food and supply orders, and prep plans based on the latest trends. Factors like coupon drops, advertising, and paydays affect our restaurants, and being able to react quickly is critical to customers getting great service. Id say that the reporting alone is worth a margin point on a weekly basis for field personnel. The convenience of having a single service provider handle all of our accounting, payroll, and reporting needs is tremendous. Were able to focus our efforts on improving and growing our restaurants knowing that our back office functions are in good hands with our service provider.

Bizzack: What positives do your restaurant management teams see?

Thompson: Our teams receive two important deliverables without fail: 1) accurate and on-time payroll and 2) accurate and timely financial statements. 

Bizzack: How do you work with your service provider on a monthly basis?

Thompson: I communicate regularly by phone and e-mail with the controller assigned to our business. Together, we review preliminary P&L reports, check numbers on our Web-based store polling system, and discuss invoice approvals and check releases. What I like most about him is that he thoroughly understands our business from a service level. He doesnt just listen to our problems, he solves them.

Bizzack: What do you like about your service providers Web-based polling and information system?

Thompson: I like the timeliness of getting sales data. We adjust our forecasting on a daily basis, which enables us to provide our customers with better service.

Bizzack: Are you confident in your service providers ability to keep your sensitive business information confidential, and if so, why?

Thompson: Absolutely. All of our providers employees agree to a strict client confidentiality policy in writing. They use high level technology to protect our data and keep it secure. In all the years Ive worked with our provider, I cant think of a single time that Ive faced an integrity challenge with them.

Bizzack: What do you believe are the secrets for creating a mutually beneficial outsourcing arrangement?

Thompson: Respect and collaboration. The outsourcer needs to have a high level of expertise in accounting and payroll. The client needs to provide input and support to help them do their jobs well.

Bizzack: What would you tell other companies who are considering outsourcing?

Thompson: Id tell them that the right outsourcer has the people, the technology, the processes and the experience to get the job done right, month after month, year after year. As a result, you can get great service at costs that are lower than if you handled these functions in-house.