By James Tucker, Director of Marketing and Financial Solutions, Ariba.

Finance and accounting functions in shared service organisations continue to rely on outsourcing to reduce costs and generate operational support. Demand is still heavy for the service, but the rationale for choosing F&A outsourcing has changed.

While cost containment remains a key driver for outsourcing decisions, global organisations today are looking to move beyond labour arbitrage to optimise their business processes to achieve the next wave of cost savings. Clients expect transformational outcomes, better business alignment and improved efficiencies from their outsourced operations and are increasingly open to shared services models and risk-reward pricing.