UCMS Group also saw the potential of the city and decided to open a new office in Kielce.

“We see great potential in these cities. As they grow and develop, our projects will also evolve. We also see good chances to combine abilities and knowledge of our employees located …]]> Kielce, a town from Poland got nominated for “Poland outsourcing awards” in the category “Newcomers” and according to a report published by Colliers International, Kielce has very good conditions to attract outsourcing companies.  Poland is an attractive location for Business Process Outsourcing because of its location and human potential.

UCMS Group also saw the potential of the city and decided to open a new office in Kielce.

“We see great potential in these cities. As they grow and develop, our projects will also evolve. We also see good chances to combine abilities and knowledge of our employees located in Warsaw and Kielce.” says Anna Kaczmarska – Finance Director at UCMS Group Poland.

Anna gave recently an interview to “Outsourcing&More” magazine in which she talked about the future of outsourcing payroll and accounting. Read here the entire interview.

Normally, service level agreement should help upgrade your existing contract, or build a strong one from the beginning. Outsourcing buyers have the feeling that if they have a lengthy SLA, with tens of level metrics, then they have the key to success. The buyers also forget that they should have someone to measure, report, analyze and govern all those metrics.

Among other aspects, a good service level agreement should:

-  Educate the buyer to examine its requirements for key …]]>

If you are not paying too much attention to it, SLA can be like a bad dream instead of being helpful.

Normally, service level agreement should help upgrade your existing contract, or build a strong one from the beginning.
Outsourcing buyers have the feeling that if they have a lengthy SLA, with tens of level metrics, then they have the key to success. The buyers also forget that they should have someone to measure, report, analyze and govern all those metrics.

Among other aspects, a good service level agreement should:

-  Educate the buyer to examine its requirements for key services

-  Educate the provider to review its ability to meet the buyer’s requirements

-  Help improve working relationships

-  Help define the key services required to meet business requirements

It is very important for the buyer to understand all its business needs because then it can transform all of them into SLA service metrics. The service metrics should be limited in number; they should reflect all the market based targets and incorporate improvements formulas over time. This will help both parties to have a common understanding of the SLA structure.

Try not to focus on increasing the service level penalties. This will not help either of the parties because no penalty will ever fully compensate if the service stops.

Both parties should understand very well the expectations, specific results and ownership but they should not believe that they are guaranteed just because it is written in the SLA.

The SLA should be renewed every time is necessary, as long as this is approved by both parties. Frequent communication will help the provider achieve its objectives and the buyer to improve its business.

Service Level Agreement is very important for improving the service quality and usually it highlights problems in the process of sustaining the business requirements. Try to spend more time for validating the service levels necessary for the buyer’s business.

HR Professionals believe that recruiting for outsourcing related management skills is much more difficult than recruiting for other skills. It is very difficult to recruit a person who can define business outcomes beyond costs and efficiency, and is able to influence executives and drive innovation.

Unfortunately there are very few outsourcing providers which are investing in training programs for improving their staff’s …]]> When asked about which are their current and future objectives, outsourcing executives believe that tactical objectives are more important than strategic objectives. Among the tactical business objectives we find managing transitions, managing service level performance and negotiating contracts.

HR Professionals believe that recruiting for outsourcing related management skills is much more difficult than recruiting for other skills. It is very difficult to recruit a person who can define business outcomes beyond costs and efficiency, and is able to influence executives and drive innovation.

Unfortunately there are very few outsourcing providers which are investing in training programs for improving their staff’s strategic skills. Most of the outsourcing executives think that because they have tactical abilities they are also strategic.

Talent is an issue often met in the communication between many providers and their customers. That is because both the provider and the customer think it is much more important to meet the pre-defined service levels instead of talent performance and quality.

Providers who emphasize on the strategic talent more than on their operational talent are going to have impressive results in their projects. Nowadays customers begin to see more and more the importance of a provider that has all the needed skills to drive higher level of business value.

As HfS Research mentioned in their report “The outsourcing talent paradox” – “Most enterprises today are only just waking up to the reality that outsourcing is much more than a transactional contract – it is an ongoing partnership that requires leadership, insight and collaboration between an enterprise customer and its outsourcing service provider”.

Strategic objectives are becoming as important as the tactical ones when it comes to establishing the initial business objectives at the beginning of the outsourcing initiatives. The same objectives continue to grow after the outsourcing initiative has begun.

If they want to have impressive results in their activities, companies should provide the support and necessary resources in order to transform talent into a competitive advantage.

This webinar is drawing from the research and it analyses issues ranging from compliance to making payments and managing vendors.

We invite you to view the webinar and see some of the solutions proposed for the multi-country payroll challenges.

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Webster Buchanan Research, with the support of UCMS Group, published an independent report based on interviews with senior payroll managers. The report assesses the approaches multinational companies take to solve regional issues they face while looking to implement a standard centralized multi-country payroll model.

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Special report: The challenges of multi-country payroll

In order to be truly successful everybody must step out of the “box” and change their perspective. What other function is more appropriate to be an example in this situation than marketing which is constantly adapting. HR professionals should consider using in their day …]]> Change is all around us, either you are a marketing specialist or a HR specialist you have to adapt or you will remain behind. Marketing is a function in the organization that was forced to evolve and become more strategic instead of tactical and has established foundations which can help HR to refine its efforts.

In order to be truly successful everybody must step out of the “box” and change their perspective. What other function is more appropriate to be an example in this situation than marketing which is constantly adapting. HR professionals should consider using in their day by day activities similar tools and techniques used in consumer marketing.

Get to know your target

Marketers spend time on studying their target customers. They are trying to find out which are the customers’ needs and to understand their habits. This helps marketers to generate qualified leads and help the business. How can be this helpful for a HR professional? You can take time to understand job seekers and your employees, which are your target customers.

Stay close to the customer

In the last 10 years, marketers had the obsession of giving the customer as much attention as possible. Marketers have to get closer and closer to the customers and they use every tool they have in order to do that: focus groups, visits, emails and so on. HR professionals could learn from this and try to get closer to the employees.

Use innovation in your favor

Today technology is providing wide access to information via multiple channels. This makes the consumer be much more powerful: he can use technology to access information and communicate. Marketers know that and they use all the tools to reach the consumers, they use social media and online communication, a different language, if it is required, and they properly understood the power of personalization. This is a big opportunity for HR professionals. They can shift to a personalized and innovative type of communication from the formal type they are currently using.

Let the customer choose  

Time teaches marketers to progress from mass messages to personalized messages. Customers want to feel powerful and have the power to choose. They must be able to “pull” communications relevant to them and choose the channel and the time that best suits them.  Same thing applies to the employees they should be allowed to feel powerful if it is possible.

HR should be an internal marketing machine, the professionals from this department are responsible for maintaining a culture and selling it to the customers, which in this case are the employees. As it is cheaper to keep customers than to search for new ones is also cheaper to keep employees than to search for new ones.

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In this moment the EU Member States’ laws are not the same at EU level, so in 2012 the Commission proposed a Directive to reform the …]]> The voucher market is being held back by the confusing variety of tax rules governing their use in different countries. It is a market with a very high potential, as it might be worth 52 billion a year in Europe. The European Parliament wants to help this market by harmonizing taxation rules across the European Union. According to consultants the recent years brought an increase in the functionality and use of the vouchers.

In this moment the EU Member States’ laws are not the same at EU level, so in 2012 the Commission proposed a Directive to reform the VAT treatment of vouchers. The Commission aims to have the proposal running from 1 January 2015. The elements of the proposal are:

- Common rules for cross-border distribution of vouchers via a chain of intermediaries

- Harmonizing the definition, and the time and point of taxation of vouchers

- Distinguishing vouchers from other payment forms

The Economy and Monetary Affairs Committee voted in 2013 its report on the Commission’s proposal.

The new rules could help voucher companies to improve their performance and evolve and it will also help consumers as the new, simpler taxation rules could lead to people being offered more vouchers.

On the same subject, you can see below an infographic with facts about vouchers.

In order to find out what is next for outsourcing, HfS, with …]]> Last year the outsourcing providers were challenged to have a clear understanding of their customers’ needs and pains, so they could position themselves as strategic partners. Most of the companies were cutting budgets in 2012 so the outsourcing providers needed to change their value proposition. In 2013, and the years to follow, the outsourcing industry players should focus on the optimum use of technology and they should do more than just meet service level agreements. The customers need focused transformation plans that will improve business efficiency and effectiveness.

In order to find out what is next for outsourcing, HfS, with the support of KPMG, published a report recently analyzing the business process outsourcing (BPO) results for the first quarter in 2013 and making a prediction regarding the evolution of BPO in the following years until 2017.

According to the report, BPO and Finance & Accounting are the two fastest growing areas. The BPO area is predicted to grow at 5.1% in 2013 and the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) to 2017 is 6%.

When it comes to HR Business process outsourcing the report shows that in 2013 this area is 4% from the total market size.  The results also state a 5.6 % growth of the HR BPO services in 2013 as oppose to 2012.

The global BPO services market grew in 2013 especially in North America and EMEA and it is predicted to have a CAGR to 2017 of 6.3% in EMEA and of 5.3% in North America.

The same trend is maintained when we see the results for HR BPO services, EMEA and North America grew and they will keep on growing until 2017, as you can see below.

Innovation and analytical capability are among the things wanted by the outsourcing buyers. The conclusion after Q1 is that 2013 is going to be a stronger year for BPO, the organizational approach to outsourcing and shared service will be more mature.

If you want to find out what are the real distractions at work and why a 1h meeting held with 10 persons is actually a 10h meeting, then click on the link below to watch the video.

How much work can you do at work?

In this context, finance leaders need to be well prepared and have broad knowledge across all areas of the finance value chain. In order to ensure performance is on track, they need to ask the right questions when it comes to reporting, risk, assurance, compliance and strategy.

Also, they need to be able to drive performance and to assure themselves that their organization is compliant and it fully manages all the …]]> Nowadays, organizations are facing broader pressures created by the rate of technological change, the proliferation of risk and because there is a more complex environment for decision making.

In this context, finance leaders need to be well prepared and have broad knowledge across all areas of the finance value chain. In order to ensure performance is on track, they need to ask the right questions when it comes to reporting, risk, assurance, compliance and strategy.

Also, they need to be able to drive performance and to assure themselves that their organization is compliant and it fully manages all the risks. Because finance is an interconnected and complex discipline, finance professionals will have to bring to the table a broader range of skills in order to be effective.

In order to support today’s finance professionals, ACCA Qualification designed a full range of competencies which should be almost mandatory for successful professionals:

Financial management

To ensure value creation finance professionals should be able to effectively implement investment financing decisions within the business environment in areas such as investment appraisal, business re-organizations, tax and risk management, treasury and working capital management.

Leadership and management

In order to understand the needs and priorities of the stakeholders finance professionals should manage resources and lead organizations effectively and ethically.

Corporate reporting

The ability of preparing high quality business reports is very important in supporting the stakeholder’s decision making.

Law and taxation

A good understanding of laws and regulation related to business is a must for finance professionals. In addition it’s important to understand taxation, regulation and systems, to establish tax liabilities for individuals and companies and to minimize these liabilities using tax planning.

Audit and assurance

In order to meet the objectives of audit and assurance engagements finance professionals should gather evidence and perform procedures like internal controls and information system evaluation.

Stakeholder relationship management

According to an ACCA Qualification survey results, there are three aspects of the stakeholder relationship management that every finance professional should take in consideration:

• Managing stakeholders expectations and needs
• Aligning the organization to their requirements
• Engaging stakeholders effectively and  communicating relevant information

Professionalism and ethics

Finance professionals should understand and behave in accordance with fundamental principles of ethical behavior and personal ethics. This should be sustained by an appropriate corporate ethical framework.

The future of finance careers is constant changing. According to the same research conducted by ACCA, over half of the younger generation is seeking wider business careers. Young professionals wish to keep their career options open and they recognize the importance of finance qualifications.

Are you planning to follow the same path with your company or are you having no plans regarding this subject?”

These are some of the questions answered by “The State of Banking and Financial Services in 2013” research, conducted by HfS Research with the support of KPMG.

The respondents were 1355 stakeholders across enterprise buyers, service providers and consultant/influencer organizations. The aim of this research was to understand their views, observations and intentions for 2013 when it comes to business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing in Banking and …]]> “What are your outsourcing plans for the next 12 months?

Are you planning to follow the same path with your company or are you having no plans regarding this subject?”

These are some of the questions answered by “The State of Banking and Financial Services in 2013” research, conducted by HfS Research with the support of KPMG.

The respondents were 1355 stakeholders across enterprise buyers, service providers and consultant/influencer organizations. The aim of this research was to understand their views, observations and intentions for 2013 when it comes to business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing in Banking and Financial Services (BFS).

39% of the respondents said that they are planning to increase their outsourcing activity over the next 12 months in the application development & maintenance area of their companies. 32% of them want to increase outsourcing activity in finance & accounting department and 21% want to outsource their HR activities.

These are the drivers behind outsourcing decision in 2013:

According to the research, cost reduction is not just a driver when it comes to outsourcing but also proves to be very effective for 35% of the companies and somehow effective for 52% of them.

In what concerns HR outsourcing intentions, 7% from a total of 44 BFS companies declared that they are willing to start outsourcing for the first time and 19% of them are willing to outsource more than one operation in this area.

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