The Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) market is booming, with steady 11-13% growth expected to continue over the next three years, Everest Group reports. Persistent inflation, the severe F&A labor shortage, economic uncertainty, accelerating digital transformation, and geopolitical instability have prompted finance leaders to perform fundamental reviews of their operating models.
And they are increasingly turning to outsourcing to solve their operational challenges.
Cost optimization is a priority. But finance leaders are also realizing that traditional outsourcing models focused exclusively on labor arbitrage no longer provide enough value.
As they navigate increasingly complex financial environments, modern CFOs want strategic FAO partners – combining transactional processing with the ability to design and execute digital strategies, drive process excellence, provide actionable insights, mitigate risk, and execute more complex process tiers like financial planning & analysis (FP&A).
Gartner predicts that outdated pricing models that don’t drive process improvement and digitization will stop a whopping 60% of finance leaders from renewing their current BPO contracts by 2025.
With so much at stake and an increasingly saturated landscape, how do CFOs choose the right outsourcing partner?
Auxis was recently named a Major Contender on the 2023 Everest Group Finance & Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment – widely considered the #1 source for evaluating finance and accounting outsourcing companies. According to Everest Group, Auxis is the only firm to achieve Major Contender status the first time it appeared in the matrix.
This blog takes a deeper look at the 28 global finance outsourcing providers recognized by the matrix and why Everest considers Auxis a top player in the market. Combining its status as the only true nearshore player on the list with robust digital transformation capabilities, more than a quarter-century of finance transformation experience, and a uniquely customized and flexible outsourcing approach, Auxis offers the alternative solution CFOs need to beat today’s critical challenges.
Everest Group PEAK Matrix® for Finance & Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) Services 2024 Assessment
What is Everest Group’s FAO PEAK Matrix Assessment?
Everest Group’s PEAK Matrix® for Finance & Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) Service Providers 2023 Report provides an objective, data-driven analysis of 28 leading finance and accounting outsourcing providers based on their vision, capabilities, and market impact. A highly respected global research firm, Everest’s PEAK Matrix assessments are the go-to source for global enterprises seeking unbiased insights to support critical selection decisions about top service providers, locations, and solutions.
While provider input is considered, Everest relies on its proprietary Transaction Intelligence database, service provider public disclosures, and interactions with clients to ensure impartial results. In the FAO space, providers were comparatively assessed based on two dimensions:
- Market Success: Measures factors like revenue, number of clients, year-over-year growth, portfolio mix, and value delivered.
- Delivery Capabilities: Considers the provider’s scale of operations, scope, technology and innovation, delivery footprint, and buyer satisfaction.
Here are the 2023 results:
Download a complimentary copy of Everest Group’s PEAK Matrix® for Finance & Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) Services 2023 Assessment to learn more.
The Auxis Difference: Combining nearshoring and next-gen tech with FAO excellence
Of course, this analysis is only a starting point – and Everest cautions that selecting the best provider comes down to assessing its findings against your company’s unique situation and requirements.
In other words, bigger doesn’t automatically mean better. Everest’s report showed no significant difference between the larger providers categorized as Leaders and the other outsourcers it assessed in value delivered to clients.
In fact, Leaders experienced lower client satisfaction than the other provider categories across most dimensions the matrix evaluated. The biggest discrepancy was for “proactiveness,” with some clients saying they expected the Leader to take greater initiative in bringing innovation and identifying new opportunities for unlocking additional value.
Client scores and reviews also noted less-than-stellar satisfaction for Leaders in key areas like traditional technology capabilities, implementation/transition management, talent management, recruiting practices, and fit for smaller operations.
As you assess the best FAO partner, here’s why Auxis stands out on Everest’s 2023 FAO PEAK Matrix – combining the sophistication of the larger providers with a unique approach that solves traditional outsourcing challenges:
1. Auxis is the only true nearshore provider on the list.
As FAO service demand shifts from standard capabilities toward more complex functions, finance leaders are realizing that outsourcing processes to the other side of the world complicates service delivery.
Writes Everest:
“Auxis is one of the very few providers who have heavy onshore and nearshore presence in North America and Latin America. Clients highlight Auxis’ proximity to their location and ability to serve cultural nuances as one of their primary strengths. In addition to outsourcing, the firm also has rich experience in providing advisory services in finance transformation.”
Auxis offers unparalleled experience conducting business in Latin America for mid-market and enterprise-level companies looking for a better alternative to the challenges of traditional, Asia-based outsourcing solutions. As nearshore pioneers, Auxis was one of the first organizations to recognize the language, cultural, real-time communication, and cost savings benefits of geographically close outsourcing.
As organizations outsource more judgment-intensive F&A processes, Auxis’ nearshore locations also deliver strong English proficiency, lower attrition, and highly educated talent trained to U.S. GAAP and IFRS accounting standards that can be hard to find at the bottom-of-the-barrel pricing in offshore markets.
Auxis offers one of the most robust nearshore platforms in the outsourcing industry. 100% of its FTEs provide a full suite of P2P, O2C, R2R, and FP&A capabilities from its Global Delivery Centers in LATAM’s top nearshore markets: Costa Rica and Colombia.
By comparison, the other providers Everest ranked are heavily invested in offshore solutions:
- Leaders have 16% of their FTEs in nearshore locations and 78% offshore.
- The group of seven providers Everest considers Auxis’ “Peers” have 4% of their FTEs nearshore and 78% offshore.
- Major Contenders have 10% of their FTEs nearshore and 61% offshore. At 28%, they also have the largest number of FTEs in pricier onshore markets.
Here’s the bottom line: While customer demand has caused many outsourcing providers to jump on the nearshore bandwagon, it’s not core to their business. With practices and culture born from Asian-based models, they lack the focus or market expertise finance leaders can receive from a true nearshore provider like Auxis with a well-established, high-performing solution crafted by a predominantly Latin American executive team.
2. Auxis’ buyer satisfaction scores for next-gen and traditional technology capabilities outpaced every provider category.
Interest in tech-driven productivity tools like intelligent automation is surging as finance leaders look for ways to combat labor shortages and optimize costs without risking profitable growth. But 88% of CFOs say they struggle to capture the value of their tech investments (PwC “What’s Important to CFOs in 2024”).
According to Everest, a significant Auxis strength stems from its ability to enhance its FAO services through robust digital transformation capabilities and strong tech partnerships with market-leading F&A solutions. That includes UiPath’s intelligent automation platform, Microsoft PowerBI analytics, Adra by Trintech, Ephesoft’s Intelligent Data Capture solution, and more.
Auxis’ buyer satisfaction scores out-performed all the provider categories in the Everest report for next-gen and traditional technology capabilities. Auxis helps clients achieve outsourcing benefits beyond labor arbitrage – lowering the barriers to finance transformation with instant access to the hard-to-find digital talent, tools, and experience clients need to fast-track their journey to a modern finance organization.
But unlike many digital transformation providers who are only tech experts, Auxis stands out with a business-led approach to technology innovation in F&A departments. Its teams combine business and technical knowledge to help clients maximize the full potential of their current systems while strategically layering additional best-in-class tools to drive higher levels of efficiency, automation, and real-time insights.
The Everest matrix highlighted Auxis’ strong digital transformation capabilities in areas like digital maturity assessments and roadmaps, system selections and implementations, and application and cloud migrations. Auxis is also a UiPath Gold Partner and Platinum Competency Partner, with more than 100 certified automation professionals supporting clients’ modernization journeys.
3. Auxis excels at FAO support, out-performing the Leaders and Major Contenders for F&A process/domain expertise.
For more than 25 years, Fortune 1000 clients across industries have trusted Auxis to transform their finance and accounting operations. Achieving higher buyer satisfaction scores for F&A process/domain expertise than all the provider categories on the FAO matrix stands as testament to Auxis’ success.
Leveraging a unique perspective as experienced advisors, hands-on BPO providers, and industry veterans, Auxis brings unmatched insights into the best practices and operational strategy for achieving breakthrough F&A performance faster and more cost-effectively. With higher-level subject matter experts involved from the start of the selling process, Auxis demonstrates that it cares about learning the details of a client’s business to drive the best outcomes.
Everest highlighted Auxis’ relationship management capabilities, professionalism, and “rich” finance transformation and shared services advisory experience as key FAO strengths. With end-to-end process transformation capabilities, innovative technology solutions, and increased accuracy and compliance, Auxis excels at transforming F&A departments into the true business partner a modern enterprise needs.
Auxis also takes pride in shattering the traditional cookie-cutter outsourcing approach. Its high-touch, flexible, results-driven delivery model enables Auxis to function as a true extension of clients’ teams, with solutions tailored to the specific requirements of their business and industry.
Finance Benchmarks: Prophecy or Pretense?
Everest noted Auxis’ strong industry-specific experience as another important strength. Auxis supports clients across a wealth of industries, showing greater penetration than Leaders and Major Contenders in key sectors like healthcare, retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG), and banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI).
Choosing the right FAO partner for your business
When it comes to choosing an FAO partner, one size doesn’t fit all.
Cost savings are a given with any outsourcing model. But in today’s uncertain times, CFOs realize they need to look beyond the lowest cost to weigh factors like customer satisfaction, agility, service and talent quality, experience, innovation, and communication to ensure long-term FAO success.
As a leading nearshore partner, Auxis delivers more than operational support – providing the strategic guidance, high-level talent, real-time collaboration, transformation capabilities, rigorous controls, and industry knowledge that finance organizations need to achieve operational excellence.
Looking for more FAO insights? Schedule a consultation with our FAO experts today. You can also visit our resource center for finance and accounting outsourcing tips, strategies, and success stories.
