Outsourced solution for top 10 accounting firm
A top-tier accounting and secretarial firm providing accounting, audit and business advisory expertise to 1200 clients, with a particular focus on the middle market, streamlines processes to allow focus on core business activities.
-28%
Decrease in year-end compliance and tax return processes
x2
Double the number of SMSF funds processed
x3
Over time, the firm tripled its investment In Sundaram services
44%
Client base grew from 45 to 65 as a result of engaging Sundaram
The challenge
Repetitive work slowing down output
To understand the firm’s pain points and define core objectives, Sundaram Business Services conducted a Business Re-Engineering Workshop. We found a lot of time was given to repetitive tasks, like verifying compliance documents and certifications, lowering the firm’s productivity. The accountants were missing deadlines while they prepared financial statements for critical stakeholders and fulfilled legal compliance requirements. Finally, hiring and retaining skilled accounting staff was a considerable challenge in a competitive environment – putting further pressure on administrative staff.
Outsourcing its transactional work would give the top-tier accounting firm more time to focus on the core activities, like client outreach and business development. Our extended office would also allow scale-up.
The approach
Streamlining for business transformation
In the workshop, we employed current state mapping, gap analysis and future map processing, and identified the following focus areas:
- Operational efficiency increases, reducing some processes from 20 touchpoints to 10 touchpoints.
- Areas to outsource – in the categories knowledge-based, judgment-based and rule-based – so the business could focus on value-added work.
- Altogether removing mundane tasks to mitigate inefficiencies that did not add value to the productivity chain.
The workshop also revealed opportunities to improve the firm’s privacy and security practices, such as data storage, identity and password protection, and share access.
Summary
Efficient management leads to business growth
The top-tier accounting firm’s engagement with Sundaram Business Services directly contributed to a 44% increase in its customer base. An improved capacity plan, including a scalable outsourcing arrangement, created significant efficiencies that freed up time to build relationships and focus on value-add services.
By leveraging Sundaram’s extensive knowledge and expertise, missed deadlines became a thing of the past and compliance timelines are consistently met. Lower hiring costs meant their continual search for full-time staff could come to an end. The firm shifted from a BPO to a KPO mindset, and over time we were engaged to support the business with end-to-end activities and strategic value-add financial information.
