On Firm Financial Footing: How Secure is Your Service Provider?
October 2008
Much of the concern being experienced by business leaders right now stems from uncertainty about how the current economic drama will play out. It may even be keeping some readers awake at night. We believe the best antidote to this anxiety is knowledge of exactly where things stand. Knowing your organization’s exact position in terms of financial security and operational readiness can go a long way toward steadying nerves. While we can’t speak with authority on the answers to these questions as they relate to an organization’s broader balance sheet, security or readiness, we can definitely help put to rest any questions about them as they pertain to your services procurement programs. Since the contingent workforce has become an increasingly significant spend area for so many companies, establishing clear metrics of the programs engaged to oversee human capital management has become similarly important.
It has been a primary goal at Volt Consulting since our inception more than a dozen years ago to construct and maintain the most highly disciplined processes possible. Whether it’s implementation, billing, reporting, compliance or other areas touched by our solutions, Volt Consulting has a history of developing best practices to take the uncertainty out of our clients’ services procurement endeavors. Visibility, control, accountability, and replicable results are all tonics to the worried mind of the HR, procurement, and executive leader. As it happens, Volt Consulting knows a great deal about delivering visibility, control and accountability. And while it can be easy to see the positive benefits of a services procurement solution in play, it is not so easy to get a comprehensive view into every area where the solution works to ensure financial and operational health and wellbeing. This is why we have written white papers aimed at illustrating how HR, procurement and company officers can attain a clear and detailed understanding of the relative success of their services procurement programs; either through Volt Consulting or any other provider.
One white paper entitled, "Calculating the Return on Investment in a Managed Services Program for Contingent Workforce Procurement", provides a highly detailed methodology for arriving at a concrete picture of how much an organization is actually saving by outsourcing the services procurement business processes. It can also be used to calculate how much a company is spending on these processes if they are still performing them internally. For the latter group, the calculation may be especially enlightening once it becomes clear just what level of resources could be reallocated through the outsourcing of these functions to a qualified service provider.
Another white paper entitled, "Determining the Fiscal Security of a BPO Provider" examines the considerations any organization should take into account when engaging any provider of business process outsourcing services. Even before the current market instability, there existed serious risk for organizations employing BPO service providers. This was painfully illustrated by the collapse of Ensemble Chimes Group earlier this year. That unfortunate event illuminated the need for BPO providers to maintain escrow accounts keeping supplier payment capital separate from the providers’ own operating capital. This particular white paper offers suggestions regarding what to look for when seeking a services procurement solution provider. It also details Volt Consulting's historical pattern of best practice execution, especially in the area of fiduciary responsibility. Since inception, Volt Consulting has offered Centralized Bankruptcy Remote Escrow Accounts (CEBREATM) for all client programs, and this paper examines the philosophical underpinnings for our pursuit of this strategy.
Between these two informative resources, readers can effectively assuage any insecurity they may be experiencing in the face of the unsettling economic news; at least as it pertains to the health and wellbeing of their services procurement programs. Visit our resources page to register and receive these two informative documents; then get a better night’s sleep.
Sincerely,
Larry D. Kaylor