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Hi Richard, good to catch up with you last week.
Outsourcing is really something of a hidden secret and very much under utilised. Those practitioners complaining of being too busy should consider it not just to clear a backlog but as an on-going part of the practice's compliance function.
I wish I'd started using outsourcing much earlier.
Whilst I understand the uses and benefits I couldn't bring myself to do it.
Previous employers have done it and it was like a dirty little secret hidden in the small print of the engagement letter.
If I knew a solicitor or financial advisor was sending work abroad I wouldn't be impressed and would definitely choose a bank with a UK call centre over one overseas.
In my opinion it's a sorry state of affairs if everybody just ships work off to India.
Why?
If you have two suppliers of resources:
A. Is unreliable, expensive, difficult to get hold of, work is of questionable quality but is based just down the road.
B. Reliable, hard working, excellent communicator, less expensive and based overseas.
Would you chase A just because of locality.
Use B, provide a better quality service to clients and keep fees down.
No I wouldn't but that's not the point as it's not a fair question.
On the same service levels I would always choose local.
I wouldn't risk the damage to my reputation by selling the soul of my practice overseas.
Clients wouldn't like it as we've had quite a few come to us from practices already outsourcing to India and they are not happy about it, but that's just my experience and opinion.
"...selling the soul of my practice overseas..."
That's harsh - outsourcing part of the back office function - the bit in the middle that isn't client facing. Giving you more time to focus on providing value to clients.
Each to his/her own.
Do you have any objections to shipping work off to Receipt Bank for a machine to do what a trainee used to do.
I think your comment about choosing a bank with a Uk call centre not really valid as I don’t imagine clients have to ring India to discuss their vAt as all client management would be done from the UK it’s only the basic transactional stuff that would be outsourced
Do you you object to a Romanian who picks the fruit you eat or the Polish plumber that fixes your tap
We are are operating in a global economy now, the biggest threat we probably have is not embracing technology and keeping pricing high for basic services as if these Indians start approaching clients direct they will clean up the compliance work.
Appreciate the comment about ReceiptBank.
However, I think picking fruit and fixing a tap is slightly different to sending sensitive data half way round the world.
I've been put off it in the past by the way firms have kept it hidden from clients and I think that is the main issue.
We all don't like it but are all to blame.
When the like for like insurance quotes come in at £500 and £350 we go for the £350 one. The £500 one has UK call centres and the £350 one Overseas call centres.
I think at the smaller end of practice, outsourcing isn't being done to save money, it's being done to improve operations. Getting a good qualified to work - and stay - in a small practice is near impossible.
In an ideal world it's the way forward, particularly in view of MTD.
However, we do not live in the perfect world. I am very uneasy working with an unknown quantity and the possible risks. Management and control is near impossible if issues arise. If I was very comfortable with the people I was working with, in terms of reliability and quality of service I would make the step.
We have seen some of the nightmare IT scenarios stemming from overseas services. How many have the resources to deal with something like that? I would struggle.
I have only recently taken on a client whose work was outsourced to India. The work was nothing short of a mess, and certainly not something I would put my name to.