Is Outsourcing For You?
The Professional Practices market is facing important changes. Clients demand more for less and many professional services firms respond with an agile focus on operational efficiency which is maximising opportunities while reducing costs. The number of firms embracing business process outsourcing has grown steadily in the last three years bringing opportunities into the professional services market.
Firms try to maintain a healthy client base and differentiate strategy in order to both get more work, be attractive to the best talent and to be profitable. In addition, risk and regulatory tensions keep high. Macroeconomic climate, IT and data security are all major challenges for many companies, especially in an environment of business partnering through outsourcing models.
Professional services businesses attract high skilled consultants whose role is essential in order to achieve the growth the industry is looking for. Firms are trying to find new ways to motivate the people within their organisations. With limited finance available to reward staff, the career development programmes are being the important tool in motivating staff.
As part of the resource management to drive growth, firms are focusing on two key factors. Firstly 29% of firms are planning to improve their property costs by reducing office space. Secondly firms are working out how IT can be used to enhance service delivery. Investment in IT will keep increasing in the industry driven by requirements for improved efficiency and better management information. Additionally, IT systems are continuously required to be connected with client systems and fit with other internal systems.
London
London is the corporate and financial centre and is the main market for professional services businesses mainly management consultancy, financial management, bookkeeping and accounting and auditing services. Disproportionately high shares of business locations are in London and the South East because larger shares of head offices are in these regions.
Due to this London’s dominance over industry revenue distribution, the other regions’ shares of revenue generally tend to be slightly lower than their respective establishment numbers. Additionally it is important to highlight that the financial management services are used by a wide variety of businesses across all sectors of the economy. As a result, the distribution of establishments in this segment tends to follow the distribution of economic activity across the United Kingdom.
For the small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) CGYL focuses on targeting its customer in the London Area where more than 85% of companies are classified as SME. These businesses in the restaurant industry don’t just require require payroll services, bookkeeping, and tax preparation, but profitability analysis, commercial finance analysis, strategic planning among other management accounting services .
They are concerned about losing control, but can generally be convinced of using outsourced accounting and bookkeeping with cost analysis. Many do not need a full-time bookkeeper, but a part-time role may help. With the stakes higher, these businesses can make greater use of management accounting services, especially as most cannot afford a dedicated CFO. The full-service industry has an annual revenue of more 21 billion in the UK employing more than 550.000 people across approximately 30000 businesses.
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