On June 21, in Moscow, at the "Strategy: Outsourcing 2012" forum, Sergei Tiunov, General Director of the BDO outsourcing division delivered a report.
The event was attended by heads of leading companies providing outsourcing services and of the largest client companies. They discussed the tendencies of the global market of outsourcing and the dynamics of Russia's market, the legislation-related problems of the industry and the industrial standards.
Sergei Tiunov delivered his report during the plenary session of the forum. The report was entitled "Outsourcing and Modern IT Solutions Concerning Company Business Processes". Mr. Tiunov related the principal tendencies of Russia's and the international market of business process outsourcing. According to him, over the past several years, there has been a global tendency towards the increase of the number of international transactions, client companies entering agreements with providers for servicing their divisions located in various countries and regions. Because providers have to work with a large number of territorially widespread divisions, which very often are under different jurisdictions, project management becomes rather complicated.
Mr. Tiunov also noted that, lately, a considerable number of clients have opted against the introduction of universal corporate systems in favour of narrowly specialized integrated solutions. Clients' requirements to business analytics and information security have become more stringent. And, of course, in Russia, just like everywhere else, prices have been increasingly affected by competition.
Under these conditions, the only way to reduce the cost of labour and other costs is the introduction of modern informational solutions. "Under the modern conditions, – Mr. Tiunov said, – an outsourcing company either is an innovational company or it does not survive. By innovation, the word everyone is somewhat tired of, we mean not as much scientific inventions as an innovational approach to business process management and the active use if IT systems. We are interested in the automation of all business processes and the possibly total rejection of paper document circulation, which for us is a way of cutting costs. Besides, any large outsourcing company is forced to take some of its production centers to regions where the cost of labor is low. The successful management of widely spread teams is also impossible without using the modern means of group work. Finally, for outsourcing companies, the automation of business processes works better than for individual clients due to the large numbers effect". However, in Russia the transition of the industry of financial services to the virtual environment is slowed down by certain legislative factors and the particulars of doing business in Russia.
First of all, the normative base concerning electronic document circulation is being formed too slowly and, at this time, is very fragmentary. This is why, very often, the good intentions of financial and IT companies, concerning the introduction of paperless document circulation run into a concrete wall. For instance, despite the fact that the law concerning exchanging electronic invoices has been adopted, there is still no paperless connection between various commercial services operators. That is, if certain companies are serviced by different operators, they cannot exchange documents. As previously, an awful lot of compulsory paper documents are involved in labour relations, even though right at this time, applicants and employers who have electronic signatures could, theoretically, enter into agreements and cooperate remotely.
Transition to paperless electronic document circulation is also slowed down by many Russian companies' being accustomed to the specifically local ways of doing business. Electronic systems require business processes to be impeccably transparent, strictly regulating any corrections after the completion of documents and operations. The impossibility of making free post factum replacement of and corrections in documents repels certain kinds of users.
Despite the above, Russia has made a number of steps towards the introduction of paper-free document circulation. This includes the approval of electronic formats of delivery notes and acceptance acts, and the affirmation of the status of an electronic document circulation operator, and the going into force of the new law on digital signatures. On May 23, 2012, the last document necessary for the functioning of the system of paper-free VAT accounting was approved and the Roskomnadzor began scheduled checks as to adherence to the law on handling personal data.
It is worth noting that many tendencies mentioned by Sergei Tiunov go well along with the principal tendencies of the development of outsourcing mentioned, in her report, by Jeanette Nyden, the outsourcing guru, professor of the Tennessee University and the author of the well-known book entitled "Vested Outsourcing". Actually, this is an all-new approach to outsourcing transactions, based on the win-win model, reflecting the changed expectations of customers who, today, count not just on cutting their costs but also expect certain innovational approaches assuring better efficiency and the increase of the share of complex transactions that include lots of variable components.
