Finance Execs Plan to Shift More Work Overseas

More than one-third of financial executives say their companies’ use offshore outsourcing, and nearly 55 percent of those firms plan to use more offshore workers in the next two years, according to a new survey conducted for CFO magazine.

Of those firms that use offshore services, 31 percent send finance and accounting tasks overseas, while 17 percent are off-shoring customer relations/call center work, according to “Offshoring Spreads Its Wings.”

Collections oriented work is an important segment of the work being sent overseas, CFO reports. Among the firms that send finance and accounting work overseas, nearly 54 percent offshore their accounts receivable job functions. 

India remains a popular destination but high turnover, depreciation of the dollar and wage increases has some firms turning to the Philippines and other countries.

Still, many companies are hesitant to send work overseas. More than half the finance executives said they have no plans to “outsource offshore,” and more than 13 percent that have done so said they didn’t save any money, CFO reports. The magazine cites another survey that found that one-third of companies cancelled an offshore business process outsourcing deal in the past year.

Research house Gartner has estimated that offshore work could grow to be worth as much as $100 billion in 2011, up from $35 billion in 2006.