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...and which trends outsourcing companies should take into account
A few years ago many small and medium-sized businesses readily handed their accounting, payroll, HR administration and many other business processes to external providers. But since 2022 outsourcing companies have noticed changes in client requests, largely driven by the push for import substitution in business software. Ekaterina Menshikova, sales director at UCMS Group, explains which trends took shape in the accounting outsourcing market in 2024.Ekaterina Menshikova, sales director at UCMS Group.
Ekaterina Menshikova is sales director and head of the accounting outsourcing department at UCMS Group. She has more than 10 years of experience in managing and improving business processes. She has led the UCMS Group sales department since 2019 and is responsible for developing and implementing the company's sales and marketing strategy in 13 countries, as well as for negotiations with major prospective clients.
In 2022 business process outsourcing companies found that many of their clients had been disconnected, or were being disconnected, from foreign accounting systems. The outsourcing company could not continue to deliver the service. It first had to implement a new system and help clients rebuild their business processes.
At the same time, in 2022 many companies looked for ways to keep using the familiar foreign IT systems, albeit with restrictions. But by the following year it became clear that these hopes were in vain. Many foreign companies took the final decision to leave the Russian market and switch off existing users.
So the need to implement domestic IT solutions only grew in 2024. Here the average company had two options:
Many chose outsourcing companies because they aim for a long-term partnership rather than a one-off implementation.
In our observations, before 2022 most companies that asked for an accounting system implementation also came for accounting outsourcing. Now 20% of companies want implementation only and plan to keep the books with in-house specialists.
One of the main arguments for in-house - running business processes with your own specialists - is data security: data does not leave the company perimeter. Yet the infrastructure of such businesses often fails even simple security checks. In that situation an outsourcer can provide sufficient security, because it has the necessary infrastructure, regular audits and risk coverage from insurance companies.
The market has rolled back to the level of the 2000s, when we had to explain to companies and entrepreneurs what outsourcing is and what its advantages are. Top outsourcers had no problem finding clients and competed with each other. Now we are competing with in-house again.
Moving to a new accounting system inevitably adds complexity: new forms have to be understood and processes adapted. Employees have to work this out on their own alongside their day-to-day work.
That is why a new type of request has appeared: hiring outsourcing company specialists for a period to help test and configure the system. For example, an alcohol supplier implemented an ERP system but realised it could not manage on its own. It brought in UCMS Group specialists for five months to support its internal team.
There will hardly be many such requests, but there will be some. Finding a highly qualified specialist with the right implementation and system skills is very difficult, especially for a temporary period.
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