Sales are the most prolific aspect of any business entity. It is the main objective of business existence. It represents the company’s positive or negative image to the outside world. We can state that Sales are the lifeblood of any business. As the old saying says ‘It takes years to win a customer and only seconds to lose one’. Customers are the pillars for the success of a business. Either we sell goods on a cash or credit basis, we should have supporting evidence. A Bill is a memo or voucher or document indicating goods sold, quantity, rate, name, and address of the customer. It’s a stamp of being sales made to the customer. The billing pattern varies from one company to another but principal elements of billing/invoicing remain the same. Following are the general information that a Sales Invoice contains:
Generally, Bookkeeping outsourcing includes the sale invoicing. Bookkeeping of sales invoicing required information such as; sales invoices, credit notes, and bank statements. Let’s discuss why sales invoicing is an important aspect of bookkeeping service:
Sales are the main indicator of business success. Recording of sales invoice creates fundamental evidence of sales being made. Proper recording of sales invoices enables the business to track cash flow, the amount due from customers. It also helps to forecast sales, formulate proper policy for debt collection, increasing the customer base, and determine government dues.
Recording sales, invoicing helps businesses streamline their cash collection. Recording of sales helps the business to identify the amount due from the customers’ day-wise such as 15 days, 30 days, 45 days, etc. This will help the sales manager to keep a track of customers and the collection dues on a timely basis.
The outsourced bookkeeping service provider uses the latest software for sales invoice entry. The software generates various reports like monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or even daily and weekly. Reports like day-wise outstanding debtors, cash collection, and stock summary help businesses to stay focused on business.
In case any undesired situations like sales return, lawsuit, variance in rate, and quantity; sales invoice protects the business against that. The physical document has more reliability and it is also made duly as per the concern of the client.
Recording of sales invoices not only gives accurate sales reporting, but it is immensely beneficial in determining the tax liability of the entity. Sales have a direct impact on tax. Increase in sales increase in tax liability and vice versa. From the viewpoint of government and economy, proper recording of sales becomes vital for a business organization. Recording of sale relies on invoice or document supporting to sales. Therefore, sales invoice generation and recording is equally an important part of Bookkeeping. Tax being a very sensitive matter many people find completing and filing tax returns to be daunting tasks. Although HMRC has tried to make the process quite simple for tax return filing. The tax forms with many boxes are still intimidating to many. Once you know what to fill in, the task becomes easier. But for this, you need time and also knowledge of tax matters. Therefore, it is wise to outsource tax returns process and filing to professionals to make certain that your tax returns are correct and you pay the legal minimum tax bills. In the UK, the tax returns that you normally may have to file are:
This is the return that you may have to file to report your individual earned and unearned income viz. employment, dividend, self-employment, partnership, property income, interest received, pension received, capital gains, etc. Based on the income tax calculation you pay the tax bill to HMRC.
This you have to file if you are running a partnership business. The partnership tax return (SA800) must be filed to HMRC along with the partners’ self-assessment tax returns (SA100), where they need to show their income from the partnership business and pay tax on it if any.
If you are running a company then file this through your company.
If you are VAT registered then you need to file quarterly VAT returns through HMRC’s Making Tax Digital scheme. Why is it important to process and file correct tax returns? In simple words, we can say that tax returns are the systems through which you submit details of your income, business purchase/sales (VAT), and company profit (corporation tax) and pay taxes if applicable. Therefore, you should file correct tax returns correctly in the order you give a true and fair picture of your income and pay the right tax bills. If you make mistakes or there are errors on your tax returns then HMRC will charge penalties which can be 100% of tax. How Outsourcing Tax Return Process Ensures Correct Tax Return Filings: There are a couple of aspects that you need to consider while filling out tax return forms whether you are doing it online or offline.
Although there are many boxes on tax return forms, it is not mandatory to fill out all of them. Based on your individual/business income sources you are required to fill in the right boxes of your self-assessment and Partnership Tax Returns. Similarly, on corporation tax return things may differ based on the nature of trades.
This aspect of processing tax returns requires experience and up-to-date knowledge. By claiming the correct expenses and allowances you can make sure that you pay the minimum tax bills.
Whether unintentionally or deliberately done, if there is a mistake or errors on tax returns then you may end up paying penalties and interests. But adept tax specialists can ensure that tax returns are processed properly and as per HMRC guidelines to avoid any discrepancies.
It is one of the important aspects, you cannot afford to delay or ignore any communication with HMRC whether it is standard or relating any tax investigation. Therefore, correct tax advice and help are must to handle the compliance with HMRC. Further, meeting the tax return filing deadlines is also very important. This is one concern that many business owners and individuals have while they are busy with business operations or personal work. Needless to say that you may pay penalties if you miss out on the deadlines. This is where a tax return process outsourcing firm with required systems in place can ensure that your tax returns are always filed on time. So, the bottom line is you must get your tax returns correct. And we at Doshi Outsourcing with years of experience in handling UK tax returns and compliances can promise that your tax returns whether personal or company tax returns will be dealt with 100% accuracy and you will pay the correct legal minimum taxes. As businesses expand and develop, data managing becomes one of their most meticulous tasks. Handling bulk data and/or having individual teams to manage the data of each department can be as challenging as it sounds. Not only would it be immensely time consuming but also slow down the efficiency processes of the business. Imagine you could get rid of the tedious data/invoice entry work and keep your focus on the core business and yet have the comfort of knowing that your data has been taken care of, and that too accurately!!! Thankfully, the world we live in today is smart. and one of its smart concepts is that of “Outsourcing Accounting and Bookkeeping Data Entry Service”. Benefits of Outsourcing Accounting Data Entry:
Invoices and/or Accounting data carry significant information for businesses. The inflow, the outflow, it’s all there. These must be precisely maintained for correct accounting and inventory handling. Manual invoices can be easier said than done, for processing. Outsourcing invoice & accounting data entry will ensure precise invoice data as the BPO firm will have a dedicated team to input the data, double-check minutely, should there be any errors, and validate the same before it is submitted to the business.
Professionals trained to do work as such, ensure faster invoice information. The inputs of the invoices/accounting data done by the offshore invoice data entry experts are dealt with such thorough efficiency that the task is accomplished faster and without compromising on the data quality. This ensures that the invoice /accounts data is on hand to the business in almost real-time, thus adding to the business by being more productive and profitable.
Business data must be handled with extreme confidentiality. Organizations opt for strict security checks when it comes to their data. But data management is not their core skill. For the diligent firms that provide accounting and bookkeeping data entry service. Data management is one of their core businesses and hence, they have invested in the most advanced and trusted technologies for information security. They also ensure the properly secured course of action to make sure that data is safe and secured during sorting, login, inputting, processing, storage, and transfer.
Outsourcing accounting data entry can save your business expenses. When you outsource your work, to a trusted BPO services firm, you save the infrastructure cost otherwise incurred to set up an in-house team. You also curtail the recruitment and IT expenses and even better, you don’t have to take the stress of training your team to start the invoice input. And, you will also minimize the operational expenses and other spending required in maintaining the in-house team. These entire collectively, save the business considerably.
When you connect and associate with the best in the outsourcing business your outsourced invoices/data processing are dealt with by most professionals, the best is expected without disappointment. Also, they are more than familiar with the latest of everything that has to do with accounting and inventory. By using the services of such trustworthy service providers, it gives the business the confidence of accurate entries and up to date result from a technical aspect as well.
By opting for the Data Entry Outsourcing Service you can rest assured that the invoice amount is reconciled with the actual amount to be paid to the client, in this manner avoiding the risks/errors made by making incorrect payments or duplicate payments, which recurrently happens due to deficient of skill among the in-house team members.
Do you think invoices/accounting data is one of the most important parts of your business and need to be synchronized? Then you just need to outsource invoice processing. With the process of an invoice in the hands of the experts whose core skill is handling invoices and data, there is an assurance of timely maintenance of records.
By choosing the right Outsourcing partner who is fully trained and trusted for effectiveness, you have made a wise choice. There will never be a need for the business administrator to receive an invoice. As usually there is an automatic way in which the service provider can receive invoices on behalf of the business, on an agreement. It is a wonderful strategy that saves small businesses from the stress of handling invoices/data. The above are some of the many benefits of Outsourcing Back Office work to an offshore company. It is worth considering. This adds reassurance that your data entry continues even after business hours, or if disaster strikes in your area, like a time in which we are living today, and fighting against the invisible enemy-COVID-19. In the present business scenario of outsourcing various services, there are many outsourcing firms, based in India, which offer you different services. They are mainly working that you may encounter in your day to day needs. Whilst utilizing the services of these firms, the important question arises: What should be the billing method? Should it be per-task, lump sum, or hourly? It would appear, that in most cases, the hourly rate of payment would be the best option for both, you, and the outsourcing firm to which you have given the job. Although some countries like the Philippines may offer a lesser per-hour rate compared to India, one has to consider the expertise which is being offered. Thus, the determining factor will not just be the rates, but you have to strike a balance between the rates you pay, and the expertise you get.
While agreeing to the commercials with your service provider, it is important that you don’t pay more, it is also important that you don’t pay very less. The service provider may at times agree to lesser-than-market rates, but then would not offer you the quality of the service you desire. The first step before outsourcing administrative work, is to determine the hours which it would take, to get the job completed. You have to make a fair assessment. The best way to do this is to assume that your own staff is doing the job. Then make an honest assessment, how much time they would have taken. One has to be very fair in this calculation. Once you estimate the time that would be taken (with a ten percent margin for exigencies), then you and your service provider have to agree on the same. Most of the professional outsourcing service providers have been doing this kind of business for long and with varied clients, so, if you have made an honest assessment of the time, it is most likely, that they would also find it in order and agree to the same. This would be a good starting point, as both of you have agreed to the time that would be taken to do the job. The next step is to calculate the hourly rates. This is the trickiest part of the deal, as there is no standard template or formula for the rates. One of the starting points would be to find the median hourly rates for similar kinds of work. This would, again, depend on the expertise required for that task. If you are giving a simple data entry kind of task, it would be done by the junior employees of the firm, who draw a lesser salary. Hence, the hourly rate would be less. But if you are giving a balance sheet preparation job, which would involve a certain level of expertise, then the charges would be higher. You need to have a fair idea of the wages market in the country to which you are outsourcing your job. India, due to its talented pool of experts, maybe slightly costly, but it gives you the best value for money which you could ever get. Opting for outsourcing admin work on hourly rates would be the best option in most cases. This not only is cost-effective, but also sets a time benchmark for the outsourcing firm, and you can be assured that your work will be done on time. You may also need to include a zero-error clause in your agreement. That is, if the outsourcing firm does an error, they have to rectify it, without billing it in your costs. This would ensure that your firm tries to do the work in an error-free way. However, in case you want to amend/modify anything once your work is done, you may need to pay extra for it, a fact which you need to reckon before you sign the agreement. Hence, with the plethora of firms offering outsourcing services, it would be advisable to stick to an established and prestigious firm, which may charge you a bit more than the market, but with your hourly rate arrangement, you can be assured, that you will get the most of your money spent. The UK government collects taxes from its people for the development of the country. Those taxes are national insurance, income tax, and VAT. VAT is in the third number that generates revenue for the government and is charged by HM’s revenue and customs. What is VAT? As the name is understood, it is a value-added tax on goods and services, which is an indirect tax, since it is paid by the seller to the government and not by the end-user (consumer) that bears the burden of this tax (who pays taxes to the merchant and the merchant pay it to the government). HMRC has decided the standard 20% VAT on many goods and services as well, there are some goods and services that fall into the 5% and 0% category. Who needs to pay VAT? All companies that do the business of VAT taxable goods and services and exceed the annual limit (currently £ 85,000 / – until March 2020) must register for VAT, business, or companies can register voluntarily if the volume of business is less than the threshold limit. All registered companies must pay this tax to the HMRC, known as the output tax, that they charged on their goods and services at the time of sale, also, this output tax that they can offset with the VAT incurred on the goods or services they own acquired (input tax). VAT exempt products: There are some products or services that do not fall under the VAT category means that no VAT is applied on items such as:
Products with 0% VAT:
What is the difference between VAT exempt and 0%? VAT exempt and 0 classified VAT is not the same as a product classified with 0 VAT can be taxed, but VAT exempt products cannot, therefore, the products with 0 VAT classification will be part of your turnover, but VAT-exempt products will not be part of your turnover. Finally, we can say that VAT is the third-highest main source of revenue for the government. And it plays an important role as it is applied to most of the goods and services though some are exempted and some in 0 rated VAT. Outsource VAT services to Doshi, a leading accounts outsourcing company India and free from the worry of VAT returns. We give cost-effective and professional Outsourced VAT return services that can cater to all your requirements. The main functions of a finance department include planning, organizing, auditing, accounting, and controlling its company's finances. The finance department usually prepares & produces the company's financial statements. This department coordinates and executes financial transactions and activities, such as bill payment, invoicing, payroll, etc. It assists in the audit process by providing information and data as requested. It takes care of the complete administrative tasks, such as filling out paperwork and filing records.
Since accounting services are not an exciting topic in the business world and despite being boring and non-core activity, handling finances and understanding cash flow is an integral part of an organization’s systematic functioning. Businesses may look for cost-effective solutions for administrative, data entry, or payroll services but it also needs to think about outsourcing the financial services. One of the reasons for the outsourcing finance department is that some businesses may make a mistake because of the complexities of handling Accounts. Accounting or finance can be a complex thing as it comes with a set of rules and regulations. Hiring an in-house accountant is always an option but it is best to take external help to deal with all the accounting processes. You can improve your finances and overcome market challenges by outsourcing. The benefits of outsourcing your financial services to the third party are many. To mention a few are: Time Saving-Finance handling is a very time-consuming task. It would not be a good choice to invest too much in accounting. So, outsourcing your accounts and financing department to the third party will be a good choice. Your outsourcing partner would efficiently handle the accounts and allow you to focus on other core activities of your company. This would save time. Professional Touch With Accuracy-Outsourcing firm will assign your financial data to its trained staff. An expert company will have a qualified & large team of accounting professionals for this process. It will be a win-win situation for both companies. The professionals will ensure that the tasks are completed accurately & on time. Allows you to be updated with the latest policies- A specialized outsourcing firm will always keep up with the latest financial policies, compliance policies, and accounting rules. It is very important to keep yourself updated in the new era. So, implementing new policies and changes is a part of the job of your outsourcing firm as well as good for your business. Advanced Technology – In this modern world technology makes an impact on the finance business. It is important to be aware of the latest applications that are best suited for their own business, which is not the case in some companies. In such a thing, outsourcing benefits a lot. The outsourcing companies are already using some of the latest technologies with expertise and also ready to invest in the right one. Customization And Scalability Of Processes: The external service providers offer you a solution that is customized in nature as per your requirement. An expert outsourcing company can scale up and down your accounting and financing processes according to your business needs. This will be really an added advantage to your business. Confidentiality & Security- The accounting function needs a firm standard of security and confidentiality of data. An experienced & responsible outsourcing company assures you with security, privacy, and protection to finance and accounts data. Also, it provides you with backup data on various servers with a good adversity recovery system. Round The Clock Service- When you outsource, your accounting and financial functions to the third party, it allows you to operate your operations round the clock, that is 24X7 with different time-zone advantage. With such an advantage, your business can be confident that its tasks would be taken care of in any scheduled timeline. The round-the-clock services added benefit to your organization. Economic Safety In Tough Times- As economic circumstances change, organizations also tend to change their workforce which could be a challenging process. Though, by outsourcing accounting processes and functions you can decrease your burden in such situations. In this way, external service providers help you in your difficult times as well. There are many other benefits besides the above for choosing an outsourcing partner for this complex process. For taking this big decision, you should go through the company’s current client base, their reviews, etc. to choose the right service provider. It might critical to select the best outsourcing company that provides desired results. But with deep market analysis, you will get the right partner. So, go for financial outsourcing. Bookkeeping involves recording all financial transactions of the business in a systematic and orderly manner. Therefore, bookkeeping is the recording phase which ensures that all the business transaction-related particular period is recorded and analysed accurately. Outsourcing bookkeeping may not be as easy as it seems. It involves precise accounting practices such as document identification, code allocation and inputting of transactions in a systematic method. Bookkeeping is a never-ending process until the business ends. The bookkeeper plays a pivotal role in the presentation of books of accounts. It requires the continuous involvement of a bookkeeper to have correct and accurate information for accounting purposes. Sometimes, it may be possible for businesses facing stagnant growth, which may be difficult to handle as time passes. Businesses cannot afford to avail of high technology, experienced staff, and resources. This affects the business and it may decay gradually if some strategic and wise decision is not taken. The decision to uplift business from stagnant to hike is to Outsource. Yes, it is 100% true! That business that outsourced its bookkeeping process continues to benefits in many ways. The following are the reasons why bookkeeping should be outsourced
If you own an accounting firm or work with an accounts outsourcing company, you can understand that running out of paper for an accounting firm is a very challenging task as in an accounting firm, where the final accounts were made, the customer needs to share their information of accounts with the accounts outsourcing company, this information may contain sales and purchase invoices, business details, P&L details, income, and expense details, as well as company bank details, and this information is very personal and the outsourced accountant works on it and provides the final result in the form of final accounts. Now, what about the documents that you provided to the accounts outsourcing company as raw data to complete the accounts? Definitely, after some time, they need to discard them, and for this, the accounts outsourcing company needs to pay a huge amount, as it is not easy to discard the large number of papers that contain very confidential information. Also, accounts outsourcing companies need to spend a lot of time managing documents; they need to pay a higher labor force to keep the documents in a certain location and save them from various natural disasters. Providing paperless office for accountants can solve the problem of accounts outsourcing companies, as there are many advantages of the paperless office that helps the outsourced accountant in several ways, such as:
If you ask an accountant how long it takes to find out the previous year's information in a file and check or combine the information with the current year's file, definitely there will be a huge time difference between the files. paper documents and digital documents, as he needs to discover the file and match the records to the current year, including going to the storage location to search the files in the cupboards, finding the right file with the right year and matching the year current data, then put it back in its storage location and go to its place, while, digitally, it is more convenient to search and check the records which take less time that can be used to improve efficiency and production.
In any accounting firm, there are a lot of roles that need to be managed properly and that management requires an appropriate location, overhead costs to keep records and time. By opting for the paperless system, an accounting outsourcing company can reduce all these expenses, including the costs of printing, ink, paper, stationery, etc. Besides, space can be used to further expand services.
If an accounting outsourcing company runs out of paper and they keep their data in digital form, they can assign accessibility to a few authentic people just so that the Client's Confidentiality remains secure.
Digitally, we can protect our data by updating our system, software and installing the latest antivirus systems, and we can relax while in the paper document it is necessary to keep them in files, cabinets, stores and which can be stolen or lost by fire, by the rat, insects, etc.
The most attractive feature that a paperless job is providing is that you can access the documents from anywhere at any time, if one is not available at your workplace, they will also be able to access your data and work will not suffer.
The last, but not least, to infect the very important advantage of the paperless office for the accounting firm is that it is environment friendly. 24 trees are needed to produce a ton of standard office paper, which is quite large. After all, it is a social responsibility to contribute to the environment, turning green and saving the environment, these small steps can make a big difference. After studying all these points of running out of paper, we can conclude there are various advantages of a paperless office. If there is a paperless office for accountants, they can perform much better and it is a broad way to decrease the cost and increase the efficiency of the accounts outsourcing company. Account management, although it is not an overnight process, it takes time and planning, but after implementing the paperless accounting culture, the accounts outsourcing company can take advantage of the benefits of digitization and perform more effectively. All the companies, institutions and organisation have administrative work which has to complete within the stipulated time and has a strict deadline that has to be followed. Administrative work is the core support of the business and can have an impact on the revenue as well as the growth of the business. Every Insolvency organisation have own as well as a lot of administrative work of their clients. Insolvency work consists of huge paperwork which has to be completed on time and also requires to deal with the government officials. Outsourcing insolvency administration work to India will help insolvency practitioners to focus on their clients and clients feels safe as they are being attended timely. Clients will realize that they have come to the right place for their Insolvency work. Every client wants their case to be taken on priority and handled with care, without any rework or error. Insolvency administrative work outsourcing to India will eliminate all these types of hurdles and the Outsourced company will ensure that all the work is delivered on time and error-free. The insolvency administrative work may also involve dealing with a client on behalf of the Insolvency practitioner regarding providing the status of their case or dealing with the queries of the client or the government authorities which can be done by an outsourced company in India. Administrative work can involve services which may differ from practitioner to practitioner. As we move towards globalization, outsourcing insolvency administrative work has become very easy, cost-saving and effective services which can be done from any part of the world. Outsourcing Insolvency Administrative work to India has many perks for the Insolvency practitioners like an organised and dedicated staff for their process who will ensure that all the work is error-free and is delivered on time. An organisation can agree on the Service Level Agreement (SLA) with their required conditions with proper transparency. The outsourcing insolvency organisation does not have to worry about hiring employees at their end as all the work will be done by the offshore unit in India. Outsourcing Administration work will reduce cost and time for recruitment and training. This will also reduce the work of the Human Resource department and there would be less compliance part to be handled from the organisational point of view. The organisation or the Insolvency practitioner can focus on the client and the higher value services of advising their clients, as all of the work would be taken care of by the back office in India. Outsourcing insolvency administrative work improves quality and maintains standards. Also, it opens opportunities for business expansion and increases speed to capture more clients. If the clients are satisfied and happy then they will recommend more clients which will result in more business without marketing expense. Client recommending other client is an indirect way of marketing the business and will also make a mark in the market concerning the reputation. The increase in the reputation of the organisation or that practitioner will help them to capture more market share. Insolvency administrative work requires skill and India have a lot of talented people who can handle the process very well to the expectation as required. Outsourcing Insolvency work can be done by any organisation or any individual Practitioner irrespective of any number of cases. Outsourcing in India has always been beneficial and helped both the outsourcing and outsourced organisation leading to a win-win situation. BPO (business process outsourcing) isaword that we often heard thrown about us in India in the mid-’90s.Soon it was akin to a baby boom. India was engulfed in the birth of a newfound job opportunity for the masses who could earn quick money all from working at a desk with their computers. BPO in other words, means you are using a third-party to handle non-primary business activities for your company. Companies choose to outsource when they decide that another, more specialized company can handle a business task better than they can in-house. To stay ahead of the competition, control costs of operation, increase quality, and improve productivity, reduce time–to–market and offer innovative solutions, companies consider outsourcing.But essentially, money is at the core of all reasons for outsourcing. It was Raman Roy’s well- defined strategies and leadership skills that spearheaded the BPO plan in India. By 1999, Raman is believed to have created more than 35,000 new jobs in India and indirectly enabled the employment of over 700,000 people. He is often regarded as the “Father of the Business Process Outsourcing Industry in India”. BPO is often divided into two main types of services: back office and front office.
Back-office services include internal business processes, such as billing or purchasing. Front-office services Pertain to the contracting company’s customers, such as marketing and tech support. These can be largely divided into the four following subdivisions-
The term “Risk” has been defined as the “measurable probability of the negative deviation of a target value from a reference value” (Jorion and Khoury 1996). To understand the risk quotient, it is necessary to identify the gamut of possible undesirable outcomes that could occur with regard to an outsourcing agreement, as well as the probability of occurrence of such outcomes. The term “Operational risk” is the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed processes, people and systems or from external events. The following lists the event types with some examples for each category: 1. Internal Fraud- misappropriation of assets, tax evasion, bribery 2. External Fraud- theft of information, hacking damage, third-party theft, and forgery 3. Employment Practices and Workplace Safety- discrimination, workers compensation, employee health and safety 4. Clients, Products, & Business Practice- market manipulation, antitrust, improper trade, product defects, fiduciary breaches, account churnin 5. Damage to Physical Assets -natural disasters, terrorism, vandalism 6. Business Disruption & Systems Failures -utility disruptions, software failures, hardware failures 7. Execution, Delivery, & Process Management -data entry errors, accounting errors, failed mandatory reporting, negligent loss of client assets. Inexperienced Customer/Vendor, Failing interfaces (human interaction), Misuse of Trust, Loss of Strategic business flexibility, and Loss of competencies “added risks” when the same is outsourced to an offshore location like India. Relatively poor Telecommunications in India. Cultural differences, Accents, and Language ability coupled with Time-zone differences, Political Instability, have been cited as other risks relating to outsourcing to India. But the two biggest Risks of all are-
It is also observed that the breach of personal data security is more visible in the areas of voice-based outsourcing, with employees often gaining access to customer ids, pin codes, and other confidential data. Moreover, the security risk is magnified in specific strategic processes such as financial reporting, tax, and legal support, and in the areas of healthcare and insurance. Service providers are aware of the privacy and IP related concerns of their clients and in a large number of cases, are compliant with global standards which are now considered ‘must-haves’ for the bigger companies. Further, most clients have taken steps in the areas of physical security, technological initiatives, policies, ethical guidelines on their own initiative, to ensure that data confidentiality is maintained. Regular training on issues of security awareness, nondisclosure agreements, screening of employees, and periodic compliance audits are some of the best practices that have been introduced. In addition to the above, clients have also begun to detail specific steps that they expect the service providers to take to ensure data confidentiality. Security clauses at network and data levels are built into contracts. Further, technological arrangements between clients and service-providers may ensure that offshore employees are unable to enter the client’s system, with all offshore inputs being mirrored onto the master database on a periodic basis. Despite such stringent measures, service providers often find loopholes in the system and resort to security frauds that can cause long-lasting damage to the client both in its monetary dealings as well as its brand image. As in all business clients soon reach out to other players and expand their offshore scope of outsourcing. With ethical practices, India should clean up its act and retain its image of the BPO baby boomer for all times to come |
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