Church's Chicken Outsources Accounting (India)

[OhioChick]

SAN ANTONIO, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Church's Chicken has become the first U.S. corporation to outsourced all its financial and accounting work to another country.

The Texas company hired WNS Global Services, which sends much of its work to India, to cut operating expenses.

WNS said Tuesday in a news release it will handle accounts receivables, accounts payables, bank account reconciliation and general ledger maintenance for Church's.

As part of the deal, WNS will also maintain the enterprise resource planning platform that provides both technology and processing services for the finance and accounting functions that are being outsourced.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061128-015106-5961r

WNS in Church's Chicken outcourcing deal
The Associated Press November 28, 2006, 1:00PM EST

Fast-food restaurant operator Church's Chicken on Tuesday said it will partner with WNS Holdings Ltd., a business outsourcing provider with operations centers in India.

WNS will handle all of Church's financial and accounting processes; including accounts receivable, accounts payable, bank account reconciliation and ledge maintenance.

Church's said the agreement should make it more efficient and give the company the means to open 15 more restaurants during the five-year term of the contract.

WNS American Depositary Shares gained 53 cents at $34.34 on the New York Stock Exchange.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8LM7IOG0.htm

[Ian David]

1. There is a certain satisfaction I get from seeing the accountants outsourced

I mean, how many accounts, at how many other companies, laid the groundwork to outsource how many of their own co-workers?

[Sapere aude]

5. Accountants do not make the decision. What good is it for us to fight among ourselves?

That is what weakens us. I am an accountant and I do not make decisions I just keep score.

[Ian David]

14. That's a very good point. We need to save the accountants too, then. n/t

[Sapere aude]

17. Thanks. We need to save all of us.

[Ian David]

20. First they came for the Customer Service Reps, and I didn't speak out... n/t

[Nickster]

29. Not to mention, the accountants are the ones that can find the criminal acts that

are taking place in a corporation.

[Deja Q]

9. Wait until the lawyer industry goes offshore too.

Zdnet reported on the idea a few months ago...

Also note, have you noticed the number of Indian "immigrants"? How many are really immigrants, and how many are "temporary workers"?

[Tight_rope]

12. Considering that 95% of the worlds lawyers are in the US.

I think that would be a fabulous idea. Less lawsuits for sure.

[Esra Star]

16. You can safely bet that every industry is investigating the

possibility of incorporating an offshore component.
I don't think that the party has even got going yet.
Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore.

[Sapere aude]

2. Shit, I am an accountant. My profession can be outsourced too!

No one is safe anymore. At least I am close to retirement. I feel bad for young people. They will have to emigrate to another country to find a job rather than relocate to another city.

[Ian David]

8. Or, they can just be re-insourced

They can work from home for a call-center based in India, for pay well below minimum wage.

1) Company has Customer Service Reps making $10/hour plus benefits.
2) Company outsources CSRs to India at a rate of $3/hour.
3) Call Center in India forwards calls to Americans, working from home, for $1.50 per hour without benefits.

[OhioChick]

10. Accountants are next for the axe........

Shortage of Accountants in the US Leads to Tax Returns Prepared from India

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Pune, Maharashtra, India, 11/25/2006 - ValueNotes estimates that in 2006, approximately 360,000 Returns were prepared by Indian vendors, garnering $40 million in revenues. Shortage of accountants and the grueling tax season are the prime offshoring drivers.


A report by Pune-based ValueNotes, estimates that as many as 360,000 US tax returns were prepared in India in 2006. It anticipates further growth, estimating at least 1.6 million returns will be prepared here in 2011. The estimates are conservative and the potential is much larger at 22 million returns per year by 2011, but actual offshoring will be limited by CPA firms’ inhibitions about offshoring. However, competitive pressures could force many more firms to offshore.

Says Glen Keenan, President of Xpitax, a facilitating outfit “The whole outsourcing business requires quite a shift in thinking for the CPA firms, so comfort factor has to be really high in order to do that”.

The accounting and audit services are relatively new in offshoring and are gradually gaining maturity with each passing tax season. Unlike other services, which are traditionally outsourced due to cost pressures, the demand for Returns offshoring is stems from the lack of accountants and excessive workload during the “tax season”. The number of CPAs and other qualified accountants in the US are just not enough to meet the increasing demand from increasing tax compliance, Sarbanes–Oxley related work, estate planning, advisory etc. The demand-supply mismatch has led to severe competition for experienced accountants and salaries are skyrocketing, even at starting levels. CPA firms are discovering that offshored Returns are not only turned around faster, but are also 40% to 60% cheaper. CPA firms after initial success with Returns preparation is slowly sending more work offshore: bookkeeping, financial statements analysis, etc.
http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/11053/

[xchrom]

24. church's outsourcing exemplifies what will be a

strong trend for accounting -- and your article brilliantly lays it out.

it's been predicted that people will gong to india to have their individual tax returns done.

[Bhaisahab]

26. i used to work for Hewlett-Packard in Bangalore

HP had outsourced most of its accounting ops into the centre, from all over the world. the place was bursting at the seams with young accountants. When i joined the unit, as a internal communications pro, and out of sheer desperation coz back in 2001 the only jobs available in india were call center or tech jobs, there were 300 accountants in there. When i quit two and a half years later, there were close to 1000. Carly F, who was HP CEO that time, came visiting and waxed eloquent about how important the center was for HP's bottomline and how great the workers there were (of course, no one with half a brain could miss the colonial condescension in the tone of her voice).
whatever, the center has now moved on and is apparently taking up accountancy services for other multinational companies looking to outsource. nestle is one of their clients i believe.

as for me, i got out. i now work as an independent filmmaker and writer. and i'm BLOODY relieved about it. i dont feel guilty when i come to DU any more.

[Ian David]

3. Who's left to be outsourced? There's nobody here but us chickens! n/t

[marmar]

4. I wish they'd outsource their greasy ass chicken....

Get that crap out of the country.

[Dr.Phool]

6. They outsourced their chicken livers

So I quit going there.

[Selatius]

7. It is because Indian workers enjoy weaker labor protections than US workers.

What would happen if labor activists in India decided to unionize as many workers in the country as much as possible? What would American corporations do? The answer is rather predictable, given that they were upset that China would actually pass improvements to labor protections in China seen here:

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=103&ItemID=11464

[datadiva]

11. I don't like their chicken

but now I won't be going there for sure. Pretty soon I'll have to grow my own food if this keeps up!

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. I've long wanted us to be governed by the French or the Germans -

better still, the Scandiavians. Not as a colony of course, but in the capacity of outsourcing employer. What's good for the goose, is good for the gander.

In my dreams...

[0rganism]

15. moving up the chain to the corporate boardroom

I'm no fan of outsourcing, but there's some part of me that would just love to see a few CEO/CFO types get offshored.

[Sapere aude]

18. Some day Americans will be sneaking into other countries to find work.

Soon we will be the illegal immigrants. All our jobs will be outsourced so we will have to move to another country to find work. Their residents will not want us there to compete with them so we will have to sneak in and work for less than the locals.

What goes around comes around.

[brentspeak]

19. Hey! WNS shares went up!! We're all better off in the long-run!!

:sarcasm:

[sarcasmo]

21. Another company I will have to boycott. Are their any left?

[Anakin Skywalker]

22. Yay! Let's Drink to Future Problems.

;)

[The Anti-Neo Con]

23. What happens when all jobs are outsourced to India?

I think the only people employed will be the police/corrections because there will be so much crime.

[Orrin_73]

30. Not all jobs will be outsourced

like hamburger flipping or a janitorial job at wal-mart will stay. I heard they pay 5.15$ an hour.

[NuttyFluffers]

25. i long for the outsourcing of middle and upper management

the savings, just from bonuses and golden parachutes alone, would be mind blowing!

[HughBeaumont]

27. "Gee mommy, why does our economy suck rhino ass?"

"Because rich people simply don't have ENOUGH money, Jimmy."

Most of the "21st Century Jobs" that Scotty McClellan told workers to get skills for are also getting a jump start offshore while not making that big a headway here.

Not getting what all of us are going to do for a living, elected representatives and CEOs. Can you please tell us? We're not business people and we don't know where the economy is going, nor do we know what the next killer app/silver bullet is. It's also highly foolish of you to expect the average Joe Sixpack to plan his life around such speculation.

Retraining is a joke of a solution; I've put some info in my journal as to why. Louis Uchitelle in The Disposable American also outlines why that's a paper-clad answer with real life examples of recently laid-off union mechanics.

Entrepreneurship isn't a long term fix either, since mergers and giant chains killed that dream. You'd be hard pressed to find a service that a corporation cannot provide and already doesn't have you at a cost disadvantage before you even file for the license.

You'd better fix this damned thing, because we cannot. America isn't going to be a nation of 138 million small business owners, nanotechnologists, shelf-stockers and janitors.

Oh wait, I forgot. Because you got yours, you could give two shits. OK. Have fun turning the USA into South America. Hope that works out for you. Never mind that when the middle class does well, the rich do even better.

[Nickster]

28. YAY! Just two fricking days before I graduate with my accounting degree! What great news, BAH!