Offshoring Spreads Its Wings

At Agfa, a Belgian-based imaging technology company, executives evaluated offshoring as far back as three or four years ago, but they have been far more focused on operational performance improvements. Tim Coakley, CFO of Agfa's North American health-care business, says he doesn't plan to offshore work anytime soon, even though a benchmarking study showed the unit's finance costs were higher than they should be.

"We wanted to make sure our internal shop was in good order before we considered an offshore provider," explains Coakley. "We felt that if we gave them less than perfect processes, we would be trading one headache for another." If anything, he adds, offshoring has moved further down Agfa's priority list as the company continues to adjust to a major global reorganization.

Another common reservation concerns the ability of offshore vendors to perform higher-level tasks and provide insight into individual industries. "There isn't really one company that has specific capabilities that would suit our needs," says Simon Newton, vice president of North Atlantic finance and shared services at Kimberly-Clark. For offshore providers to continue to grow, he says, "they have to start understanding our industry and providing innovative solutions."

Given the steadily increasing sophistication of offshore outsourcers, that may be just a matter of time. — K.O'S.

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