A Back Office is that part of a firm or organization where tasks dedicated to running the company take place. Typically, the back office would be those manufacturing or developing the products or involved in administration with no interaction with the customers. Other tasks include IT departments that keep the phones and computers running, financial accounting, and HR activities. A back-office system will also keep a record of the company’s sales and purchase transactions, and update the inventory as needed apart from producing and maintaining invoices, receipts, and reports. Thus, Back Office Processes are a major contributor to business.

Back Office Processes vary across industries:

1. Banks – amongst other processes deal with the following back office processes :

a. Position Keeping
b. Clearance
c. Settlements

2. Investment Firms

a. Trading Securities
b. Record Keeping
c. Trade Confirmation
d. Trade Settlement &
e. Regulatory Compliance and other related functions

3. Back Office Processes for a general sales oriented company would involve customer-support.

Back offices are not necessarily at the headquarters of a company. They are usually located in places where rent and labor costs are lower. Back office processes can also be outsourced to consultants.

The term “Outsourcing” means delegating or passing on responsibility to a third party in pursuance with an agreement. The decision to outsource is a strategic one as it involves weighing the probable cost savings against the consequent loss in control over the product or service .Outsourcing involves a contractual agreement that defines how the client and the vendor will work together. The growth of outsourcing is partly due to the changes in business philosophy that have occurred over a period of time. Earlier companies aimed to acquire other companies and diversify their business as companies found it difficult to manage a large group of unrelated business they starting focusing their attention “core competence areas”.

Considering their unique experience and expertise the companies took efforts to identity the core competence areas that would help them gain a competitive edge over others in the market as the client companies usually outsource to a vendor that specializes in a given function and performs that function more efficiently than the company could do thereby saving on the cost. Companies also outsource to reduce the work burden of its employees and also to relieve them of tedious tasks thereby enabling them to develop their core competencies. Companies outsource information technology functions in order to gain access to new technology and outside expertise.

Outsourcing requires a good understanding of the vendor organization’s capabilities and their future plans. Outsourcing can be total outsourcing or selective outsourcing. Total outsourcing occurs when the client dismantles the entire departments or divisions and transfers the complete responsibility to an outside vendor. Selective outsourcing occurs when the client identifies specific time consuming activities which can be handled more effectively by an specialist (vendor) and outsourcers it.

The various factors that are to be considered while choosing a vendor are firstly whether the vendor has experience in providing service that the client wants to outsource. Secondly it is essential to find out whether the vendor has been able to provide quality services to their clients. Thirdly the client analyses on the details like the technology, software and the infrastructure of the vendor. Fourthly it is essential to check if the vendor has skilled personnel necessary to ensure successful completion of the outsourced project.

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