Along with the efficiency and quality
advantages offered by the FaaS
approach, customers are also able to
achieve these results must faster than
by doing it themselves or by using a
traditional outsourced services provider.
The approach used by traditional
outsource service providers is to
effectively reinvent the wheel with every new customer engagement, rather than using the same
pre-integrated processes and software every time and configuring it to the unique needs of each
customer. “A lot of our customers can’t understand how we’re able to onboard them onto a new
platform in thirty days, as they’re used to systems or software adoption dragging on for 9-12 months
or longer,” says Klein.
“And that makes sense given what they are used to is a grounds-up build of an application stack either
through a software VAR or through an outsourced provider.
“Our standardized set of pre-integrated processes and software allow us to devote even more time to
configuring each customer solution to their unique needs and still have them up and running in a
fraction of the time they could achieve otherwise.” which leads to the next tenet.
There’s no shortage of powerful software solutions for finance operations, but more often than not,
outsourced accounting firms will implement multiple applications, which the client themselves will
then need to understand at a working level. In Klein’s experience, this leads to a single person, either
at the service provider, or within the Company, who knows how the navigate the different systems and
get to the relevant information. “During a recent discussion with our sales team, one of our potential
clients talked about how they relied on essentially a ‘Wizard in a Box’ to share financial info,” says
Klein. “This wizard is a person who would be able to take any request, download the answer from any
number of different systems in place and serve it up to whoever asked.”
“This made the “wizard” very impressive to most folks at the company, except for the CEO, who
didn’t appreciate having one person in the entire company able to retrieve relevant financial
information.” And even if that “wizard” happens to be the contact at the service provider, there’s the
same risk of reliance on a single individual for critical financial data, which is essentially the oxygen
for business decisions.
Klein explains that this complexity is a result of the powerful tech solutions available today. Many
providers will mix and match applications, in an attempt to leverage best of breed software
functionality. That also means if the client wants to see certain information, they have to know every
system, and how each of them is used, which can lead to misunderstandings as these solutions aren’t
integrated, so the client not only needs to know what information to look for, but also which system
stores that information.
“In order to make information more accessible to our customers, we built a solution using a
best-of-breed suite of 3rd party software applications, but then added a light unification layer atop this
software stack, so our clients have a single login to access all of their financial data,” says Klein. “Our singe user interface is called Simpl® and it is laid out in
such a way that even non-finance staff can easily access the information they need when they are
granted permissions to different areas.” This is vital, given that a lot of software solutions merely
export to Excel spreadsheets that need to be “interpreted” by someone on the finance team. With
Consero’s solution, designated executives and business managers can login and quickly get what they
need, becoming a self-service option for the client and enabling more accountability with business
leaders.
Typically, outsourced accounting firms will either charge by the hour, or by some total monthly fee
based on some behind the scenes assumption of the level and number of staff assigned and required
software components, . Consero used this model as well for some time, but it ultimately proved to be
less than ideal for clients.
“Charging by the hour isn’t transparent, as it shouldn’t be the customer’s problem if it took the
provider longer to do the same work one month vs. the prior month.” says Klein. “And if the pricing is
based around a fixed monthly fee, what exactly is included in that monthly fee? At what point will the
client grow into having to pay more and how much more? Those are questions that are difficult for a
provider to answer when they just build price on a cost-plus basis for the current scope of work
This lack of transparency hinders the ability for a company to plan for its future growth. “How do they
figure out what their financial operations will cost to administer when they grow from twenty
employees to a hundred? No doubt there will be more transactions, more vendors, and the like, but
what will that mean in fees? All too often that’s guesswork on the part of customer and the provider.”
says Klein. “The reason for that guesswork is that inconsistent delivery across engagements leaves the
outsourced provider lacking in confidence needed to have a price-per-service model.”
Instead, Consero charges by service, which allows clients to know exactly what they’re paying for and
how much it will be as they scale up or down. “This shifts the burden on to us, to make sure we have
the competence, staff and systems to deliver that service in an excellent and timely manner,” says
Klein. It also drives Consero to automate as much as possible, with the increased rigor that comes
with such efforts. “If a provider is charging by the hour, why would they automate anything, which
would reduce their fees?” And in this era of labor inflation, pay-per-service helps insulate clients from the
worst of those fluctuations, as a provider automates more and more in response.
Much of financial operations are fairly straightforward, in processing transactions and producing
financials, but there are elements that require strategic thinking and experience in the trenches.
Consero has built up its team with an eye to these additional needs, whether it’s CFO support, or an
M&A program.
“For example, the client is plotting a series of acquisitions, we’ll have a team well-versed in
seamlessly onboarding new entities into a parent company’s finance platform ready to jump in without
disrupting the core service team members already delivering core finance services to the parent
company.” says Klein. Along with situational expertise like integrating acquisitions, FaaS providers
also have team members with sector expertise which translates into, for example, understanding
revenue recognition matters for software companies.
With FaaS, the most crucial element of this
discipline is “service.” It’s what unifies the
comprehensive offering, that single, easy to use
interface, the transparency in pricing, and the
expertise for the more complex issues facing the
client. “That’s why FaaS isn’t just a new
marketing term for an existing practice, but a
new standard of service that we aim to live up to
with every client. These four tenets are what
customers should be demanding from anyone
calling themselves a provider of FaaS,” says
Klein.