Finance is one of the most common and essential functions of every business enterprise, regardless of its size, volume, or nature of operations. It takes a lot of effort, planning, involvement, and time, to manage the financial aspects.

At times having an in-house team of accountants just fulfils a marginal portion of the requirements. It becomes convenient for organizations to outsource the core finance operations to the experts who study, analyze, and offer the right solutions, thereby enhancing business efficiency.

However, organizations like GI Outsourcing have been offering the right guidance with all essential rules and regulations in KPO, thereby enabling companies to comply with the protocols, monitor business flow, control the challenging areas and maximize the efficacy of the business.

This London-headquartered knowledge process outsourcing firm is guided by Vikas Chadha—its Managing Director, who has offered business-empowering solutions from all the dimensions of business accounting, tax management, fund advisory, and business forecasting.

In an interview with the CIOLOOK India team, Vikas sheds light on the professional journey that started with inspiring moments, struggles and achievements; and offered a brief idea about GI Outsourcing’s vision of becoming a dynamic global conglomerate.

Please brief us about your journey in their respective industry and how you have made GI Outsourcing excel in the BFSI niche.

With over 25 years of experience, I am heading GI Outsourcing – an award-winning Global Accounting and Financial services outsourcing firm.

Relentless pursuit of excellence in career: I pivoted in guiding MNCs like Berggruen Hotels (Keys Hotels), Bharti Airtel, Thomas Cook, Ampersand Education, Marico Ltd, Tata Global, Mahindra, and Mahindra Group.

After completing my Chartered Accountancy in 1996, I joined one of the biggest business corporate houses in India, Tata Group, and worked with their Group company, Tata Global beverages. Here, I got incredible exposure to values that I have nurtured throughout my career, the highest level of service standards, customer centricity, the importance of quality, integrity, and ownership.

I took the reins of GI Outsourcing in 2020. The company has had a presence in India for more than two decades, with an approximate team size of 300 employees, including Chartered accountants and ACCAs.

A proven business leadership experience: My 25 years of experience in business leadership came in handy. I quickly figured out that GI has a good set of clients, and the secret sauce for spearheading GI to the next level could be a great team and carving some solid differentiators against the competition. I focused on two key aspects– the business model and work culture by binding them with customer-centricity.

Another step, we took to support the growing businesses of our customers was to invest in new facilities, including offices in Ahmedabad, and New Delhi, ramping up our operations in Mumbai. Introducing a performance-led work culture in the organization that continuously encourages, recognizes, and rewards motivated team members to be the best versions of themselves.

Today, we are glad to have transformed GI into a trusted strategic and valuable partner to its clients than ever before.

What professional qualities and values do you think your clients, colleagues, and employees admire in you the most?

Visionary- looking beyond the horizon, a clear and consistent vision helped our team to work towards a common company purpose. Our work ethos encourages being passionate and enthusiastic about what we do, time management, and nurturing strong company culture.

Please brief our audience about GI Outsourcing, its USPs, and how you are currently positioned as one of the best solution providers in the BFSI niche.

Established in 1999 in the UK, GI Outsourcing is a leading global account outsourcing company that is revolutionizing the way traditional outsourcing works. With an extensive experience in accounting, the company offers a comprehensive suite of niche accounting services, including bookkeeping, management accounts, smart services, statutory accounts, payroll taxation, IT software, and sophisticated offerings; virtual CFO, controllership, and GI cloud consultancy that has specialization in hospitality, legal recruitment, property, and healthcare industries.

Following its vision to revolutionize the way traditional outsourcing works, GI aims to be a genuinely global interconnected solutions provider by enriching the working lives of others through enhanced efficiencies, automation, and expertise. The firm strives to transform its least profitable client into a profitable one by nurturing an innovative culture within the organization.

Talking about the major driving force behind GI’s rapid growth, GI is on a strong growth journey, and it has been only possible due to the collective zeal and effort of our teams in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, and London.

We could differentiate ourselves from our competitors through a deep understanding of customers’ needs, customer centricity, innovation, and consistently focusing on improving our competitiveness by focusing on solving even small issues that are often overlooked.

Being an experienced leader, share your opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies like AI and ML impacts the BFSI industry and how GI Outsourcing is adapting to the change.

Today, technology is ubiquitous. GI constantly improvises its technology landscape to add exceptional value to clients. Our cutting-edge solutions can help clients build distinct abilities in critical areas and improve decision-making. Based on leading cloud account software, GI’s solutions are scalable, flexible, cost-effective, and designed to boost business productivity and profitability.

`SMART’ is a unique service developed by GI. It allows a business or accountancy practice to completely outsource its finance function. This typically results in a significant improvement to a practice or business’s insights by providing enhanced management reporting and up-to-date financial information from which to assess key performance indicators. SMART service is offered on a white-label basis.

GI Outsourcing essentially dovetails with its clients’ software effortlessly, given its association with all the major cloud accounting software players, including Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, CCH, Caseware, Iris, as well as many of the large ERP systems, such as Dynamics, SAP, Oracle and drive operational excellence.

Considering the current industry scenario, what kind of challenges do you face, and how do you drive GI Outsourcing to overcome them?

Finance and Accounting (F and A) outsourcing is emerging as one of the fastest-growing KPO segments in India. We at GI Outsourcing are witnessing an incredible surge in business after the reopening of the economy after the pandemic. The expansion has also led the company to hire the best industry talent available in the country.  However, the account outsourcing industry in India is facing challenges in recruiting skilled teams; hence we launched GI Academy, a niche learning academy by the company that provides a world-class, dynamic structured training program and growth opportunities and supports its members to progress in their long-term ambitions and goals with confidence.

It covers a wide range of training courses, including UK accounting and technical skills, people management skills, feedback sharing, technical training, persuasion skills, and access to external professional qualifications through a blend of classroom and online training.  The aspirants are offered free and comprehensive training and employment.

In their comprehensive selection process, I personally get involved and handpick the candidates. The aspirants are hired and undergo comprehensive training, including live on-the-job training, where they get an opportunity to learn from UK GAAP apart from Indian Accounting Standards and IFRS. GI opened the course for external trainees as well in 2021.

Understanding the significant value of mentorship, I have included mentorship as a strong pillar of the entire GI Academy curriculum. Pulling in some of the seasoned and passionate GI senior professionals as mentors who can help the trainees interact, learn and grow from their experiences, the course helps the young candidates to enhance their skills and move in their careers with confidence.

This also complements and supports the call by the government of India for providing skills and employment opportunities to professionals wanting to pursue the accounting profession in India and will be an opportunity for qualified CA passing out from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, qualified CIMS aspirants, ICWAI candidates, ACCA, and CPA aspirants to look at career international accounting with GI.

GI Academy provides employment opportunities through its training program for qualified /semi-qualified professionals like CA/ICWA/MBA Finance/ACCA/CIMS freshers who are trained in the UK Accounting process and work as executives with GI Outsourcing.

How do you envision scaling GI Outsourcing’s operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?

GI has witnessed steady growth even during the pandemic; we have recently expanded to two new locations in India; Ahmedabad and NCR. As a company, we foresee tremendous growth opportunities in various geographies, the US, Canada, etc. We have a robust expansion plan, strengthening GI’s footprint globally in various areas of finance and accounting. We are rapidly increasing our reach in India to nurture and acquire the best accounting talent in the industry. Our leadership teams in India and UK have been proactively working to make this a big differentiator and area of strength at GI Outsourcing.

While the firm would be focusing on acquiring more customers soon, it would also be increasing its employee strength and adding niche accounting services to the offering portfolio. Besides, the company would look at doubling itself and touching a milestone of 500-Plus top-notch finance and accounts outsourcing professionals in the next few years.

GI has been working on a strategy to take GI beyond the UK and Europe into other important markets of the USA, Canada, Australia, and Singapore in terms of market growth. This will make GI a global player with the best accounting talent and training.

Please give us a few testimonials of your clients/customers and a list of awards/recognitions that accurately highlight GI Outsourcing’s position as one of the trusted companies in the BFSI industry.

We bagged some of the most prestigious awards; some of them include:

• Dream company to work for the KPO sector by the World HRD Congress for the second consecutive year
• Movers and Shakers Award by Outlook India
• Future Ready Organizations 2022-23 in the Small and Mid-Size Companies category by Economic Times
• Best Service -Related Brand of the Year by the most esteemed panel presented by the Government of India
• Leading brand in the space of Finance and Accounting Outsourcing and Consulting by Maharashtra State Best Employer Brand Awards 2022
• Best People Manager by Forbes 2021.