{"id":4702,"date":"2009-03-29T11:33:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-29T11:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/keeping-it-onshore-an-interview-with-mark-vengroff\/"},"modified":"2009-03-29T11:33:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-29T11:33:00","slug":"keeping-it-onshore-an-interview-with-mark-vengroff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/keeping-it-onshore-an-interview-with-mark-vengroff\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping it onshore: an interview with Mark Vengroff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vengroff,<\/a> Having witnessed the rampant growth of Finance and Accounting BPO<\/a> over recent years, the common thread among the leading service providers has been cost-arbitrage through offshore labor.  There is, however, one exception:  <\/em>Vengroff Williams and Associates (VWA)<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>  <\/p>\n

Naturally, the core differentiators among service providers is the ability to innovate with process and technology, and provide great people to service their clients, however, the offshore element has created the cost-lever to entice companies to move into a BPO end-state.  VWA is the one service provider which has resisted the lure of offshore\/nearshore delivery to drive down costs even further, and has chosen to focus on its onshore delivery centers underpinned by its order-to-cash technology solution to service its clients.  <\/p>\n

VWA achieved a 5% share of F&A BPO engagements in 2007, which was greater than several of the leading BPO providers in the market, and boasts some blue-chip brands in its client portfoilio, namely Ford Motor Company, Federal Express, Kodak, Microsoft, Yamaha and others.  Moreover, in this age of protectionism<\/a>, in addition to the increased focus on healthcare reform, you have to consider VWA in a unique position in the industry today.  I recently caught up with CEO Mark Vengroff to ask him to share with us the reasons for VWA's success. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PF: Mark \u2013 you have been in the finance and accounting services business for the last couple of decades. Why has growth really taken off in the last couple of years? What has changed to drive this?<\/span> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

MV: VWA has always been ahead of the curve in providing new services and innovation to the industry. We were one of the first to introduce automated collection tools, automated work flow, imaging technology\/ OCR where we used to process hand written accident claims submitted by insurance companies on paper, early introduction of credit scoring to drive specific account treatment, deduction management and one of the first in the industry to provide O2C outsourcing services. Our largest growth came from the globalization of O2C Outsourcing which we had successfully launched by having a long proven history with several F100 clients from various industries. This was also combined with our ability to capitalize this growth without the need to take on any debt. Over the past 45 years we had invested well as a company.<\/p>\n

PF: We\u2019ve been through the dot.com bust, Y2K, SOX and now The Great Recession. How is the role of the CFO changing today to accommodate for all this turmoil to our businesses?<\/span> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

MV: A CFO today is required to focus primarily on reducing costs, and evaluating risk in both customer credit and critical vendors. With the limited availability of credit, a focus on the preservation of cash is the priority. This drives, cost cutting, reduction of labor, reducing capital expenses and creating strategies to improve working capital and review of additional efficiencies that can be gained through the chain.<\/p>\n

PF: VWA is employee-owned; how does that impact corporate culture?<\/span> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

MV: VWA goes through a bi-annual internal ESOP Representative Election process, allowing employees to campaign bringing additional focus and enthusiasm into VWA\u2019s business.  ESOP creates a cultural of employees who are more engagement and care for the company since they now have ownership in. A sense of self empowerment to make and look for improvements. Owners make better Employees. As a service provider, we are only as strong as our people.<\/p>\n

Having an ESOP Rep on the board at first was difficult to become accustom to but we gained two big advantages by doing so:<\/p>\n