Global research and analytics company Research & Markets has released a Black Book of the Top companies offering Financial ACcounting Outsourcing in the world.

This latest report indicates that the average length of an FAO engagement spans 3 to 5 years and contract values have typically run less than USD$25 million, in general, for enterprise-wide or end-to-end FAO initiatives.

It also notes that FAO is driven by factors like vertical expertise (healthcare corporations expect healthcare experienced FAO vendors; banking and capital market clients demand their suppliers to have dedicated industry divisions and leaders, etc) risk management capabilities evidenced, breadth and depth of coverage beyond AP & AR, location advantages in the US and UK/EU respective to the client.

With FAO service levels and SLAs maintaining fairly standard metrics, based on achievement of targets for processing volumes, accuracy, timeliness and the like, similar to those for high-volume IT transactions, the FAO prospective and current user communities seek more qualitative comparisons.

A company statement says that the leaders in the Black Book FAO survey of 2008 have demonstrated the expertise of market focus, vertical expertise and customer centricity, all of which presently influence and direct client renewals, service add-ons, and particularly, prospective client FAO interest.

The six major functions on which companies were ranked include Order-to-Cash, Compliance, Treasury & Control, Financial Reporting & General Accounting, Expense Administration, Fixed Asset Management and Purchase-to-Payment.