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12 Oct 2023
Gild Group, which is at the forefront of financial services, holds an illustrious niche in the creative, sporting, and hospitality sectors. Through its extensive offerings — from bookkeeping and outsourced CFO to tax compliance and financial planning — Gild Group has cemented its reputation as a formidable player in the financial domain.
Although Gild’s accounting function ventured into offshoring as early as 2015, the company perceived a deeper, untapped potential in offshoring — one which could transcend traditional boundaries and significantly enhance operational productivity and efficiency. In alignment with this vision, Gild Group took a strategic leap in July 2018: partnering with Intogreat and bringing on board two key roles in administration and tax accounting, marking the inception of their offshore team in Manila.
The Gild and Intogreat partnership’s top three key successes are:
Customer Net Promoter Score
Annual Cost Saving per Staff
1. Operational Streamlining: Introducing a continuous improvement mindset and a comprehensive process redesign to streamline repetitive tasks has directly enhanced the operational efficiency of Gild Group. This not only aids quicker decision-making and task execution but also translates into cost savings and higher profit margins.
2. Stellar Customer Experience: Achieving a Customer Net Promoter Score of over 90% is a monumental achievement. A satisfied customer base is pivotal for business growth, brand reputation, and long-term success. It's not only testament to the company's commitment to quality, but it can also lead to increased client retention and new customer acquisition.
3. Financial Efficiency: The estimated annual cost saving of $30-$60k per staff member is a significant financial milestone. These savings represent a direct increase in profitability and provide Gild Group with the capability to reinvest in other strategic areas, ensuring sustainability and competitive advantage.
Facing challenges in its operational landscape, Gild Group had several internal hurdles to negotiate. As director Brenton Ellis explained, the core issue lay in their "organisational structure, we needed a next level of our structure in order to help our clients." These challenges, extending from process mapping to past offshoring experiences, underscored the need for transformative solutions.
Gild Group lacked comprehensive mapping and documentation of their business processes and procedures. Without clear documentation, the potential existed for inefficiencies, errors, and inconsistencies in operations. This gap posed a significant barrier to scaling and streamlining, as it made training more difficult and left room for operational discrepancies.
Instilling and promoting a culture of continuous improvement within the team was proving difficult. Such a culture is pivotal for businesses to evolve and adapt to changing market dynamics. Without this culture, stagnation could occur, leading to decreased competitiveness and reduced capability to respond to market changes.
Gild Group was grappling with a shortage of labour which had the right skills. This can be particularly daunting in specialised industries such as accounting practices where expertise and domain knowledge are critical. This shortfall impacted service delivery, reduced the quality of services, and impacted customer satisfaction.
Past ventures into offshoring had not yielded the desired results for Gild Group. Negative experiences can lead to scepticism and apprehension about future offshoring initiatives. Without addressing the root causes of past offshoring pitfalls, there was a risk of repeating the same mistakes, leading to wasted resources and missed opportunities.
In accounting practices, strategic partnerships like that between Intogreat and Gild Group are vital for using offshore resources to boost growth and improve customer satisfaction. This partnership led to foundational changes, process improvements, team expansion, and significant investments in their people. Here's a summary of Gild Group’s journey and the impressive results they achieved.
Gild Group's journey with Intogreat was rooted in establishing a firm foundation. Recognising the pivotal role of a balanced workforce in bridging the offshore-onshore divide, a 1:1 staff ratio was instituted between Melbourne and Manila in 2018. This strategy enabled the expansion of roles that seamlessly integrated all departments, from practice management, tax and advisory, and business management, to wealth management and paraplanning. But it wasn’t just about numbers; it was about embedding a harmonious working culture. Introducing the "New Ways of Working and Cultural Training” scheme ensured clear communication and enhanced collaboration between the teams.
Ensuring that this large team operated in a secure IT environment was paramount. With cybersecurity threats on the rise, Intogreat implemented robust IT frameworks, allowing offshore staff to work without compromising data security. Training plans complemented by stringent KPI metrics ensured that the offshore team not only matched but often exceeded their KPIs. In parallel, detailed process analyses were conducted to spot and act upon improvement opportunities.
Intogreat, recognising the opportunities within Gild Group's operations, embarked on a mission to streamline and enhance its core processes. Repetitive tasks, notably within practice administration, were pinpointed as an area for immediate process enhancement. Intogreat also dived into mapping and streamlining the more complex elements of Gild’s processes like tax, bookkeeping, BAS, and sales invoicing. The streamlined processes not only sped up operations but also eradicated redundancies, ensuring that each task added value to the business. This meticulous approach laid the groundwork for system workflow enhancements that championed consistency and efficiency across the board.
However, the focus wasn't solely on streamlining: Intogreat recognised that for a business to continuously expand, fostering a culture of constant improvement was imperative. To champion this, Gild and Intogreat introduced business improvement training for the offshore staff. This emphasised proper process mapping and procedure documentation, instilling in the team a proactive mindset to forever explore superior methods of operation. Coupled with the implementation of a new knowledge management platform, this initiative guaranteed a consistent customer experience and achieved a Customer Net Promoter Score of over 90%. These measures elevated the quality of services offered by Gild Groupand fostered a culture where excellence became the norm, not the exception.
Every thriving partnership hinges on a shared dedication to growth and excellence. For Gild, this commitment was significantly reinforced with Intogreat. As highlighted by Gild Group's director, Brenton Ellis, when addressing their primary obstacle: “To fulfil our organisational structure and our vision and how we roll out our team, that is by having the right people in place to be able to support the growth.” One of the most crucial services rendered was the provision of a dedicated Intogreat team manager; this was no ordinary role. The appointed manager was not only well-versed in issue management but was also an accounting subject matter expert.
Intogreat's dedication to Gild extended well beyond initial expectations. Valuing continuous learning, Intogreat launched comprehensive employee engagement and development training programs. The outcomes were evident with the staff Net Promoter Score surpassing 90%. This achievement was bolstered by the advent of comprehensive productivity and performance metrics aimed at elevating team performance. Additionally, the rollout of Xero certification and Receipt Bank training equipped every team member with essential skills, facilitating more direct interactions with clients due to enhanced technical and interpersonal proficiencies.
This proactive investment in human capital yielded many benefits, one of which was an impressive spike in retention rates. On the operational front, the inception of the 'Emerging Leaders Program' stood out. Designed to cultivate potential leaders, it focused on shaping their leadership traits and mindset beyond designations; this approach was further exemplified when Gild revamped TGG Manila's structure. Replacing the previously flat framework, a distinct hierarchical system was introduced, providing clear career advancement paths across diverse departments.
Training became an operational foundation. Comprehensive schemes were developed, with the emphasis firmly on empowering knowledge. To boost team spirit, a monthly engagement budget was allocated, sponsoring activities ranging from scavenger hunts to annual celebrations. The strategic people placement and initiatives resulted in substantial annual savings of between $30k-$60k per employee, totalling an approximate $2.5M annually. This significant saving enabled Gild to further invest in its prime resources: its people and infrastructure.
Since Gild’s Manila offshoring team began operations in 2018 with just two members, the Gild team at Intogreat expanded to 49 by 2023 — reflecting steady growth. This team now brings robust support to Gild's multiple services and functions via:
The roles within the team include:
Gild Group's pioneering approach to accounting services in the creative, sporting, and hospitality sectors was enhanced exponentially through its strategic alliance with Intogreat. Embarking on this journey in 2018, they’ve been excellent in transforming challenges into opportunities, leveraging offshore potential to its fullest.
Three pivotal aspects showcase their successful collaboration:
1. Operational Excellence: They have streamlined processes and human capital knowledge training and driven efficiency, resulting in considerable cost savings, enhanced profit margins, and a foundation for rapid decision-making.
2. Unrivalled Customer Satisfaction: A 90% Client NPS — a benchmark of excellence —underscores their unwavering commitment to client needs, thus fortifying their brand reputation.
3. Intelligent Financial Management: The strategic offshore hiring not only solved labour shortages but also resulted in substantial annual savings of up to an impressive $2.5M.
Moreover, with Intogreat's expertise, Gild Group has transformed its offshore team since 2018 to where it stands in 2023: Almost 50 staff, covering an array of vital roles. This expansion signifies not just growth but a deep-rooted belief in collaborative synergy.
Gild Group and Intogreat’s partnership stands as testament to the fact that with the right alignment, shared vision, and unwavering commitment, offshoring can be a game-changer. As Gild Group director, Brenton Ellis said, "I guess I would summarise it by saying anyone who has a progressive mindset and wants to take their business to the next level Intogreat provides a solution that can help you achieve that". Their story offers inspiration and a benchmark for businesses worldwide looking to unlock offshore potential for unparalleled growth.
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