Companies that rush to move their finance and other back-office operations to low-cost countries may cut expenses—only to find that they are paying an unexpected price in missed opportunities for innovation.
In a new study, the Hackett Group, a consulting and advisory firm, found that businesses that have already begun to move their general and administrative functions offshore will likely pick up the pace over the next three years.
Indeed, by 2010, these companies will have outsourced or transferred offshore an average of 16 percent of these back-office operations—an increase of more than 50 percent from the current level.
