The most successful outsourcing partnerships begin with due-diligence.
Before selecting an outsourcing provider, take the time to understand the details of your F&A processes. What workflow does each process follow? What people throughout your organization impact a particular process? What are the inputs and outputs? What are the dependencies? Are there downstream users that are dependent on information created from a particular process? How does the particular process benchmark?
This can seem overwhelming, but much of this information can be gathered from existing documentation, such as Sarbanes-Oxley or internal audit documentation. The rest of the information gathering process can be managed by your outsourcing provider at the onset of the outsourcing partnership. While this process can take some time, the knowledge gained will prove invaluable.