MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC is outsourcing some of its accounting and financing services to India in a move aimed at saving 20 million pounds a year for the next decade. The BBC has selected Xansa as the preferred supplier for the BBC's outsourced finance and accounting services. The new contract will run for a period of ten years.

It is the result of the re-tendering of services that were successfully outsourced to Medas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EDS, in 1997. Xansa will work closely with the BBC to deliver finance and accounting services across the BBC, including purchasing and sales transaction processing, artist and contributor payments, financial management and project accounting, payroll processing and expenses and customer support.

The ten-year contract will cost the BBC approximately £8.5 million per annum, and will generate savings for the BBC in the region of £20 million per annum. This will be a major contribution to the BBC's target of releasing £355 million of savings to invest in programmes and services.

The BBC is currently conducting a simplification of its business processes as part of its Future Finance programme, which is delivering further savings of £17 million.

Xansa will provide their services from a blend of locations in the UK and India. All voice contact (Customer Support) with Xansa will remain in the UK; other services, including transaction processing, will be carried out at Xansa's location in Chennai, India.

In this way the BBC is taking advantage of the significant savings of globalisation while maintaining the benefits of more local customer support. The original outsourcing of these services to Medas in 1997 was seen at the time as being a ground-breaking deal which included a successful implementation of a common systems platform (SAP) across the BBC.

Medas also successfully transformed the BBC's transaction processing operation, delivering a fit-for-purpose and efficient service to the BBC. Xansa was selected from a shortlist of four companies (Capita, EDS, Infosys BPO and Xansa) after a rigorous evaluation process against a number of criteria which included value for money, cultural alignment with the BBC, service delivery capability; the ability to drive improvements to the BBC's business and financial processes, and transition and exit planning.

Xansa will act as prime contractor working with Siemens Business Services.

BBC group finance director Zarin Patel said, "I congratulate Xansa on winning this major contract. The BBC will benefit from Xansa's proven expertise in managing outsourced Finance and Accounting Services, and we look forward to developing a close relationship with them. I believe this is an excellent deal for the BBC, and I am confident that Xansa will help us further to transform our finance and business processes.

"By moving our transaction processing to India we are demonstrating that we are prepared to take bold and imaginative decisions that offer the licence-fee payer great value for money, while still maintaining the highest quality of service delivery. I would like to thank our colleagues in Medas for their valuable support over the last nine years: in that time they have helped us transform the BBC's finance and accounting processes, delivered a sound SAP implementation, managed our transaction processing, expenses and business systems and left us with a fit and stable operation to build on in the future."

Xansa CEO Alistair Cox said, "We are delighted that Xansa has been selected as preferred partner to deliver Finance and Accounting Services across the BBC. Our expert technology and back office services allows our clients to do more with their own business and we are confident that we will, as the UK leader in F&A services, enable the BBC to minimise its administrative costs and to free up funds to invest in its own core business of creative programming.

"We are particularly pleased to be the BBC's first offshore BPO partner, and this week's award win as offshore operator of the year is another terrific endorsement of our leading offshore position and capability."