Business process outsourcing (BPO) is an emerging area of growth in the financial services sector that involves outsourcing of an entire business process – such as treasury, back office or transaction services.  Given the increasingly competitive marketplace, BPO offers tremendous benefits to financial institutions in terms of reduced costs, enhanced performance and ability to access superior expertise and industry best practices, and devoting scarce human resources to core businesses.

Some of the prominent trends in financial services sector include:
• Shift from product-centric to customer-centric strategies.
• Increasing virtualization.
• Reducing margins and increasing focus on efficiency and cost cutting measures.
• Movement from back-office core banking functionality as a strategic differentiator to application integration

In light of these trends, finance BPO is becoming increasingly important in financial services and several BPO models are emerging in this sector. Some of the critical issues to be addressed in this regard include taxation, regulation, ownership structure and presence of a cultural fit.

There is a huge spectrum of outsourcing solutions ranging from transaction processing to credit underwriting that can be applied in the banking and financial service sectors. The end result of these outsourcing solutions will be leaner, faster, more flexible and ultimately more competitive financial service providers.

The banking and financial services sector is witnessing a concerted move towards business process outsourcing (BPO) as a strategic option. This industry is ideally suited for outsourcing, given large transaction volume, structured decision-making and reliance on rule-set processes. Outsourcing in this domain has shifted along the complexity and maturity spectrums from transaction processing to true business transformation. Corporations are progressively acknowledging the potential benefits from BPO in this segment and identifying road maps for process reengineering that will contribute to greater profitability.

Social marketing success is measured by the benefits of the marketing campaigns to the society rather than the financial gain or increase in sales. Social marketing seeks to educate the society on certain issues and suggesting solutions to societal problems, and not entirely promoting certain goods or services. Funds spent on social marketing cannot be recovered in financial terms, but in terms of making the lives of people better.

To ensure your social marketing success, it is important to define the aims of your campaign. What do you wish to gain from this marketing? A reduction in the number of motor accidents is increasing awareness of road safety regulations or any other. The aims must be specific enough and numeric values attached if possible; that is the only way to measure the success of the marketing successfully. For instance, the aim could be reducing road accidents by 15% by the end of the year, by doing this we can measure at the end of the year if this has been successful or not.

After defining the aims of the social marketing, you need to identify your audience. What age group should the audience encompass? Which media will be more appropriate in reaching them? The methods that will work for young people may not work for the elderly. If the audience is online, then the internet will do but if not, another method has to be found to get the message to them.

The approach to the marketing will depend on the audience. If the audiences are online and are part of social networking groups, then perhaps Facebook or twitter will be a good medium. If they love to watch photos, then you could create your campaigns as photos and tag them in. You could also use banner adverts and Google Adwords for the elderly internet users who are not part of social networking sites.

Keeping good records yourself, no matter how unpleasant it may seem, will minimize the costs of paying an accountant and allow you more control of your financial information and operations. Maintaining good records can also help you avoid headaches at tax time by keeping track of your receipts and other records throughout the year. This can help you remember the various transactions you made during the year so you can properly document and maximize your tax deductions.

Normally, tax records should be kept for three years, but some documents – records relating to a home purchase or sale, stock transactions, IRA and business or rental property – should be kept longer.

Good record keeping not only enables the IRS to evaluate your business activity through original and supporting documents, but it also gives you the information you need to properly manage and grow your business.

You can keep track of your business transactions by writing them down, usually in books such as journals or ledgers or by typing them into a computer software program. It’s best to choose a system that’s simple, yet can be changed to meet your needs in the future. An accounting system should show your income and expenses and can be easily understood, especially by you. If you have more than one business, it’s best to keep completely separate books for each type of business activity.

The two basic types of bookkeeping methods are single entry and double-entry systems. Whether you choose to keep a written ledger or use computer software, record only the information that needs to be documented.