Aditya Birla Minacs Strengthens F&A Muscle With Compass BPO Acquisition

Indian firm Aditya Birla Minacs recently acquired Canada-based Compass BPO. The company wants to go whole hog in the Finance and Accounting space. Thus, the Compass BPO acquisition. In an exclusive chat with Biztech2.com, Aditya Birla Minacs' APAC President Milind Godbole shares his views on the rationale behind the acquisition.

What is the business synergy that brings together Aditya Birla Minacs and Compass BPO?

The industry is getting more and more domain focused. BPO companies are now going to the market with vertical-focused products and services. These can be for horizontals like CRM, Analytics, Back Office etc.

Compass BPO is in the market for the last 10 years. Over a period, it has gained rich credentials from clients in the space of Finance and Accounting (F&A). They are not into large scale F&A space but operate in the SME market.

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In order to offer a full spectrum of F&A services around the world and Compass BPO being a pureplay F&A player in this market, I think we identified the right synergy here. The strong delivery system of Compass BPO comprising processes, systems and practices that are in place and their maturity over a period of time matches our global delivery solutions for our client base.

Aditya Birla Minacs and Compass BPO, can you offer a comparison between the two models of delivering F&A services.

In the F&A space - be it the Accounts Payable, Receivable or Reconciliation, direct or indirect taxation - the process is almost similar based on the respective regulations of the country. However, the business rules engine changes. Therefore, we have to align with the applicable regulations.

So the portfolio, the risk analysis, the mitigation strategy, the business solution implementation or the budgeting and forecasting process - everything goes in line with the regulations of each country.

Will system integration be a challenge for you?

Right now, we don't see this as a challenge because we have several clients working out of our network. We have put in a robust integration plan and the integration team and various stakeholders of the business houses have been taken into confidence.

Currently, our priority is to continue with the same customer experience for Compass BPO clients coupled with some additional value proposition for our current clients too.

We will maintain business as usual and keep going on our strategic path.

Are you considering any kind of technology investment after the acquisition?

We haven't decided estimates. As we move forward with the integration process, the suitable investments will be done in the identified areas.

We are not looking for topline business but want to concentrate on developing a portfolio of services.