HOW DID INTOGREAT START?
Intogreat interviews Adam Conrad
Published March 24, 2020
Looking to offshore? Interested in learning more about offshoring? Ready to expand and transform your business?
I2G’s Managing Director, Adam tells us how it all started:
- 30+ years in the offshoring/outsourcing industry
- The goal in mind when he established Intogreat
- The target market and the responses
- The benefits of offshoring with I2G
- Intogreat’s range of services and equation for successful offshoring
THE INTOGREAT STORY
It’s a fact that a lot of successful companies started out small before they made it big in the business world. To illustrate how Intogreat Solutions was established, Adam talks to the team to discuss the main reasons why Intogreat started doing business in the offshoring industry, partnering with Australian small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Insurance, Finance, and Professional Services sectors.
BACKGROUND & EXPERIENCE IN THE OFFSHORING / OUTSOURCING INDUSTRY
In 2003, Adam first started his career in the offshoring and outsourcing field when he moved across to Dublin to work with a multinational professional services company and help set up their European service centre. The company had taken their back-office functions from all around Europe, and they put those functions into Dublin – the reason for this relocation being:
1 – The highly capable workforce in Dublin was readily available.
2 – Another reason is the far lower operational costs in Dublin than what there was on the rest of the European continent.
3 – The third reason they did it was because they wanted to bring together all of their processes and procedures and start doing things the same way, regardless of which country they were operating in. To make operations more efficient, they moved their back-office functions to Dublin to streamline their processes and procedures.
From there, Adam went on to a leading global investment bank and in 2006, he helped lead their transition of seventy (70) accounting roles out of Frankfurt, New York, London, and across to the Philippines. Then he worked for one of the world’s top 100 banks where he focused primarily on outsourcing as well. Shortly after then was the establishment of Intogreat. The focus has since been on helping small and medium-sized organisations undertake offshoring, the decision to transition driven by the following goals:
How can SMEs get highly capable staff?
How can they get staff at a lower price?
How can they get valuable staff who are fully dedicated to them?
How can they make their processes and their procedures better?
THE GAP IN THE MARKET: OFFSHORING VS. OUTSOURCING
Adam and Intogreat’s founders saw a gap in the market between outsourcing and offshoring for small and medium-sized companies. Adam and the directors aimed to take the best out of offshoring and combine them with the best out of outsourcing – hence the formation of Intogreat’s equation for successful offshoring.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF OUTSOURCING?
The key benefits from outsourcing include: the productivity, the performance management, and having specialists (subject matter experts) overseeing the offshore staff.
[ Typical Outsourcing Business Model ]
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF OFFSHORING?
A company would choose to transition to offshoring because of cost savings, taxes & tariffs, and to increase capability while maintaining full control of their business operations. Outsourcing focuses mainly on driving acquisition, staff growth & retention, enhancing customer experience, improving efficiency and quality mostly in contact centres and IT helpdesks.
Intogreat have joined the two models together to deliver value-adding services to small and medium-sized customers. By implementing this offshoring + outsourcing framework, Intogreat will take the hassle and the pain out of the transition and make offshoring / outsourcing easy for onshore clients.
WHY OFFSHORE YOUR BUSINESS WITH INTOGREAT?
It’s all about the control. Australian SMEs, Intogreat’s target clients, get to lay the groundwork and streamline their processes and procedures. When working with Intogreat, their offshore staff report through to the onshore team, working to the company’s job descriptions, and following the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Realistic, Time-bound) KPIs set up by the company and Intogreat’s highly capable Foundations/Business Preparation and People Management Stream. The offshore staff also use the onshore team’s tools and systems on a daily basis. With the help of Intogreat’s cultural awareness trainings for new hires, the offshore staff also become integrated into the organisation and part of the Australian culture.
HOW INTOGREAT WILL MAKE OFFSHORING EASY:
THREE KEY FUNCTIONS
The key functions that the Intogreat team undertake include:
1
Foundations or
Business Preparation services
2
People Stream, and the
3
Business Improvement offering
HOW INTOGREAT’S OFFERINGS PREPARE CLIENTS FOR OFFSHORING
1 FOUNDATIONS / BUSINESS PREPARATION
Under the Business Preparation services, the team of experts at Intogreat help customers the whole way through as they set them up with offshoring. Clients are taught about the Filipino culture and assigned a fully dedicated project manager and team that will do everything from recruitment to setting up the IT infrastructure, to conducting cultural awareness trainings and New Ways Of Working (NWOW) trainings.
2 PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
The second stream is I2G’s People Management offering. Every one of the offshore team leaders are funded by Intogreat and not by clients. These team leaders are experts in what they do.
Within Intogreat’s continuously growing Accounting Stream are fully qualified and Xero-certified accountants who are experienced subject matter experts. They bring new people on and train the new staff in Xero. These highly capable team leaders help upskill the offshore staff year-round. They’ll help their team members get to proficiency a lot quicker. The team leads also accomplish productivity and performance reports. They provide regular updates to onshore clients regarding staff performance, learning & development, and other concerns.
3 BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT
Intogreat’s final offering is all about Business Improvement solutions. Most of the time, businesses aren’t ready to transition to offshoring, and Intogreat will help them bridge the gaps and set up the necessary foundations. The Business Improvement (BI) team will coordinate and work closely with the onshore team to design, document, and enhance their processes, understanding the ins and outs of their operational procedures. The BI team at Intogreat will document those procedures and integrate them into a knowledge management repository.
These knowledge management services and business improvement solutions make the onboarding process and offshore staff training as easy and seamless as possible. From the moment those professional roles are filled by Intogreat’s stringent and comprehensive staff recruitment efforts, the People and Foundations Team are setting new team members up for success. The best outcomes can be achieved far more quickly as a result of putting in all that extra effort at the start.
WHAT ARE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ROLES?
Small or medium-sized Australian businesses are the target clients, as well as professional services roles. Intogreat’s core pillars include accounting roles, administrative support and management, project management, web design and development, and related IT roles. Below are some of the professional roles Intogreat currently offshores:
| Management Accountants | Virtual Assistants | Social Media Specialists |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate Accountants | Practice Admin/Admin Support | Digital Marketing Coordinators |
| Tax Accountants | Mortgage Data Processors | Multimedia Specialists |
| AP/AR Bookkeepers | Insurance Broking Processing Staff | Graphic Design Specialists |
| Finance & Admin Staff | Insurance Admin Supoort | Web Designers & Developers |
| Payroll Officers | Logistics Administrators | .NET Developers |
| Assistant Accountants | Data Processing Analysts | Software Engineers |
| Accounting Assistants | Claims Management Staff | Project Impelementation Officers |
| Credit Analyst | Client Support Officers | Marketing Specialists |
| Loan Processors | Customer Service Officers | Front End Developers |
| Quantity Surveyors | Business Analysts | IT Helpdesk Support |
| Sales & Order Processing Staff | Communication & Change Management | Frameworks Engineers |
| Paraplanners | SEO/SEM Specialists |
WHAT WAS THE RESPONSE FROM THE TARGET MARKET?
From Intogreat’s perspective, the response from the market has been remarkable. Check out the pages showing exceptional results of the Client Satisfaction Survey, the Staff Engagement Survey, and the Foundations / Business Preparations Survey by clicking on the links below.
Interested to learn more about Intogreat’s offshoring model?
Ready to grow and transform your business?
Get in touch with us and talk to our team of offshoring / outsourcing experts.
To know more about Intogreat’s services and how we’ll help your business achieve offshoring success, visit the Intogreat Difference page.
Check out I2G’s page on Facebook under Intogreat Solutions for news and events, team photos, staff videos and other announcements.
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