Gartner defines the market for data and analytics (D&A) services as consulting and system integration (C&SI) and managed services. These services manage data for all uses (operational and analytical), and analyze data to drive business processes and improve business outcomes through more effective decision making. The core capabilities for vendor solutions in the D&A services market include: D&A strategy and operating model design Data management Analytics and business intelligence (ABI) Data science and machine learning D&A governance Program management Enterprise metadata
Gartner defines finance and accounting (F&A) business process outsourcing (BPO) as the use of digital F&A technology solutions and managed services supplied by a third-party service provider. F&A BPO services provide transformation expertise and technology solutions that meet finance departments’ requirement to move from labor-intensive service delivery models to automation-intensive models supporting the digital transformation of finance operations. F&A BPO providers offer processing services and technology solutions for purchase to pay (P2P), order to cash (O2C) and record to report (R2R). BPO providers meet finance buyers’ needs to address improving process maturity at a competitive price. Providers offer processing and technology services to improve P2P, O2C and R2R processes, which offer buyers the ability to purchase transformation expertise and technology solutions to help their finance operations mature. At minimum, an F&A BPO provider processes finance activities on behalf of its customers via a delivery center network, often in low-cost locations, passing on cost savings in the form of labor arbitrage. Mature BPO offerings move beyond labor arbitrage efforts and offer buyers end-to-end intelligent processing capabilities through either proprietary or partner technology ecosystems, which are often cloud-based and are focused on reducing human dependencies in process workflows. Buyers benefit from these types of agreements by maturing their processes and adopting technologies that require minimum human intervention.