Companies are rapidly adopting business process outsourcing (BPO) as a viable means to reduce operating costs, focus on core competencies, and move from a fixed to a variable cost model. The practice of outsourcing certain repetitive, non-core processes to specialists who have economies-of-scale advantages has been around for many years. It is only recently that companies have been able to take full advantage of overseas labor markets to achieve dramatic cost savings – in some cases by up to 60%.

Sutherland, with operations centers in high-opportunity offshore labor markets as well as onshore and Global Process Management locations, enables companies to achieve competitive advantage by dramatically lowering their cost of operations while improving quality, productivity and revenues.

Functional Services include:

• Finance & Accounting
• Order Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Research and Analytics

Industry Vertical Services include:

• Mortgage
• Insurance
• Healthcare
• E-commerce

Our Approach

Sutherland was founded on the premise that business functions and management methods could be dramatically improved by using global labor and the integration of advanced technologies.

	Our enterprise back office services allow clients to focus on strategic functions while outsourcing the management and/or execution of non value-adding processes to Sutherland. These processes typically involve transaction processing of high volume, repeatable, labor intensive tasks that dominate the back-office.
	The services are either managed completely by Sutherland, whereby we own all operational aspects of the back office function, or are co-sourced with both Sutherland and the client managing different aspects together.
	Sutherland’s solutions leverage technology and a global delivery model to enable dramatic cost savings and process improvements, while providing the client with flexibility and control.

 

 

 

Finance & Accounting

Sutherland’s F&A services are facilitated by a process-oriented workflow platform that can be configured to accommodate onshore, Global Process Management and offshore processing requirements. Voice-based activities can also be easily integrated into the program.

Accounts Payable
Receiving and scanning invoices; Data capture from scanned documents; Secure access to scanned images and electronic data; Approval and exceptions processing; 3-way matching; Payments processing including checks and electronic fund transfers; Travel & Expenses management.

Billing
Capture and collection of billing data via multiple media – postal mail / telephone / fax / email; Confirmation and completion of billing data; Processing the billing cycles; Outbound correspondence / notifications.

Accounts Receivable
Order Receipt including receipt and scanning of Purchase Orders / Proof Of Delivery documents; Data capture from scanned documents; Secure access to scanned images and electronic data; Credit Verification; Creating and managing customer information; Auto-application and manual application of receipts; Research and application of unapplied funds; Query resolution; Collections management / aging analysis.

General Accounting
General Ledger management; Fixed Asset management; Account reconciliation; Management Accounting; Financial statements and reporting.

 

 

Order Management

Sutherland’s Order Management services are focused on activities that tend to be high volume, labor-intensive and/or transactional in nature. Sutherland integrates front-end contact center services when necessary, and gives clients the flexibility to choose whether agents should be located onshore, Global Process Management or offshore.

Services provided include Order entry, Invoicing, Handling Return Material Authorizations, Processing credits and rebates, Receipt and scanning of paper orders, Secure access to scanned images and electronic data, Data verification and exception processing for electronic orders, Payments processing, Order fulfillment, and Data Analytics.

 

 

Supply Chain Management

Companies across industries globally are faced with supply chain issues such as high cost processes, minimal time to improve or establish more cost-effective vendor relationships, and fluctuating volumes. Sutherland’s supply chain services are focused on addressing these issues and converting the fixed costs associated with labor-intensive, transactional supply chain activities into significantly lower variable costs for our clients. The services are managed using workflow technology that is configured to meet the needs of client programs and capable of routing work to Sutherland’s operations centers around the globe.

Services include planning and forecasting of materials requirements, sourcing of goods and services for best price and availability, and procurement of materials and supplies. Sutherland’s flexibility in managing staffing requirements addresses the client’s issue of cyclical business volume. Going a step further, Sutherland uses data analytics to identify opportunities for improved planning and forecasting as well as better materials and inventory management.

 

 

Research and Analytics

Sutherland’s research and analytics services include primary and secondary market research, financial modeling and analysis, competitive intelligence, customized research leveraging secondary sources, management of content databases / lists, and data analytics along with associated implementation of recommendations.

 

 

Mortgage

Sutherland’s services are designed to support the specific needs of financial institutions and other firms involved in residential mortgages. This includes Loan Origination, Loan Servicing, Tax Servicing and Underwriting processes. These services provide clients with significant cost reduction for a number of tasks and activities such as data entry, verification of employment, title requests, loan payoff processing, delinquent payment management, and several more. It also reduces the cost of certain fee-based services which in turn enhances the competitiveness and profitability of clients whose earnings are primarily derived from fees.

Services can be performed remotely by agents who have access to the client’s own systems, or by leveraging Sutherland’s own process-oriented workflow platform. As with all of Sutherland’s back office services, the solution can be configured to accommodate onshore, Global Process Management and offshore processing requirements, and when necessary, can also include integration with front-end contact center services. In addition, our flexibility with managing staffing requirements enables our clients to offload the risks of fixed costs and manage the cyclical volumes in the industry.

Loan Origination processes include:

• Document Review
• Third Party Ordering
• Title Review
• Loan Underwriting

Loan Servicing processes include:

• Servicing customer inquiries / Welcome calls / Late Payment calls
• Escrow administration
• Tax / insurance management
• Payoffs, Default processing and Collections

 

 

Insurance

Companies across the industry are faced with issues such as controlling the high costs of processes such as new business management, claims processing and policy administration. Sutherland’s services leverage an integrated image-based workflow system to provide high quality with dramatic cost reductions through services that can be blended across multiple geographies if required.

•  Enrollments
   Processing policy enrollments and applications, new business support including mail handling / file preparation /  policy number assignment, submission and verification of compliance / license / related forms, and policy /  contract issuance including final verification / file updates / notifications / in-force placement.
  
  
•  Policy Administration
   Managing changes in coverage, address changes, premium changes, and policy cancellations.
  
  
•  Claims Processing
   Managing new claim requests / First Notice Of Loss, Imaging / scanning of claim documents, Case Setup  including case creation / requirements update / analyst assignment, Pre-adjudication of claims, Claim Analysis,  and Co-ordination for final claim decision.
  
  
•  Underwriting and Adjudication
   Policy underwriting including reviews / risk assessment / quotes / declines; Claims adjudication including the  claims analysis, initiation and review of referrals, review of pended claims, ordering requirements, final claim  decision, and correspondence / notification.
  
  
•  Payments Processing
   Processing premium refunds, benefits disbursement, payments processing and system updates.
  
  
•   Billing Exceptions
   Processing payment delays and policy cancellations; Carrying out the associated account reconciliation  activities including system updates and correspondence / notifications.
  
  
•  Mailroom Management
   Enabling a Digital Mailroom for clients – including a Dedicated PO Box, Mail Receipt, Outbound Mail  Management, Mail Sorting and Preparation for Digitization / Imaging
  
  
•   Imaging / Scanning / Data Entry
   Providing imaging / scanning of policy and claims documents, indexing and data capture of the scanned  documents utilizing OCR / ICR technologies as well as manual data entry, and secure access to the scanned  images and electronic information.

 

Healthcare

Organizations across the industry are faced with the issue of managing the complicated billing paperwork environment which has resulted in a paper-based, labor intensive revenue cycle that is inefficient, costly, and ineffective. Leakages in the revenue cycle result in healthcare organizations struggling simply to secure the money they have already earned - according to industry research studies carried out, revenue cycle management issues such as billing errors, insurance underpayments, denials, bad debt, etc. cost a healthcare provider 4-5% of gross revenues per year, and the cost structure for revenue cycle management is increasing 4-6% each year with only a 2% increase in reimbursements.

Sutherland’s services are designed to optimize the company’s revenue cycle management by leveraging continuous process improvements and technology innovations.

• Scheduling and Registration of Patients including verification and completion of personal / financial / insurance and eligibility information.
  
  
• Medical Coding and Charge Capture including data capture of diagnosis / procedures / associated codes, post coding reviews, posting charges, processing duplicate charges and wrong charges.
  
  
• Insurance Follow-up including follow-up with insurance payers on claims with no status, completion and confirmation of required claim information, management of denials and partial payments, and negotiation for proper payments.
  
  
• Billing and Payments Processing including accurate posting of payments, account reconciliation, processing ofcontractual adjustments, claim submission to secondary insurance payers, and billing of patients for co-insurance / deductible / exhausted benefits.

 

 

E-commerce

Sutherland provides services in support of e-commerce transactions and e-payment tools at significantly reduced costs by leveraging its global service delivery locations. Services include website quality assurance, data management, customer account maintenance, shipment confirmations, credit processing for returned items, accounting entries, and reconciliation services, among others. Sutherland also provides fraud monitoring and detection services for e-transactions.

The Sutherland team performs the services remotely with authorization to access client systems. Where required, programs can also be configured to take advantage of Sutherland’s process-oriented workflow platform.