Outsourcing Case Study: How a PEO Realized Growth with ADEC USA

Overview

For nearly two decades, ADEC USA has been an integral partner to a leading Professional Employer Organization (PEO). Our outsourcing solutions, delivered from the Philippines, ensured the PEO was able to reduce operational costs and drive efficiencies necessary for competitive rates and market expansion.

As the client's base and service range grew, ADEC USA scaled up support and diversified service offerings to partner with their expansion needs. Starting with a team of 8 in 2007, delivering outsourcing solutions across five key services, by 2024, our solutions scaled to 12 services delivered by a 112 strong team.

This partnership demonstrates opportunities for success in the PEO industry driven through growth-focused outsourcing solutions.

The Challenge

In 2007, our client, an emerging PEO, aimed to offer competitive solutions by reducing operational costs. In addition to increasing efficiency and cutting costs, the company sought a solution that would maintain high service excellence.

They identified work-intensive but non-critical processes for outsourcing. Starting with Tax & Treasury and other operations, the company sought an outsourcing partner with skills and expertise in U.S. tax, finance, accounting, and HR systems.

It was also imperative that the solution provider meet data security, cybersecurity, and IT security standards and have the necessary knowledge to deliver services in accordance with PEO industry regulations.

The Solution

ADEC USA’s Philippines operation proved to be an ideal match. Our offshore location offered competitive pricing while providing access to qualified accountants, finance, tax, and HR professionals. Being a trusted outsourcing provider to Fortune 500 companies, ADEC USA already had robust data and information security measures in place. While ADEC USA’s experience in the PEO industry ensured familiarity with US country-wide and state-specific regulations.

ADEC USA’s initial outsourcing solution saw an 8-person team supporting 20 of the client’s customer accounts across five core services including:

  • Accounting
  • Benefits Reconciliation
  • HR & Payroll
  • Tax
  • Treasury

As the client expanded its client list and offerings, ADEC USA adapted, scaling up to 12 services and 120+ employees to support 1,800+ client customer accounts by 2024. Over time, our comprehensive suite of services was expanded to include outsourcing solutions across:

  • Benefits Reconciliation
  • Implementation
  • Risk and Worker's Compensation Administrative tasks
  • Client Services - Back-office support
  • Client Services – Voice support
  • Unemployment Tasks
  • Compliance - PEO Registration & Licensing

Service and team scaling up

PEO outsourcing partnership highlights

Throughout, ADEC USA has stood as an extension of the PEO client's team, actively developing solutions in line with regulation and industry standards.

  • Data Security & Compliance
    ADEC USA prioritizes data security compliance through stringent protocols. Our ISO-certified service delivery centers adhere to the latest data security standards like ISO 27001:2022, HIPAA, and implement multi-factor authentication. We also ensure data security with IP-based access restrictions.
  • Close partnership
    Our Philippines team is crucial to the client's success. We maintain exceptional quality through weekly and monthly calls, linking our delivery team with the client's US-based head office. The client team also conducts annual strategic visits to our Philippines offices to foster collaboration while ADEC USA's senior leadership teams travels to the US for technology rollouts, training, and live system guidance.
  • Service Excellence
    ADEC USA meets and exceeds Service Level Agreements (SLAs). In 2023, our Quality rates consistently met and exceeded the 99.8% SLA. We deliver on the 100% turnaround time SLA, and our utilization rates exceed 98%.
  • Recruitment
    We recruit teams that match the client's skill requirements. For example, for Data Management Processor roles, we look for talent with a minimum of 2 years of work experience in a related role and relevant academic qualifications such as a BS in Accountancy. As seniority increases, so does the hiring criteria.  
  • Training
    Training encompasses three key components: process overview, job-specific, and technical training. The rigorous 4-week training program for new recruits includes in-depth onboarding onto the PEO client's systems, specific task training, and system familiarity.

    Extensive shadowing equips the new teams to meet performance targets. Our dedication to quality and efficiency ensures continuous evaluation and provision of retraining as necessary.
  • Flexibility and scalability
    Over the past three years, our client has undergone significant transformations, including acquisitions and mergers, which resulted in workload increases. Our proactive team in the Philippines swiftly scaled up operations to meet the growing demand while ensuring smooth service delivery.

    Additionally, we strategically recommended the implementation of automation solutions to enhance efficiency and streamline processes.

Key Results

Through ADEC USA's expert solutions, the PEO client seamlessly expanded its operations while staying true to its core competencies. We consistently deliver exceptional service quality, understanding PEO client's needs, and flexibly adapt to new requirements. Swift issue resolution fosters strong relationships, earning trust through consistent reliability.

The remarkable growth of our services stands as a testament to the excellence we deliver:

  • Achieving up to 40% cost savings for processes under specific conditions.
  • Accommodating client’s exponential growth with a 1300% increase in full-time equivalents (FTEs).
  • Supporting a diverse range processes across 11 solutions.
  • Consistently meeting Quality SLAs at 99.8%.
  • Maintaining a perfect record of meeting Turnaround Time SLAs at 100%.
  • Achieving an impressive 98% Utilization SLA consistently.

Client Testimonial

“The ADEC USA team members strive for excellence in all that they do for us. They are extremely self-motivated to deliver exceptional levels of service, especially in how they manage their communication with us – ensuring that they are as clear as possible to avoid any misunderstanding.

The team managers work proactively to make recommendations as to how processes and performance can be improved – even without prompting from us – and when issues are identified they work quickly to resolve them. Quality is consistently high, and they take an ‘out of the box’ approach to create reports that we would not have been able to produce internally.

The team take full ownership and where we are in terms of business success is in no small part due to the team’s performance.”

- Anonymous

The Future

ADEC USA remains committed to driving the PEO client's growth. In 2024 the partnership plans to explore offshoring opportunities to ADEC USA’s operations in Kenya for further scalability, efficiency and aligning with the strategic vision for continued innovation.

Contact us to discover how our services can benefit your organization.

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