Published by Mark Smith-HalvorsenOffshoring is not as risky a practice as is often perceived, an expert has argued.David Ellis, partner at management consultancy OMC Partners, said firms tend to get "a bit nervous" about offshoring financial and other business-critical processes.However, he argued that these concerns tend to be perceived rather than genuine worries.One way to get around this problem is to begin by offshoring the most basic tasks, he said, adding that once a business is comfortable with this then more complex jobs can be done."I think it's fair to say that it's a fairly proven path and therefore the risks are quite often perceived as opposed to real," he added.His comments follow recent research from Ovum which found that enterprises continue to favour in-house workers for a range of finance and accounting processes.Businesses with a turnover of more than $500 million deemed offshoring such processes as posing a greater risk than cloud computing, the survey found.For more information on international payments, visit our Smart FX site