Outsourcing payroll, tax compliance, sales taxes, property taxes, utility payments, long-distance phone-line management and waste collection would suffice for most restaurant companies. But not for Atlanta-based Church's Chicken. CFO Dusty Profumo is also handing all financial and technology chores to accountants and computer geeks in India, slashing costs in the process.

Dusty Profumo

I actually have more people reporting up to me in India than I do here in the United States. We outsource the full accounting function, and, as a result, we have only two people here dealing with general ledger accounting. All the other people are outsourced through [a company] based in Mumbai. There are 25 people on that team.

How does that compare with outsourcing efforts among your competitors?

I'm not aware of any competitors that use outsourcing to the extent we do. Most of the accounting and high transaction counts, if you think about it, are related to our company stores, because you have to produce P&Ls on all the stores by market and by region, and that's where all the work is.

You have an IT component, too.

Yes, we outsource our IT infrastructure to another Indian company. We outsource the help desk, network management and application development. The total number of personnel involved in that is in the 25- to 30-person range. We also have four [of those] employees in our corporate office.

The purpose of which is what?

They coordinate all desktop support for people in the corporate office and remote users. When any equipment breaks down in the restaurants, they essentially will take a computer that needs to be fixed and ship another one out. They are responsible for all the desktop support in the U.S.

Is it a revolving crew?

Yes. They are typically here for about two years. It's an interesting assignment for them. They bring their families. About every six months or so someone leaves and another person replaces them. It works very well.

Why does so much outsourcing make business sense?

Accounting and IT are the largest by dollar volume. We cut costs by 50 percent offshoring them to India. Outsourcing is also consistent with our overall positioning as a value brand. We provide a high-quality product but at a lower price than the competition. That doesn't just mean we run restaurants efficiently, but we try to run everything as efficiently as possible.

Did outsourcing begin with the arrival of Indian-born CEO Harsha Agadi?

The offshoring certainly did, but [former corporate parent] AFC used outsourcing significantly. Honestly, though, the three largest contracts we inherited from AFC were all changed, and we saved about $3 million. That sum is roughly 50 percent of the total cost of what we inherited.

What's been Harsha's contribution?

He's certainly very supportive of outsourcing and familiar with Indian culture. He was able to help make high-level introductions for me at the outsource firms because of his reputation and knowledge of the country.

Any quick advice on how to hire an outsourcing firm?

The biggest issue always comes down to people. You ask about the outsource firm's personnel policies and ability and track record of holding onto good people. That's the No. 1 thing.