Group Finance function turns from poor service into business partnership
Background
The client was the Finance service of a privately owned group of diverse businesses (23) with a combined annual turnover of £40m providing Monthly financial reports for review as well as project accounting for individual projects within the businesses. Coping with different and conflicting business cycles and dependent on other functions to deliver their reports, the Finance service struggled to meet expectations in terms of timeliness and quality of reporting. The goal of the service was in fact to become business partners to the Business leaders and add value through better understanding of root causes of performance and facilitating effective decision making.
A diagnostic was launched, covering all services of the function, focussed on Customer satisfaction and service level improvement. Process development through BPI and the definition and standardisation of best practice, embedding continuous improvement review and development of the team capability and knowhow.
What We Did
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Diagnostic and engagement of the Internal Customers to define service level needs and requirements
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Process mapping of key delivery processes within the Function to understand dependencies, timelines and expectations to meet agreed Customer satisfaction levels.
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Standard working definition of every role within the Function to clearly define roles, responsibilities and identify any capability gaps.
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Daily, weekly, monthly reporting mechanism designed and deployed to facilitate standard working and highlight issues before
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Design and deployment of Functional Review cycle including Goal setting, project management and progress review.
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Strategic Plan Development and deployment process
Results
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Significant improvement in service levels to individual business requirements
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Productivity and cost improvement in providing the service, through consistency and quality improvements
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Development of the capabilities and expertise of the whole team
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Team review process driving peer to peer responsibility, clear accountability and the continuous improvement in processes and results
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Functional leadership time was liberated to focus on major step-change improvement projects and the development of additional services
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Business partner role for leaders established as Board members