4. Case study - Outsourcing the finance function
 

Client situation

• The Client had a number of foreign branches, but due to the size of these branches was unable to staff them with the appropriate finance skills.
• The client also had in excess of thirty finance staff centrally managing the foreign branches, and in many cases duplicating the effort.
• Very manual interal and reactive internal control system.
• The client ran an excellent ERP system and was using very little of its functionality, essentially just that of a general ledger, with no local access.

Background

The client was in the financial services industry and a key priority was managing the reputation and brand globally. Head office was also demanding the ability to drill down and review transactions during the month, as opposed to only receiving reports at month end.

Challenges facing the client

The client had to work through the following challenges:

• Local CFO focused on control and manual processes, with a high resistance to change
• Manual local reporting, lack of skills and management not giving finance much priority
• Non-use of the ERP system by staff across the region, and poor support with respect to training and the roll out of new modules
   

Key Outcomes

• Outsourced finance to a single firm for all foreign branches
• Reduced central finance staff to 10
• Rolled out additional modules and processes of the ERP
• Supported growth in certain branches of over 20%
• Supported the implementation and management of Sarbanes Oxley requirements.
   

Result

• Skills were available locally from the outsourcing partner as required, to manage local finance requirements
• Local management had to respect the outsourcing contract and comply with agreed processes
• Reporting and finance efficiency improved with reduced cost