Case Studies
Major UK Retailer: Transfer and Division of the Finance Function
Client contact: Executive Board
Parkwell staff: 8 senior consultants
Objectives and project background
The business had been acquired from a large quoted group by private investors. The finance function was part of a shared service centre that was not close to the heart of the business. Also the internal costs of the shared service centre were considered to be too high. In particular the finance function suffered from:
- Poor reporting and an inability to provide good quality commentary and analysis.
- Inefficient transaction processing.
An unresponsive service to ad hoc enquiries.
Anticipated benefits
- Better support provided to the business in terms of reporting and ad hoc enquiries.
- Faster production and improved quality of management information and analysis.
- Better accountability and more effective operational control.
Scope and boundaries
- Defining and agreeing new organisation structures, as five separate finance functions were to be created.
- This included the definition of roles and responsibilities and recruiting five new finance functions.
- Documentation of existing processes and the definition of new processes.
- Identification and implementation of accounting system changes.
- Definition of new management reports for all areas of the business.
- Definition of the service level agreements between the five separate businesses.
- It was agreed there would be no change to the general ledger or the major processes. This was largely because of the tight timescales of the project.
Deliverables
- Five separate finance functions.
- New organisation structures, with revised job descriptions and the recruitment of approximately 100 staff.
- New management reports.
- Accounting systems to support the new business structure.
- A set of service level agreements between the five individual businesses.
Project conclusion
The project was concluded satisfactorily going live on time and with all the success measures being met. Parkwell was subsequently engaged for a number of other assignments with this client.
The project was concluded satisfactorily going live on time and with all the success measures being met. Parkwell was subsequently engaged for a number of other assignments with this client.