The finance accounting shared service centers of a global logistics group at the Bucharest and Manila locations were, in the opinion of the Group CFO, neither efficient nor of an acceptable quality. The assignment for the interim manager - who was in permanent employment at the time - was to professionalize the centers to benchmark level in terms of both quality and efficiency in order to create the conditions for the relocation of the remaining countries and other processes.
Improvement potential of EUR 13 million in total over 5 years identified
The centers had been established 4 years before the start of the mandate. During these years, the accounting processes of around 80 percent of all original locations were relocated to the centers. The manager first examined the status quo by means of a "health check", in which he recorded the relevant figures (documented processes, document volume, FTE) and quantitatively described the overhead organization. In addition, he organized workshops with country CFOs and team leaders from the centers to compare the qualitative assessments using the existing KPI definitions and make them measurable.
From the actual situation described in this way and in comparison with benchmark figures (Hackett and other sources), the manager identified potential for improvement of €2 million in the first year and further sustainable savings of €2 million in the second year.
Bundle of measures developed for short-term savings of €2 million
From the health check, the interim manager developed a "Fix the Core" bundle of measures to be implemented within 6 months. It initially consisted of a clear definition of responsibilities in the centers. He set clear targets for the heads of the general ledger, accounts receivable and accounts payable departments. He defined the targets together with the respective managers and agreed a medium-term plan with the department heads to increase productivity. To achieve these goals, the current interim manager organized process workshops based on the Lean Six Sigma approach with all process participants, including the customers of the shared service centers.
Team leaders trained in robotic process automation and suitable use cases
He also recruited specialists for robotic process automation (RPA) and trained team leaders in the creation of use cases for robotics. Together with IT, he also developed an evaluation process for use cases and managed their agile implementation. In addition, the manager developed a catalog of key performance indicators with the customers of the shared service center. In the next step, a reporting system was based on this, which showed monthly productivity per country and process as well as quality.
Short-term savings targets achieved and long-term program handed over to management
The interim manager achieved the promised savings of €2 million within the planned 6 months. He handed over the professionalization structure (robotics, process adjustments, reporting) to the line management of the shared service centers.
This also included a programme called "Grow-the-Core", which described longer-term measures for the gradual improvement of shared service management, with which the company was subsequently able to achieve further sustainable improvements.
