2. Corrientes de pensamiento en el siglo XX
2.2. Marxismo
In July 2012, APQC conducted a study to better understand trends in finance. The study found a staggering gap between the potential value of the finance organization and its actual value. Only five percent of survey respondents believed that their finance organization was delivering game-changing value while a staggering 42 percent believed that finance has the potential to deliver game-changing value.7 The best-practice organizations in this study have used a variety of continuous improvement initiatives to ensure they are delivering superior value. A number of improvement initiatives across the showcased organizations led to increased productivity and cost-efficiency, higher quality of information and analysis, and stronger risk management and internal controls, among other advantages.
Leverage Shared Service Centers for Finance Functions
Many of the best-practice organizations highlighted in this study invested in Shared services centers. APQC research has shown that shared services centers contribute to improvements in profitability and productivity and allow finance more time for higher-level analysis and reporting. Shared services centers provide a centralized point for financial transaction processing, process standardization, increased processing speed, and accurate and timely closings.
Discovery Communications has a shared services center in each of its regions—the Americas, Europe, and Asia—that uses a centralized model for transactional processing for AP, accounts receivable (AR), and payroll. Current improvement initiatives for its Shared services centers include benchmarking performance and reviewing location suitability.
Moving almost all of the finance function’s transactional processes to a shared services center was a large improvement initiative at Intel. The move was such a success that Intel is now considering transferring higher-order finance functions to shared services centers, such as aspects of FP&A. The move will take the least-liked aspects of the FP&A role off finance professionals’ plate and increase.
In order to support its dynamic organizational structure and decrease operating costs for standard practices and systems, Company B created a centralized shared services center in the 1990s. With 95 employees, Company B’s shared services
7 APQC. “What Is One Thing You Would Change? - Trends in Finance.” APQC Knowledge Base, September 2012.
Building a Best-in-Class Finance Function
center initially serviced the $2.5 billion integrated systems sector, which represented between 15 percent and 20 percent of total sales. Today, Company B’s shared services function is a separate business unit named enterprise shared services. This business unit employs 3,000 professionals to perform material accounting, cost accounting, and labor accounting. Enterprise shared services currently provides about 90 percent of the financial services to Company B.
Enterprise shared services adheres to five value areas for performance improvement including decreasing delivery cost, optimizing services, aggregating sourcing and buying, improving quality, and fostering teamwork and collaboration (Figure 9).
Under the continuous improvement mind-set, finance professionals are always searching for opportunities to improve existing processes and best practices.
Shared Services Value Areas to Improve Performance
Figure 9
Building a Best-in-Class Finance Function
The best-practice organizations conduct a “post-mortem”
analysis on all improvement initiatives to identify strengths and weaknesses, and they continuously evaluate current processes to find areas for improvement.
Using IT enhancements and outsourcing, Company A automated its vendor approval process and tackled low match rates (the level at which invoices and purchase orders are matched error free the first time). Company A hopes to continue this trend by upgrading its payroll system to standardize the process.
Company B has embraced paperless transactions, with 75 percent of invoices processed without human intervention. Company B uses an approach commonly known as evaluated receipt settlement. Receipts are electronically received, and after a two-way match, the system automatically creates a payment. Invoices are not required for any transactions within the evaluated receipt settlement system.
Vendors must meet strict qualifications to participate in the evaluated receipt settlement system.
Maintain Strong Governance Structures
Best-practice organizations govern process improvement initiatives by clearly defining roles and responsibilities, typically set by a steering committee or a formalized project management office. These governance structures guide new improvement initiatives from conception through implementation and ensure process improvement initiatives align with the organization’s strategic goals.
Sound governance models for process improvement and clearly defined roles and responsibilities ensure that finance professionals know exactly how they contribute to the broader, enterprise-wide goals.
Many of the best-practice organizations in this study use tools such as Six Sigma and change management.
Cintas has one of the most formalized governance structures to support process improvement initiatives. Its Kaizen action teams are responsible for soliciting ideas for process improvement projects across the finance function and reviewing proposals to determine whether they support its vision. With large projects often use Six Sigma, employees are encouraged to enroll in Six Sigma training.
Building a Best-in-Class Finance Function
The OCC employs a full-time change management specialist to help successfully guide and implement process improvement initiatives. The change management position plays a major role in helping the finance function with project support and daily operations. The role provides change management to support employee development, customer satisfaction, communications, branding, and other initiatives.
“Adding the change management position was a game changer for us.”
- Gary Crane, deputy CFO of the OCC
Most of the best-practice partners in this study use change management methodologies in their finance organizations. Although product and process are important, change management ensures that results are embraced by various stakeholders.
Conclusion
All best-practice organizations from this study keep a sharp focus on improvement initiatives. Continuous improvement is core to their corporate culture, and being best-in-class is an enterprise-wide goal. Best-practice organizations have strong governance structures to make sure improvement initiatives align with the enterprise’s strategic aims—projects are supported to ensure successful implementation.