1st Edition

Shared Services in Finance and Accounting

By Tom Olavi Bangemann Copyright 2005
    262 Pages
    by Routledge

    262 Pages
    by Routledge

    Most large companies worldwide today have some kind of shared services concept in place. Over half of the medium and large companies are currently engaged in some kind of shared service project activity. The investment in shared services is always calculated in millions. In other words, the costs of getting it right (or getting it wrong) can be huge. Tom Bangemann's book is a concise blueprint for identifying, assessing, designing, implementing and improving the process for shared services in the finance and accounting function. The author focuses on critical success factors, the people issues involved, and learning from other people's big mistakes. The book includes a variety of real life examples and real benchmarking data, performance metrics and best practices. The section on implementation is based on a proven five-phase methodology and explains the steps and activities involved as well as showing examples of the deliverables and the results you can expect. Any CEO, MD, CFO, Finance Director and senior finance people will find this book a 'must-have' guide to the process before they start and an excellent benchmark against which to measure the performance of any existing shared service operation.

    Contents: List of figures; List of tables; Lists of abbreviations; Acknowledgements; Introduction: why use shared services? Part I The Basis for Shared Services: Processes covered by shared service organizations; The location of shared service organizations; Benefits and obstacles to setting up a shared service organization; IT for shared service organizations; People - incentives, retention and training; Performance measurement; Service pricing and service level agreements; The structure of shared service organizations. Part II Implementing Shared Services: Pre-assessment; The feasibility study and business case; Design; Implementation; Optimization. Afterword: Future Trends; References and information sources; Index.

    Biography

    Tom Olavi Bangemann is Vice President, Business Transformation at The Hackett Group, the world's leading best practice and benchmarking company. Tom has over 10 years' experience in accounting and consulting and has helped clients on over 25 shared service projects in the past 7 years, which included: all phases of the shared services lifecycle; a range of different industries, countries and company sizes; the internal shared services choice, as well as outsourcing to a BPO. Tom has been publishing articles on shared service topics for the past 5 years and appears regularly as an acknowledged expert in speaking and chairman roles on approximately 5-8 shared service-related conferences each year. Privately, Tom is married to Kristina Marie and they have a son called Ben.

    'A well structured and highly practical book for the shared service professional, which covers all aspects of the shared service journey. One that will be used as an ongoing reference to gauge against best practice methodologies.' - Gerry Niven, Vice President Finance Shared Services, Cendant Travel Distribution Services 'With his book, Tom Bangemann has finally closed a gap in the business literature market. This comprehensive guide works equally well for the shared service novice as for experienced practitioners who want to reach the next level of efficiency. A must have tool and reference source. Written with deep knowledge of the many hurdles to be cleared and full of invaluable advice on how to succeed on the shared services journey.' - Axel Hesslenberg, Head of Shared Services, Novartis Consumer Health 'It would be difficult to describe this book as anything other than a dry subject, but the plentiful case studies, graphs and charts make it a little easier on the eye.' - Accounting Technician 'It focuses on critical success factors, the people issues involved and learning from other people's mistakes. Shared Services in Finance and Accounting includes a variety of real life examples and benchmarking data, performance metrics and best practices. The CEO, MD, CFO and senior finance people will find this book a "must have" guide to the process before they start, and an excellent benchmark against which to measure the performance of any existing shared service operation.' - Educational Book Review