New Book From Accenture Finance Solutions Shares CFOs’ Insights on Finance Business Process Outsourcing
NEW YORK; July 21, 2004 – Many leading companies are adopting finance business process outsourcing (BPO) as a means to achieve market leadership and redefine their competitive positions in the global economy, according to a new book written by executives from Accenture.
The book – CFO Insights: Achieving High Performance Through Finance Business Process Outsourcing – features insights and frontline advice from chief financial officers of major global companies, including Dell, BP, Thomas Cook and Kraft. It takes C-level executives through the entire lifecycle of a successful business process outsourcing experience, including building the business case, pricing and shaping the deal, managing implementation, and developing strategies for promoting continuous improvement.
CFO Insights helps executives answer common questions about outsourcing, such as which functions to outsource first and to what extent, what qualities to look for in a service provider, and how major shareholders are likely to react.
“BPO is rapidly emerging as a new business imperative, and the decision for most CFOs is no longer whether to outsource, but what and how,” said Stewart Clements, the president of Accenture Finance Solutions and one of the book’s authors. “This can be one of the most demanding challenges a company faces.”
Clements co-wrote the book with Michael Donnellan, a partner at Accenture. Cedric Read of CCR Partners also contributed to CFO Insights, which is published by John Wiley & Sons.
“Many leading-edge companies are using finance BPO not only to improve processes and efficiencies, but as a path to enterprise-wide transformation,” said Clements. “Increasingly we are seeing that an outsourcing service provider can manage finance functions more effectively and at a lower cost than companies can manage themselves.”
CFO Insights offers practical advice and strategies that can help CFOs use outsourcing to enhance their companies’ performance, including frontline CFO advice, original research, in-depth case histories and best-practice data and analysis. According to the authors, many CFOs who have led their companies’ investments in enterprise resource planning and shared services in order to create leaner, more global organization structures now seek radical transformation through business process outsourcing.
“Outsourcing is not about sitting still,” says John Coghlan, group finance director of Exel, in CFO Insights. “On the one hand, as CFO you have to be in control and have the right control mechanisms in place. On the other hand, this is an evolving relationship where both parties feel empowered and energized to make a real difference in the business.”
More information and ordering details for CFO Insights is available online at www.accenture.com/financesolutions
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills, and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With approximately 95,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$11.8 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2003. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
About Wiley & Sons
Wiley is a global publisher of print and electronic products, specializing in scientific, technical, and medical books and journals; professional and consumer books and subscription services; and textbooks and other educational materials for undergraduate and graduate students as well as lifelong learners. Wiley has approximately 22,700 active titles and about 400 journals, and publishes about 2000 new titles in a variety of print and electronic formats each year.
About the Authors
Stewart Clements is president of Accenture Finance Solutions, an Accenture business that provides finance and accounting services on an outsourced basis. He has more than 18 years of experience in finance change programs and finance outsourcing. Mr Clements is a Chartered Accountant and has a degree in accountancy from Glasgow University. Based in London, he has been with Accenture for nearly 20 years.
Michael Donnellan is a partner in Accenture with more than 20 years of experience in the professional services industry. An engineer by background, Mr. Donnellan has spent the last 10 years focusing on the new role of finance in the modern corporate enterprise. In 1997 he co-authored “CFO: Architect of the Corporation’s Future,” which resulted in the adoption of new finance and accounting organisational models by numerous corporations around the world.
Cedric Read led the Finance consulting practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was a finance strategy consultant for 25 years. During that time he advised hundreds of CFOs, providing strategic consulting services to large multinational companies including Unilever, Microsoft, Shell and GlaxoSmithKline. Through his current company, CCR Partners, Mr. Read continues to develop his vision of the future of the finance function. He is the lead author of three books: “CFO: Architect of the Corporation’s Future”; “eCFO: Sustaining Value in the New Corporation”; and “CFO as Business Integrator.”
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Ed Trapasso
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