DIY: How to Create a Localized Continuous Improvement Program

Continuous improvement/quality programs are considered the most valuable tool for optimizing performance in shared services centers, followed closely by a single ERP and end-to-end process design. While continuous improvement is ingrained in the culture in many world-class organizations, for others, establishing improvement programs and initiatives face resistance. This A2R Process Perspective outlines how shared services managers can create their own flexible, low-cost quality improvement program by dedicating appropriate space and time for teams to meet; by focusing on metrics associated with quality, cost, delivery and the team itself; and by tracking suggestions and processes to identify improvement opportunities.

Chart of Accounts Standardization: A Critical Initiative at Cytyc

To successfully integrate the finance operations of acquired organizations and improve its internal reporting, Cytyc, a leading provider of medical technology based in Marlborough, Mass., standardized its chart of accounts across its global organization. The company followed two steps which it considered crucial to the success of its endeavor: • To ensure consistency across business units and geographies, Cytyc standardized its chart of accounts worldwide, and designed the new chart of accounts to track data across multiple dimensions of its business, reducing the need for ad hoc reporting. • To dramatically reduce manual effort, Cytyc deployed a web-based consolidation tool.These steps enabled future growth, smoothed the integration of merged organizations, and helped the company ’s finance organization move toward its goal of achieving world-class levels of efficiency and effectiveness in reporting.

Cisco Streamlines External Reporting with Best Practices

Cisco has embraced accelerated reporting as a fundamental component of its culture of financial integrity and transparency and its commitment to providing shareholder value. The key elements of the highly effective approach include: • A shell for 10k/10Q documents • Advance identification and resolution of issues • Integration of earnings release processes with SEC and SOX 404 reporting • Strict observation of timelines and workflows • Continuous improvement through a postmortem process after each cycle • Strictly observed timelines and workflows

Four Steps to Creating a Balanced Scorecard for the Account-to-Report Process

Despite compelling evidence of the value of a balanced scorecard management system, many users experience dissatisfaction when their organizations view it as a measurement system rather than a broader management framework. A balanced scorecard management system comprises strategic objectives, metrics targets and initiatives. Although the scorecard system can be used at any organizational level, this Process Perspective describes how it should be used for the account-to-report (A2R) process by starting with a compelling vision and moving through the creation of a strategy map and an accompanying scorecard of metrics, targets and initiatives.

How Cisco Closes Its Books in Less Than a Day

For Cisco, the virtual close guarantees executives timely access to the information they need with critical metrics provided in near real time. Indeed, it has allowed Cisco to be the first in its sector to release earnings publicly and it lies at the heart of the company's fully transformed e-finance organization, where the mission is to provide meaningful financial data and effective analysis to both internal and external users. The major enablers of the virtual close include such Hackett-certified best practices as common data definitions, standardized charts of accounts and centralized data repositories. Other factors include: - Strong CEO-level leadership and support for the direction and continuous improvement of the finance function - Clearly defined policies for allocation, consolidation and inter-company transactions - Management of business units ( BUs) through a set of KPIs - An integrated ERP platform, standardized network architecture and extensive automation - Close linkage with the IT organization

Altana Pharma Adopts a Rolling Forecast in Response to a Dynamic and Volatile Business Environment

Increasingly, organizations are recognizing the misalignment between the traditional budgeting process and the dynamic environment that most businesses operate within, regardless of the time, effort and rigor expended in the budgeting process. A case in point is German pharmaceutical specialist Altana Pharma, which was dissatisfied with the relevance of its budget to its dynamic and volatile business environment. A Hackett benchmark uncovered considerable opportunities for improving both the efficiency and effectiveness of Altana Pharma's budgeting process. As a result, the company chose to move to a rolling forecast model that incorporated financial and non-financial metrics. This issue of Hackett Perspective addresses Altana's implementation approach and the challenges it faced in its successful implementation of a rolling forecast model.

Cost Accounting - Complexity or Transparency? The Hackett Group Study of Cost-Accounting Practices and Trends in Europe, 2005

As cost accounting influences many other finance processes, the complexity of the current process at many European companies results in unhealthy increases cycle time and cost for the overall finance function. This report examines the results of a survey of 50 large, complex, Europe-based companies, seeking to uncover the ways that world-class firms have created superior cost accounting practices, processes, technology and organizations.

Improving the Accuracy and Reliability of Reporting at a Highly Decentralized, $10 Billion Company

April 2005 - The subject of this case study is a highly decentralized, $10 billion global technology company. Its many business units offer a vast array of products, from inexpensive to very costly, and an array of services as well. Like most companies with a complex operating model, at the beginning of its improvement initiative the reporting process was complicated by multiple systems, inconsistent definitions and processes, and business units that were loathe to give up the flexibility offered by their customized legacy systems in favor of a common ERP. As a result, enterprise-wide reporting was limited to the basics.

Sarbanes-Oxley and Regulation FD Are Hindering Efforts to Shorten Closing Cycle Times

The closing cycle is a commonly watched performance metric by CFOs. It is considered a barometer of the ability to feed timely information to management and, increasingly, to external audiences. As such, one might expect a tight band of performance, as companies have widely been eager to work on reducing cycle time. Surprisingly, a significant gap still exists among companies examined by Hackett Business Advisors. During the month-end, the number of business days to close the books ranges from 2 to 11 days. This issue of Hackett Perspective includes data about the best practices that world-class companies deploy to minimize closing cycle time.

Balanced Scorecards: Are Their 15 Minutes of Fame Over?

Is the balanced scorecard really the valuable tool for management it is claimed to be by its proponents, or is it just another over-praised fad? Hackett data shows only 18 percent of companies in 2003 reporting having no scorecard at all. Yet only 27% report having a mature program - indicating that many firms are having difficulty going from the concept to the realization. Implementing any change in a firm's measurement system involves significant effort - in upfront design, in systems implementation and in training managers to interpret and understand the new measurement system. Such an effort can take months, with costs running into the millions of dollars. This issue of Hackett Perspective describes the things that successful scorecard programs have in common.

Best Practices in General Ledger

The last ten years have seen dramatic changes in general ledger systems, as a number of companies have centralised general ledger processing and moved to a common system. Still, the research in general ledger indicates that opportunities still exist for improving GL processing methods. This paper explores some of the most common best practices in general ledger and takes a look at how member companies are utilising these ideas.