sharedserviceslink.com - how to sustain performance excellence when you near of offshore

© Copyright DSG international plc 2006DSGi plc Confidential

DSG international plc

How to Sustain Performance Excellence When You Near or Offshore

Ian Duffield

© Copyright DSG international plc 2006

DSGi plc

18/03/09

Contents:

1. DSGi structure and history2. SSC/Client structure & relationship3. SSC location selection criteria4. Why training and education?5. Training elements6. Education elements7. Considerations8. Questions?


DSGi plc

18/03/093

DSGi plcDixons Store Group International trade through 1,450 stores and online stores2006/07 turnover was £7.4 billionSpanning 28 countries and employing 40,000 people


DSGi plc

18/03/094

DSGi Shared Service CentreUK accounts payable operations moved into a UK Finance Transaction Centre in Hemel Hempstead in 2006.Shared Service Centre went live in Brno, Czech Republic in August 2007. UK & French AP operations relocated to Brno.Nordic AP operations relocated to Brno in 2008.Additional functions also now handled:- Customer Credit Agreements- Transactional Credit Control- Transactional Customer Service/Customer Operations- Cashiers for BACS/Cash in store payments- Some central and inter-company finance functions


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Client structure & relationshipTier - 1

Local Centre Responsibility:Tax, regulatory, legal, country specifics, decision support, business facing etc.

Tier – 3

Group SSC Responsibility:Transaction processing, low level queries, report preparation, day-to-day operations.

Tier – 2

Regional Centre Responsibility:Language, Credit control, Tax, regulatory, SSC overflow & cover.


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Selection criteria: Why Brno?“Location!, Location!, Location!”

Central Europe with it’s own airport with direct links to the UK.Less than 3 hours from the UK.Less than 2 hours from 3 other cities with UK-linked airports: Vienna, Bratislava and Prague.


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Selection criteria: Why Brno?Demographics – young population, several universities.Good language skills.Accessibility, (you have got to get your trainers and support staff in and out).Existing Finance SSC presence, (experienced staff available).Presence of other big companies, (skills and culture already embedded).Good investment support, (Czechinvest prepared to financially support training and education).


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Why Training and Education?Bok’s Law: “If you think

training is expensive, try ignorance”.

Objectives: To support a world class Shared Service Centre by providing high quality training to the staff.To produce excellent professionals through systems, process and procedures training; education and understanding; and business and operational knowledge.


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18/03/09

Why Training and Education?In order to produce excellent staff who are able to give the standards

of service required they must understand:

1. What to do - Training2. How to do it - Training3. Why they are doing it – Education

No 3. is just as important as 1. and 2. If you wish to automate you must have systems which are designed

to deal with correct transactions. In addition to processing thecorrect transactions the staff need to know how to deal with theincorrect transactions.

If they know WHY they do what they do, then they will know how to deal with those problems when they arise.


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AP Training ElementsPrimary Systems:-Ledger- Invoice matching system-BACS payments system

Secondary Systems:-Sales order entry system-Alternative payments method,

(cheques)

Support Systems:Microsoft Office applications?Telephone systemLocally operated databasesWarehouse systems, (e.g. short shipment notifications)Buying systems, (e.g. order cancellation records)Returns systems, (e.g. Return to manufacturer authorisations


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Primary Systems Training ElementsInvoice handling:

Invoice processing, (speedkey)Merchandise invoice matchingGeneral expense codingException handlingInvoice & GRNI cleardownReporting

Ledger:

Supplier account creation & maintenanceDay-to-day account managementPayments processingReporting


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Primary Systems Training ElementsPayments system:

User and account maintenanceBACS Payments


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Secondary Systems Training ElementsSales Order Entry systems

PO inquiryReceipts inquiryRecognising directs/alternative delivery addressesRecognising cancellations

Alternative Payments:

Automated, pre-printed cheque productionCHAPS and wire transfers through Group Treasury


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Education ModulesCorporate and divisional structureLocal/divisional business model variancesAccounts Payable functions and principlesPurchase to Pay processCustomer ServiceVAT legislationUK Contract Law


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Training ConsiderationsWho is your training team?Do you need trainers from multiple divisions/businesses? Do you need to train other non-operational staff, e.g. Managers. Do you use local experts or do you use external trainers?

- If experts can they also do their day job while training?If local experts do you need to train the trainers?

- Just because they are experts doesn’t mean they can train.Do you bring in trainers from your systems providers?Do you bring the trainees to you or do you send the trainers to them?

- Beware of exporting inappropriate culture.


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Other Considerations, Examples:Do common terms and conditions of purchase exist across all aspects, (i.e. group/division/subsidiary). If not do you seek toimplement them, or at lest align them as much as possible? If not already, do you seek to apply common legal jurisdiction over legal disputes with suppliers? If not, do you need to become familiar with contract law in other countries if you want to roll out contract law training?Do you need to consider moving controls, e.g. do you need to devolve your controls down to cost centres instead of your AP team?Do you need to train your cost centre managers or other invoice approvers?

- Purchase to Pay operations and principles.- Contract law and negotiation, (or just pain common sense).


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Local ExpertsDo you keep local support experts in place?

Be careful about “fire and forget”.Consider keeping a small team of experts who understand how the business runs and are able to understand when and how operational changes take place.Have your local experts engage in added value activities and letthe Shared Service Centre deal with the transactional work.Be prepared to provide continuous support, training and education.


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18/03/09

Any Questions?

?

sharedserviceslink.com - how to sustain performance excellence when you near of offshore

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