National Brands Limited: Finance Management

Client: National Brands Limited
Project: Outsourcing Finance and Accounting Solution
On the Web: www.nbl.co.za

Accenture collaborated with National Brands Limited to help the company reduce costs and improve service levels within their finance and accounting function.

National Brands Limited is a major player in South Africa's consumer goods industry with turnover of more than R2 billion.

The company wanted to reduce costs and improve service levels within their finance and accounting function. In addition to a reduction in staff numbers, National Brands sought to improve processes, customer satisfaction and service quality. In particular, the company wanted to transform the manual, high volume, invoice approval process that was time consuming, prone to error and documentation loss.

Because of Accenture's thought leadership and practical solutions in finance re-engineering, National Brands gave Accenture the go-ahead to lead and manage the project.

Since finance and accounting staff were to remain in situ, Accenture's proprietary eShared Services solution was deployed as a key enabler of National Brands' business objectives.

The Accenture eShared Services solution, which is based on Microsoft technology, is an innovative means of enabling organisations to attain shared services excellence. Working together during the opportunity assessment phase, National Brands and Accenture drew up realistic targets for improvements to the finance function that would place it in the top quartile of international benchmarks for comparable operations:

• Reduce costs and improve efficiencies.
• Harness information technology for competitive advantage.
• Provide value adding support and advice.
• Fully integrate finance into business.
• Achieve consistency in the finance systems and processes.

Accenture delivered a finance function to National Brands that sets an international benchmark. Finance staff members were trained in the use of new eShared Services processes for invoice approval, journal entry and new vendor management. In addition finance and accounting processes have been standardised. Headcount reduction targets were achieved, quality levels improved and productivity increased.

Post solution delivery, National Brands' shared finance and accounting function is fully operational and the staff is suitably skilled in using the leading-edge eShared Services software. Standardisation and automation has reduced the number of finance staff by 12 as planned with the majority of headcount reduction taking place within the Accounts Payable department. Quality and service level improvements have been achieved through the automation that has also positively impacted productivity.