CASE STUDIES

A Powerful IT Strategy for Finance

The Finance and Information Technology leadership of a Fortune 500 company wanted to develop an overall Finance IT strategy that would leverage a common technology platform, processes, and standards. We worked with a core team from the various business units to develop the overall IT strategy and roadmap going forward. The VantagePoint strategy work included an assessment of the information needs linked to the overall company strategy, the development of a future state vision, a strategy for common processes and standards, and an action plan with a clear business case to implement the strategy. The results were:

• Significant reduction in IT costs through the elimination of redundant technologies and activities across the business
• Implementation of a Program Management Office (PMO) that aligned IT initiatives across the various businesses
• Agreement to adopt common processes, business rules, and standards to simplify the overall IT environment
• A clear roadmap and process to "refresh" the roadmap on an ongoing basis, as business needs evolve

Optimizing IT's Contribution While Minimizing Costs

A division of a Fortune 500 corporation wanted to better align its IT function with the overall business, to ensure that they were optimizing the value provided to the organization. We worked with the CIO and the leadership team to create a balanced set of strategies and goals for the IT function. IT activities were then assessed to determine those that could be entirely eliminated, kept in-house, migrated to a shared service environment, or outsourced. The results provided by this project were:

• A prioritized understanding of the information and technology needs of the internal customers
• A clear set of strategies, goals, and actions that ensured alignment with the overall business strategies
• Reduction in overall IT costs and elimination of non-value added activities
• Creating a "transactional shared service" function that focused on completing contracts and capturing data, thereby allowing the client-facing group to focus more on the relationship and value-added activities
• Reduced IT implementation and adoption times and costs
  
• Improved relationships with internal customers

Finance Function Excellence

Integrating Finance into Operating Units

The CFO for a division of a Fortune 100 company wanted to better align the Finance function with the various operating units, to ensure that finance is highly integrated into the business. Working with the Finance leadership team, we together gained a clear understanding of their internal customers' business needs. We then determined which processes and activities were most critical to the organization going forward. The results were:

• Creation of a new organizational structure that better aligned Finance with its internal customers
• Development of a "balanced scorecard" for the Finance group that linked Finance activities and value to the overall organization's strategy and goals
• Re-engineered key business processes including budgeting and forecasting
• Reduced the time to close the books from over 10 days to fewer than 5 days

R & D

A Cost-Effective & Lean Clinical Group

The clinical development group of a global pharmaceutical company needed to transform itself into a leaner, cost effective, and flexible organization. We helped the client to better understand the critical processes and activities that should be kept in-house versus those that could be outsourced. This assessment was based on the overall company strategy, drug pipeline, and core capabilities. Based on this assessment a new functional mission, organizational structure, performance metrics, core processes and IT strategy were developed. The results were:

• A reduction in internal costs through the elimination of non-value added work and activities
  
• Agreement to adopt common processes, business rules, and standards to simplify the overall IT environment
  
• A clear roadmap and process to "refresh" the roadmap on an ongoing basis as the business needs evolve

Shared Services

Improved Performance: Contracts Shared Services

The Contracts and Business Development function of a major Financial Services company wanted to improve its overall performance and value-add to the business. Working with the core leadership team of this group as well as its key internal customers, we comprehensively assessed their current processes and activities. We then developed a more streamlined organization and processes. The results were:

• A "transactional shared service" function that focused on completing contracts and capturing data, thereby allowing the client-facing group to focus more on the relationship and value-added activities
• Reduced IT implementation and adoption times and costs
• Improved relationships with internal customers