IBM Global Business Services

Financial
Management

Financial Management
Consulting Services
Confronting globalization, complexity and risk
Chief financial officers (CFOs) are in a highly visible, highly
influential position. They’re not just keeping the books —
they’re architecting change, influencing strategy and driving
business value for the larger enterprise. CFOs have always
been the stewards of financial and business data for the
enterprise, but now they’ve got to do more — they must
leverage this critical data to deliver insight into business
performance, risk and growth. And it’s not easy.
Organizations are increasingly complex, with different geog-
raphies, technologies and lines of business to navigate. And
fragmented processes, systems and data make it difficult to
gather the business information that CFOs are tasked with
delivering. Many of the challenges stem from business changes,
such as inadequately integrated acquisitions, rapid expan-
sion into new marketplaces and business model innovation,
that leave companies with disjointed, localized processes
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and siloed information. The difficulty in aggregating data and
leveraging it successfully, in turn, inhibits CFOs from adequately
estimating strategic and operational risks, leaving many unpre-
pared to address rapidly changing regulatory, geopolitical and
economic factors. In addition to fragmentation-related chal-
lenges, CFOs also struggle to find and retain professionals who
have a balance of the advanced business and technical skills
(transactional knowledge and the ability to drive efficiency) as
well as soft skills (critical thinking skills for driving growth, for
example) that today’s finance organizations demand.
Plus, CFOs have to balance newer demands with their more
traditional responsibilities. Most finance organizations still need
to devote almost half of their time to transaction processing.
And the continued focus on regulatory issues requires the
investment of significant resources to remain compliant.
It’s no wonder that the majority of finance organizations haven’t
been able to successfully transform from a transactionally
focused model to a strategic model that is globally integrated
and capable of flexing based on changing business drivers.
According to the IBM Global CFO Study 2008, today’s most
successful finance organizations have an enterprisewide
common data definition, a standard chart of accounts (COA),
standard common processes and globally mandated standards.
In fact, finance organizations built around these four criteria
typically experience revenue growth rates double those of
industry peers.1
By adopting enterprisewide process and data standards,
finance organizations can begin to simplify enabling systems
and delivery models, and establish governance to create an
integrated finance organization (IFO) for greater efficiency.
An IFO, equipped with the right enabling technologies and
delivery models, can deploy and execute finance activities
more quickly. Moreover, enhanced flexibility makes it easier
to adjust the business to marketplace drivers.2
“When everything is connected …
work flows to the places where it
can be done best.”3
— Sam Palmisano, CEO, IBM Corporation
The IBM finance organization
transformation success
In 1994, the IBM finance organization, which consisted
of a decentralized structure with individual offices using
disparate financial systems, was inefficient and not seen as
a significant source of value to the company. But by trans-
forming into an IFO over the years, the organization has
realized incremental quantitative and qualitative results:
• Consolidated from 67 to 6 data centers
• Reduced the number of key applications from 145 to 44
• Cut the days for accounting to close by 62 percent
• Established a common chart of accounts
• Increased data consistency, integrity and reliability
• Improved ability to accommodate changes through
greater business flexibility
• Gained the ability to provide data more quickly to those
who need it
• Enabled finance to focus on analysis and business
issues by integrating financial and nonfinancial data

The IBM Global CFO Study 2008 reveals that moving toward the
development of an IFO is a critical step for companies that want
to transform passive data into business insight that can be used
to respond quickly to business needs. To create highly effective
IFOs, organizations need to start by establishing global stan-
dards through process ownership and by simplifying enabling
systems and organizational structures to facilitate faster
deployment and execution of financial activities.

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Financial management consulting from IBM
It’s a tall order. CFOs have to drive efficiency and effectiveness
in delivering insight while maintaining regulatory compliance and
remaining as stringent as ever in their traditional bookkeeping
activities. But they don’t have to struggle to do so alone. IBM
offers comprehensive financial consulting services to help CFOs
face these challenges and deliver business value. A trusted ally
to CFOs worldwide, IBM has the capabilities needed to trans-
form fragmented finance organizations into flexible, agile IFOs
that are better prepared for helping businesses thrive in the
unpredictable global marketplace. IBM delivers comprehensive
solutions— including strategy, process, applications, infrastruc-
ture and technology — through its offerings in critical financial
management focus areas. Solutions that help CFOs address
new risks and challenges, drive enterprisewide profit improve-
ment and increase shareholder value.
Finance transformation
In addition to managing risks, increasing organizational agility,
and tackling organizational skill and leadership deficiencies,
CFOs must focus on cost cutting and profit improvement.
Finance transformation services, which include finance strategy
and finance operations improvement, are at the core of the IBM
financial management solution set. These services combine
expertise, process transformation approaches and technology
innovation to help hasten the journey to becoming an IFO, while
delivering cost savings and helping to reduce risks.
Finance strategy services — Designed to help develop a
vision, strategy and blueprint to support the changing busi-
ness needs of the enterprise. Using diagnostic and strategic
tools, IBM can identify process gaps versus leading industry
practices. We can then readily identify business components
that can be standardized, centralized or even outsourced. Our
approach helps CFOs define the optimum finance operating
model and identify potential improvement. Drawing upon its
financial management expertise, industry-specific knowledge
and practical implementation know-how, IBM can help trans-
form a finance organization’s capabilities so that it becomes
4
a valued business partner within the enterprise. The specific
services IBM offers include finance function and blueprint,
finance diagnostic, strategic profit improvement/cost effective-
ness and rationalization, and finance process benchmarking/
APQC alliance.
Finance operations improvement services — Designed to
help finance organizations execute their strategic plans. IBM
can help redesign key business and financial processes,
restructure organizations to improve overall efficiency and
responsiveness, and more efficiently manage tasks that don’t
add value through outsourcing and shared services. Some of
the services offered include finance process design and reen-
gineering, finance organization design, skills and competency
rationalization, shared services design and implementation,
and financial process outsourcing implementation.
Business performance management
Our business performance management services are focused
on helping finance organizations leverage their information
assets to support and enhance business planning and per-
formance. IBM can help CFOs unleash the power of their
financial and enterprise information and business intelligence
by implementing the processes and systems needed to inte-
grate information across the entire value chain.
Using our holistic strategy for design and implementation
that encompasses people, process, information content and
technology transformation, IBM can help link performance
measures with strategy and apply these measures in a timely,
cost-effective manner, while delivering role-based intelligence
to executives, managers and information consumers. For
example, IBM can implement business performance manage-
ment solutions that provide access to real-time information
to improve decision making. We can also help organizations
integrate information to gain further insight into operational
profitability and return on capital based on product, customer
and region. And IBM can leverage tools and applications to
perform a “what if” analysis and scenario planning to derive
forward-looking information to support plans and forecasts.
Business risk management risk management; Sarbanes-Oxley process design and tools;

IBM can help CFOs identify, assess, manage and optimize Basel II gap analysis and enablement; governance, risk and

business risks, taking a comprehensive approach that compliance (GRC); enterprise risk management strategy

integrates risk and compliance management into the overall execution; and risk-driven performance management.

business strategy and execution. Our framework is designed Finance enterprise applications
to help finance organizations evolve from baseline compliance
Our finance enterprise applications services are designed to
to an optimized risk management model in which the value of
help finance organizations design, architect, select, imple-
risk management far outweighs the costs. Effective risk man-
ment, integrate, manage and realize the benefits of technology
agement leads to numerous benefits, including lower cost of
solutions across the enterprise. IBM maintains strong vendor
compliance, improved stakeholder confidence, lower cost of
relationships — in fact, we’re a repeated recipient of the SAP
capital and loss avoidance. Plus, optimized risk management
Award of Excellence and the Oracle Partner Award. Working
provides increased transparency into business operations,
closely with alliance partners, IBM can meet an organization’s
which can result in enhanced decision-making capabilities
core financial systems needs, including the implementation of
and proactive risk mitigation; faster, more robust processes;
new enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications as well
and streamlined reporting.
as shared services and outsourcing solutions to improve the
IBM offers comprehensive services across the risk manage- effectiveness and lower the cost of operations.
ment maturity continuum. Services include marketplace risk
analysis and modeling; credit risk management; operational

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 Client success stories
Large equipment manufacturer

A leading manufacturer of construction equipment was strug-

gling with an inefficient supply chain. Costs were increasing
as fast as revenues, limiting business growth. The company
was running multiple financial reporting systems that required
the administration of more than 11,000 controls companywide.
The chances of miscalculations were high, and the existing
approach created significant hurdles for managing GRC. The
company sought a way to improve supply chain processes
and reduce risks. It created a long-term vision for its finance
department with critical success factors that included faster,
more accurate reporting.

IBM Global Business Services used a combination of IBM

solutions and methods, including the IBM Ascendant® meth-
odology, to implement SAP applications, including the SAP
solution for GRC. To ensure that the company’s Six Sigma
methodology was aligned with the Ascendant methodology,
IBM conducted several workshops. The project involved a
combination of onshore and offshore resources.

With IBM’s help, the company reduced its number of general

ledger systems from more than 30 to just one and reduced
300 feeder systems to approximately 50. It also expects to
lessen the number of controls to approximately 500. Now
the company can obtain a single version of the truth for both
internal and external reporting. The ability to forecast more
accurately resulted in less product allocation, and the com-
pany has achieved significant cost savings through greater
process efficiencies.

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Aerospace company
A leading aerospace company had a vision to make finance
and accounting a true partner in the business by shifting focus
to value-added activities. Recognizing that existing financial
processes and systems did not support the strategic objectives,
the company turned to IBM for help with the transformation.
IBM worked with the company to identify the strategic capabili-
ties of its finance organization and examined how to streamline,
simplify or standardize supporting processes for key capabili-
ties. IBM compared the company’s practices and capabilities
with best practices in accounting, transaction processing, close
and consolidation, reporting and analytics, and other key areas.
Based on the results, IBM identified and prioritized improve-
ment opportunities and developed a business case for moving
forward. It also guided the development and implementation
of new processes and systems to reduce the time and risk
involved in solution deployment. Overall, the company simpli-
fied and standardized six work streams, making it easier to
partner with the business:
• Rationalized its chart of accounts, reducing it from more
than 15,000 to less than 1,000
• Moved from five consolidation systems to a single level
of consolidation
• Reduced close time from 12 days to 5 by standardizing
and monitoring compliance and close procedures
• Reduced the use of spreadsheets for statutory data
gathering by 75 percent by implementing common
tools for data capture
• Consolidated more than 30 discrete general ledgers
into one across the enterprise
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Financial institution
Wrestling with poor overall bank efficiency and a high cost
of finance, a North American financial institution needed to
transform its finance organization. The institution used applica-
tions from multiple vendors, and report production required
labor-intensive manual processing and restatement process-
ing. Overall, the company’s approach and inefficient systems
architecture inhibited it from adapting to changing market-
place drivers quickly and provided multiple versions of the
“financial truth.”
IBM Global Business Services used the IBM finance transfor-
mation strategy methodology and finance component business
modeling techniques to develop a vision for a first-class finance
organization with a flexible architecture, efficient processes
and strong governance. IBM provided the institution with a
three-year roadmap to achieve an enterprisewide target-state
financial system architecture, as well as a business case sup-
porting roadmap investments with detailed cost and resource
estimates. The project identified millions of dollars in potential
finance savings.
Major United States government department
Lacking a centralized financial system, a large U.S. govern-
ment department was relying on disparate legacy solutions
to manage, process and track more than 150 programs and
100,000 individual grants. As the systems became increas-
ingly difficult and costly to maintain, the department sought an
updated and integrated solution.
IBM Global Business Services integrated virtually all administrative and program © Copyright IBM Corporation 2008

processes and systems within the department, implementing a new financial man- IBM Global Services
Route 100
agement systems software (FMSS) Oracle Financials solution to provide centralized
Somers, NY 10589
management of all programs and grants. Over the course of the project, the IBM U.S.A.

team provided project management, process analysis, fit-gap analysis, application Produced in the United States of America
June 2008
configuration, interface design and development, data cleanup, data conversion,
All Rights Reserved
testing, training, cutover planning and postimplementation support.
IBM, the IBM logo, and ibm.com are trademarks of
International Business Machines Corporation in the
The IBM solution has enabled the client to significantly reduce its maintenance and United States, other countries, or both. If these and
operational costs, leverage timely and more accurate financial information, and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first
occurrence in this information with a trademark sym-
enhance its data collection and reporting capabilities. Plus, the integrated solution bol (® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or
strengthens and enforces the department’s internal controls and policies for administer- common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time
this information was published. Such trademarks
ing billions of dollars in government funds. may also be registered or common law trademarks
in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is
available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark
Why IBM? information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml
Whether a finance organization needs guidance in planning its business strategy, Other company, product, or service names may be
acquiring the tools to measure performance more accurately or becoming an IFO to trademarks or service marks of others.

transform its operations, IBM can help. IBM Global Business Services is one of the References in this publication to IBM products or
services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
world’s largest consulting services organizations, with expertise spanning a full range available in all countries in which IBM operates.
of key business issues in virtually every country. And with more than 4,100 financial
management resources located around the globe, IBM has a strong record of serving
1, 2 Balancing Risk and Performance with an Integrated
as a trusted adviser to CFOs and finance leaders. Finance Organization: The Global CFO Study 2008,
IBM Global Business Services, October 2007.
Our financial management services experience is vast. But our approach truly sets
3 Palmisano, Samuel J., “Leadership, Trust and the
us apart. IBM has a real commitment to collaborating closely with CFOs to help them Globally Integrated Enterprise,” Executives’ Club of
Chicago, April 12, 2007, http://www.ibm.com/ibm/
manage complexity, balance risk and drive profitable growth. We bring custom-tailored
sjp/04_12_2007.html.
multidisciplinary teams to each engagement, offering a future-oriented perspective
combined with here-and-now practicality. When it comes to unlocking value across
the enterprise, we’re the experts.

For more information

To learn more about IBM Global Business Services financial management consulting,
contact your IBM representative or visit:

ibm.com/gbs/finmgmt

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