The Client is part of one of the largest global direct seller of premium, innovative products across multiple brands and categories through an independent sales force of 1.9 million in 46 countries.
The Client is the exclusive direct-selling channel for internationally-known brands of baby products, personal care products, apparel and kitchen and home care solution. It operates 101 branches and deals with more than 1,000 dealers and Independent Business Managers (IBM).
The Business Challenge
When the Client approached Prople in 2007, one of the major challenges was processing the accounts payable transaction which covers 1,000 suppliers and 400 invoices and 400 checks and bank advices weekly. The Client was looking for a more cost effective and efficient way of managing its AP process and at a higher service level. A particular area of concern was the desired turn-around-time which is essential to fostering a healthy business relationship with its suppliers.
Prople was a clear choice of the Client to handle the AP requirements because of the team’s solid experience and broad expertise in Finance and Accounting.
The Solution and Transition Process
The engagement started with Prople partnering with Client to support the back office processing of accounts payable including receipt and monitoring of AP-related documents, preparation of accounts payable vouchers and reconciliation of outstanding AP accounts with suppliers which was proving to be a challenge in terms of turnaround time.
The assessment of the Client’s service delivery requirements required for a “time and motion” study to observe actual workflow and turnaround time for the outsourced AP function. This study served as basis for Prople to design an optimized process and determine the ideal FTE requirement to manage the volume of transactions. A parallel run using the Client’s ERP platform was conducted to validate the effective application of the recommended process prior to its full implementation. The transition to the new AP process helped the Client to quickly achieve improved turnaround time reduced backlog.
In time, other challenges were seen by the Client in Expense Reporting and Branch Accounting. To address the areas of concern, Prople organized its approach starting with a review of the current processes through a walkthrough of the actual workflow and analysis of the delivery technology.
During the assessment phase, system errors and complicated documentation procedures were immediately identified as factors causing delays in service delivery. Consistent with its methodology, Prople streamlined the current workflow, enforced control points and recommended delivery tools to improve efficiency of the work process.
Prople’s engagement team was expanded to also manage the Client’s Expense Reporting and Branch Accounting for its 95 outlets.
The Client also engaged Prople to help implement a better Document Management System. Prople’s solution provides for a web-based document management system (DMS) on a subscription basis . This includes scanning, tagging, storage and archiving of invoices, vouchers and other pertinent documents facilitating faster access and retrieval of the documents at secured levels.
During the course of the engagement, regular system and process audits are conducted to ensure the quality of service delivery. Well defined SLAs and KPIs govern the engagement and serve as basis for evaluating Prople’s performance.
Operations and strategic issues are discussed and immediately addressed at different levels of the engagement team. Open dialogue and exchange of ideas are done through monthly operations review participated by both Prople and the Client’s representative.
Aside from the outsourced functions, Prople also provides support to several of the Client’s F & A activities including Treasury, Bank Reconciliation, Account Analysis, Credit Management and Cost Accounting via a secondment arrangement.
The Transformation
Almost two years in the partnership, Prople gradually transitioned all the processes in the Client’s service level agreement (SLA) into daily tasks and significantly reduced backlog by 90%. Greater savings was also achieved with 28% lower FTE cost despite the almost doubled volume of transactions being processed.
The outsourced engagement enabled the client to take advantage of export accounting services while simultaneously freeing up manpower and financial resources channeling these to other core functions.
The foundation of Prople’s engagement model is a proactive collaboration with Client to achieve continuous process improvement that help fuel business growth.