CFO Insights: Achieving High Performance Through Finance Business Process Outsourcing

Many CFOs have led their companies to invest in ERP and shared services in order to create leaner, more global organization structures. Today, they seek more radical transformation through business process outsourcing (BPO). CFO Insights is a practical, comprehensive guide to this exciting, fast-growing field. It features expert advice from the CFOs of major companies worldwide, including BP, Procter & Gamble, Dell, and Exel. Step by step, it takes you through the stages of a successful outsourcing solution - from evaluating providers and contracting, through transition planning and risk management.

“We have seen cost reductions every year for each of the 13 years of our outsourcing experience – now, finally, we are seeing the outsourcing market mature. The advancement of multi-client centers will create new value. As new low cost centers spring up around the world I want to have easy access to the opportunities.”
―Ala n Eilles, CFO Downstream, BP

“Outsourcing is not about sitting still. On the one hand, as CFO, you have to be in control, and have the right control mechanisms in place. On the other, this is an evolving relationship where both parties feel empowered and energized to make a real difference in the business.”
―John Coghlan, Group Finance Director of Exel

“My view of the CFO’s role is relatively simple: How do you add value? The CFO has to be in the forefront in understanding, at a strategic level, the relative economics of different parts of the business model – and vitally play a decisive role in deciding what should be insourced and what should be outsourced.”
―Clayton Daley, CFO, Procter & Gamble

Stewart Clements is president of Accenture Finance Solutions (AFS), Accenture's finance and accounting outsourcing business. In this role he is responsible for the business strategy; development of Accenture's delivery centre network; finance- and outsourcing-focused assets and tools; and the management and development of organisational capabilities. He has more than 18 years experience in finance change programs and finance outsourcing. Mr. Clements is a Chartered Accountant and has a degree in Accountancy from Glasgow University. Based in London, he has been with Accenture for nearly 20 years.

Michael Donnellan is a lead partner in Accenture's outsourcing and consulting business. He has more than 20 years' experience in the professional services industry. Mr. Donnellan has also worked extensively on the research, development and deployment of innovative operating models. An engineer by background, he has spent the last decade focusing on the new role of finance in the modern corporate enterprise. In 1997, he co-authored CFO: Architect of the Corporation's Future, which resulted in the adoption of new finance and accounting organisational models by numerous corporations around the world.

Cedric Read led the PricewaterhouseCoopers Finance Consulting Practice, where he was a finance strategy consultant for 25 years. During this time he advised hundreds of global CFOs, providing strategic consultancy to a range of large multinational companies including Unilever, Microsoft, Shell and GlaxoSmithKline. Through his company, CCR Partners, Mr. Read continues to develop his vision of finance's future. He is the lead author of three previous books: CFO: Architect of the Corporation's Future; eCFO: Sustaining Value in the New Corporation; and CFO as Business Integrator.