Transforming The Order-to-Cash Process In Just 4 Steps

Does your company experience difficulty in maintaining consistency across the board when collaborating with multiple BUs?

While looking into roadblocks affecting better process visibility, Danone struck a chord between Efficiency and Effectiveness while addressing a better business process. In dealing with a Shared Service Model, with operations around the globe, the evolution of visibility across BUs was a requisite.

With a stringent plan, the error-prone manual operations model could be revised into a standardized, easy to access, and a consistent one. For this, the process design for Order-to-Cash Shared Services should ensure adequate visibility and a drill-down reporting of the master data.

Similarly, to improve the collaboration across teams and focus on tasks involving analysis and research, a unique Process Design O2C Model based on four basic pillars could be the way to go!

1. Ensure Positive Customer Experience

Customer experience is one of the most competitive battlegrounds and maintaining a positive customer experience is an essential ingredient for a company’s financial growth. But how to ensure a positive customer experience?

A good way to start would be to focus on better optimization of back up documents and correct correspondence. While most companies have unique ways of dealing with customers, the primary goal has always been to ensure a positive customer experience. With better correspondence, proactive dunning calls, and credit memos that could be easily integrated into the system, one can eradicate major roadblocks while predicting customer behavior and catering to them.

With the simplification of tasks, allocation of FTEs to higher-value activities, and the exchange of feedback between existing teams, the shared services model could run smoothly.

2. Adherence to Compliance and Internal Controls

Adhering to compliance and internal controls could help a company achieve better visibility. But how to achieve this standardization? Having international compliance controls in addition to SOX for US operations serves as a great boon. Moreover, incorporating international taxation creates a better mapping of the landscape. Most departments have a scattered workflow which has a negative impact on process efficiency. Setting approval workflows will help your team do more work in less time and standardize processes.

3. Address the Business Needs of Individual Units

Addressing the business needs of individual units is important for carrying out a common organizational goal. But how to achieve the flexibility for individual business requirements? A good place to start would be integrating master data and incorporating different rules for different BUs. Harmonizing payment terms and running strategies could go a long way in forming the backbone of data migration and integrity.

4. Identify trends and remove inconsistencies

Tracking performance and identifying areas to improve could help your company keep track of KPIs and areas of improvement. A continuous assessment could help in identifying inconsistencies, process leaks, and providing insights on solutions. This could effectively improve inter-team collaboration and, in the long run, help the company achieve optimized process enhancement.

What happens after transitioning from Good to Best-in-class?

While charting global business development, O2C Shared Service could potentially be THE GAME CHANGER. Following a well-researched standardized model can cater to the needs of multiple BUs and maintain customer satisfaction. After all, the fate of a company is solely dependent upon the relationship with their customers.