This is our story of re-designing the Financial Shared Services Center (FSSC) for a leading pharma company, optimizing their Accounts Receivable (AR), Accounts Payable (AP) and Record-to-Report (R2R) processes.
As we know…
Pharma companies are striving to adopt a resilient Finance and Accounting (F&A) strategy amid intensifying pricing pressures, regulatory complexities, soaring R&D investments, intricate supply chain dynamics and heightened M&A pursuits. Despite the industry's fast-paced evolution, many organizations still grapple with legacy systems and manual processes, creating bottlenecks in their operational workflows. Enterprises must re-architect the F&A operating model – strategically blending automation, human intervention and industry-leading practices to develop a future-ready function.
The challenge for the client was…
Its FSSC faced several operational hurdles. High costs and attrition, accentuated by manual and fragmented processes, hampered accuracy and turnaround times. These inefficiencies were compounded by the use of multiple legacy systems, underutilized Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and inadequate governance mechanisms. Consequently, high invoice backlogs and the lack of standard health metrics hindered visibility.
Non-standardized operational methods resulted in critical financial setbacks, such as delayed Value-added Tax (VAT) returns and unreconciled balance sheet accounts. Such disruptions not only impacted vendor relationships but also led to supply and production challenges, necessitating a strategic solution.
As a strategic advisor to the CFO’s office and co-creation partner…
WNS leveraged its deep industry expertise and capabilities in F&A to embark on a Process Maturity Assessment. We analyzed the as-is process and defined the future finance target operating model. This involved a comprehensive analysis of upstream and downstream processes and a detailed examination of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).
As the first phase of the multi-pronged solution, we undertook pivotal interventions, including:
Human Capital Reinforcement
Leveraging seasoned professionals to fill critical roles, ensuring business continuity
Operational Blueprinting
Deploying process experts for on-the-ground insights, re-defining process documentation and addressing urgent challenges
Strategic Issue Triage
Stationing an expert team, co-hosting workshops for Root Cause Analysis (RCA), and designing and implementing a robust change management process
Process Standardization
Incorporating WNS’ industry-tested and proven CFO Advisory Services framework to standardize processes
Progressing to the subsequent phase of the operating model enhancement, we are executing the following:
Finance Excellence
Adopting a Center of Excellence (CoE) model to unify the finance function, aligning outcomes with meticulously devised Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and establishing SOPs to reduce people dependency
Technological Augmentation
Proposing the integration of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and a proprietary month-end tracking and reporting tool as part of the overall solution, with plans to harness a hyperautomation platform (with built-in microbots) for AP processes
This solution enabled the pharma company to gain…
Clarity on pending invoices, achieve VAT compliance and further market credibility. Robust controls and duty segregation significantly bolstered process health. Notably, the optimally designed operating model unlocked a potential 42 percent savings opportunity for the client.
Other tangible benefits included:
~
percent
reduction in overdue invoices
percent
reduction in invoices aged >30 days
percent
decrease in unapplied cash
percent
improvement in VAT compliance