Transition Revisited

As an Interim Consultant I get approached on a regular basis with Client opportunities and funnily enough also by Recruiters who want guidance on pitching or pricing a role in the Contract Market.

The advantage of this is it gives me a finger on the 'pulse' of the Interim Consulting Market. Before Covid, actually right before Boris came on Sky News at 4.50 pm on a Tuesday, I could get 5 phone calls in a week. I have never forgotten his appearance as I was about to take charge of a new SSC program and that all went out the window as Boris brought the world to a halt.

These days its more like 3 Calls and the nature of some of the roles is actually changing. They are evolving, you might actually say 'Transitioning' but that would be a poor joke.

When I started out as a Project Manager with Whitbread back in the 90's I was the Finance 'go to' expert on the Supply Chain and most of my work focussed on unravelling system issues which hit the Accounts. Even when I progressed to leading the integration of all Whitbread Beerco. purchasing systems with my first ERP system we still didn't predicate these major changes on headcount reduction. It was about streamlining a complex systems landscape to drive greater transparency and accountability.

In the early years of my career, I therefore didn't yet encounter the resistance which permeates the Transition of Finance processes. That all changed when I moved to Argos and the focus of my work, as we created a 180 strong Finance Shared Services Centre, was to Transition all work to the new Finance SSC.

I quickly learned what Transition involved when headcount reduction was the primary driver. Over 2 years I transitioned work from the Divisions which comprised the Argos Retail Group to the SSC.

When you Transition Finance processes you are aiming to primarily ensure safety and that there is no service disruption from the Business perspective, do not drop the ball, is the watchword.

Next priority is efficiency, improvement, streamlining, integration, choose which ever word works best for you. In a nutshell there was no point in transitioning it if you are not going to improve the overall service delivery.

When I approached these Projects they would vary according to the complexity of the process, level of risk involved with dropping the ball and the number of people impacted by the change. Each Business will attempt to reduce that risk associated with any Redundancy program, and subsequent Transition of processes, by the terms offered.

From a Project Management perspective I would identify the key players in the process and have the Team commence work shadowing them. Work shadowing performed by experienced resources leads to the swift identification of in situ process improvements. DO not underestimate the value of this. Do not match like for like, ensure the 'shadower' has greater experience.

In parallel all system access, master files and history would be catalogued. In a complex Transition I would aim for a 3 month handover. First month we observe, learn document, second month we perform together, third month we perform alone and only the results are cross checked together.

The most complex Transition performed at Argos was one involving 50 Finance staff, who were made Redundant on a gradual basis over 3 months, based on risk and complexity of process. The affected Division was then subsequently sold and they 'rehired' the key staff. I had to perform the Transition in reverse all over again. From gun to tape, including across Year End and the Audit that took 5 months, 3 outbound and 2 to reverse it. I had time on my hands in the Rewind and watched Utd regularly.

There is plenty of detail as to how I performed both Transitions, inbound and outbound, but that isn't the purpose of this story. If you need detailed support on a Transition to an SSC just drop me a DM.

I tell this story for 2 reasons. Firstly, I never encountered a harder project (Outbound), before or since. Secondly, it is a microcosm of what is happening at the moment in the Market but for different reasons.

In the last 6 months I have had several approaches from Clients who want to Transition, previously Transitioned Processes, BACK to where they came from. We have come full circle, not due to Divisional Sales but because of complete dissatisfaction with the Outsourced service being provided and/or a breakdown of that Service.

Those are the reasons proffered. The real reason is the poor level of Project Management in the original Transition. The weaknesses commenced with how the original end to end Process was documented and understood across the retained organisation. Don't know what the retained organisation is? Then you have probably never built an SSC.

My preferred approach either when doing BPO Transition or Transition to a Captive SSC is fix the Process before I move it. Even if I have to drive hard to accomplish this, it pays huge dividends in the long run. Transition a mess and it will only get worse.

Never underestimate how well an experienced Finance Leader can fix a process in situ, before it is Transitioned anywhere. Operational Finance Leadership experience is a key differentiator of Finance Transformation UK. We are not typical Consultants.

Do I think under such circumstances that it is harder to Transition Rewind then to Transition in the first place? No I don't, but like anything, you do need to know what you are doing.

Facing that situation today? Then drop me an email and lets talk.

Regards,

Michael Ryan

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