The Industry Landscape
Building Consistency Across Complex Finance Environments
Financial services organizations operating across multiple entities, acquired businesses and legacy enterprise resource planning environments can develop significant variation in how finance activities are performed. Processes become increasingly dependent on spreadsheets, e-mails and individual knowledge, while controls, reporting structures and technology capabilities differ across business units.
Addressing this complexity requires more than automating isolated tasks. Finance leaders need a clear view of how work is performed across the enterprise, where process and control gaps exist, and which improvements should be prioritized. The objective is to create greater consistency across finance operations while strengthening governance, reporting visibility and the foundations for continuous improvement.
The Client Challenge
8 Finance Workstreams | One Fragmented Operating Environment
The client’s financing and accounting function operated through highly manual, fragmented and non-standardized processes across accounts payable, billing, FP&A, treasury, general ledger, financial reporting, and Solvency II and MiFID reporting.
Across these functions, limited automation, multiple handoffs, weak documentation, inconsistent controls and siloed systems increased cycle times and operational risk. Finance teams also spent significant time on transactional activities rather than analysis, while limited dashboards and reporting visibility constrained informed decision-making.
The Solution
Designing a Future-state Finance Operating Model
WNS conducted an enterprise-wide finance and accounting process diagnostic to re-design the client's finance operating model across eight interconnected workstreams. Rather than recommending isolated improvements, the engagement developed a coordinated future-state approach that combined process standardization, enhanced controllership and targeted automation .
The solution included current- and future-state process designs, governance frameworks, analytics-led insights, automation opportunities and a prioritized transformation roadmap tailored to the specific needs of each finance function.
This work was underpinned by the WNS CFO Advisory 4D Framework and the aTOM (Agile Target Operating Model) platform for process mapping and operating model assessment.
The Outcome:
A Clear View of Value, Risk & Transformation Priorities
The engagement provided the client with an enterprise-wide view of how finance activities differed across business units and legal entities, highlighting opportunities to standardize processes, strengthen governance and controls, and improve operational efficiency.
WNS delivered current- and future-state process maps, a prioritized finance transformation roadmap, governance recommendations, automation opportunities and process improvement initiatives tailored to each finance workstream.
The roadmap established a series of future-state priorities, including:
Streamlining invoice processing and billing activities
Strengthening finance controls and compliance
Improving reporting visibility and decision support
Accelerating the month-end close
Enhancing reporting quality through embedded validation controls
Building a governed, centralized financial data repository
Improving regulatory readiness across Solvency II and MiFID reporting
Reducing key person dependency through standardized SOPs, RACI frameworks and governance
Maximizing the value of the existing Tagetik platform through future integration, automation and planning capabilities
Tangible opportunities identified include:
$0 M
Potential savings identified through early payment rationalization
$0 M
Potential savings identified through payment term rationalization
$0 M
Potential duplicate payment exposure identified from one year of AP data
~0 %
Automation potential identified for cash reconciliation
!
Important: Figures represent potential savings, duplicate payment exposure and automation opportunities identified through the diagnostic; they are not reported as realized benefits.
FAQs
1. What is finance operating model transformation?
Finance operating model transformation involves re-designing how finance processes, controls, governance, technology, and reporting work together across the organization. The goal is to create more standardized, efficient, and digitally enabled finance operations that can better support business needs.
2. Why is finance process diagnostics important ahead of finance transformation?
Finance process diagnostics provide a clear view of how work is currently performed, where process variations, control gaps, and manual dependencies exist, and which opportunities should be prioritized. This helps organizations build a transformation roadmap based on identified operational needs rather than pursuing isolated improvements or automation.
3. Which finance functions benefit most from an operating model transformation?
The opportunity can extend across the finance function. In this case, the diagnostic covered eight interconnected workstreams: Accounts Payable, Billing, FP&A, Treasury, General Ledger, Financial Reporting, and Solvency II and MiFID reporting.
4. How does finance operating model transformation improve business performance?
A well-designed finance operating model can help standardize processes, strengthen governance and controls, reduce manual dependencies, improve reporting visibility, and identify opportunities for targeted automation. This can enable finance teams to operate more efficiently while providing stronger support for business decision-making.
5. What outcomes can organizations expect from a finance transformation roadmap?
A finance transformation roadmap can establish clear priorities for process standardization, stronger controllership, reporting improvements, digital enablement, and targeted automation. In this engagement, the roadmap identified opportunities to streamline finance processes, improve regulatory readiness, reduce key person dependency, and build a more standardized and digitally enabled finance operating model.