Finance transformation for eCommerce
Client Requirement
Our client, a £350m turnover UK online travel business, had experienced a period of rapid growth. Investments had been made in technology across the business, but Finance had been overlooked. Complex, undocumented manual and spreadsheet-based processes had evolved to support processing of very high-volume online transactions and calculate payments due to suppliers. Finance was labour intensive, error-prone, inflexible and costly. The delayed investment meant that the scale of the task of systemising the department had grown to an intimidating scale
OUR ROLE
- Arundel created a vision for the future of finance, built an investment case, secured funding then led delivery of the change
- Drove software selection through to completion
- Supported procurement of new software and services
- Deployed a standard finance package linked to an advanced transaction reconciliation product that could match high volumes of credit card purchases to sales orders and supplier invoices and payments to sales transactions
- Developed a bespoke software module to provide the finance team with a single view of all products/financial transactions associated with a booking and apply the complex travel related VAT rules for each situation
- Managed the full programme lifecycle from design through to cutover and operational handover including contracts with third parties
- Led key parts of the solution design and software development process
Business Outcome
- Transformed the team from an old-fashioned manual world to a technically skilled, motivated group running a first-rate system – able to adapt quickly to new product launches or market changes
- Minimised risks to the business during the project and through the transition
- Kept finance operating costs flat while the business continued to grow at 20% p.a.
Completion Date: 2016
