The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission's "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a World-Class Financial Management System for Central Enterprises" and other policy documents have pushed Chinese enterprises to the fast track of innovation and transformation. Achieving self-reliance and self-improvement in high-level science and technology is the key to Chinese-style modernization. Digital and intelligent transformation has become an important driving force for enterprises to move towards high-quality development, and financial sharing construction is the triangle sail that escorts large enterprises to bravely step into the forefront.
The starting point of digital intelligence for large enterprises: financial sharing
With the integration of the digital economy, it has catalyzed the transformation of enterprise management. Network collaboration, data intelligence, connecting resources, process reorganization, processing transactions, executing operations... The rapid development of AI technology is constantly changing the production and management methods of enterprises. In the era of digital intelligence, financial digital intelligence transformation is a process, with scenarios ranging from simple to complex, applications ranging from partial to extensive, continuous optimization and gradual growth. Financial sharing is the starting point of financial management transformation 0-1, and it is also the power engine driving the continuous upgrading of 1-100.
There are three main reasons why large enterprises choose financial sharing as the primary barrier for transformation breakthroughs. First, the construction of financial sharing is an organizational change, and the formed three-pillar structure of financial management realizes the professional division of labor within the organization. Second, the construction of financial sharing is a process change. The practice of "management is built on the system, the system is built on the process, the process is built on the system, the system is built on the data, and the data is built on the model", and the process is continuously optimized. Agile implementation and no deviation in execution. Third, financial sharing is a model innovation. It finds solutions through problems, finds value through data, promotes the integration of business and finance, and supports financial management to complete strategic transformation.
From standardization to automation, and then to digital intelligence, the financial sharing construction of Chinese enterprises has generally gone through three iterations, starting with accounting transformation and efficiency improvement, and continuing to empower enterprise management with value creation. Today, digital intelligence financial sharing is driven by data and should have the organizational characteristics of agile innovation. On this basis, a "1-5-4-4-1" construction framework for digital intelligence financial sharing can be constructed:
"1 Goal": Building a world-class digital intelligence financial sharing should be the core goal for large enterprises to pursue financial sharing in the digital intelligence era.
"5 Values": Compliance control, cost reduction and efficiency increase, risk prevention, data empowerment, and strategic support are the value of the digital intelligence financial shared service center.
"4 changes": The construction of a digital-intelligent financial shared service center needs to complete 4 changes: organizational agility, business deepening, system iteration, and talent transformation.
"4 capabilities": The financial shared service center should have four capabilities. First, the full-business link capability of large finance, with the help of powerful and flexible system docking capabilities, runs through the whole business field related to finance, and realizes the expansion of applications from traditional accounting sharing to process fields such as business finance, fast management, and budget, including Procurement to payment, sales to collection, management accounting, cost control, treasury, taxation, etc., to build a financial integrated system structure; second, to share the intelligent operation ability, after the end-to-end processes of the whole business have flowed into the financial sharing center , through the use of intelligent technology, automatic sorting of audit rules, training of RPA financial robots, real-time monitoring of operation quality, etc., so as to continuously improve the efficiency of the whole process operation; third, the ability to share data capitalization, in the sharing center, structure data , Labeling, forming a data asset catalog, resume data value chain, and realizing personalized data processing through modeling, etc., capitalize business financial data, and provide flexible data services for refined financial management and business strategies; Fourth, the ability to excel in operation management, as the operating basis of the financial sharing center, should be combined with the management system of excellent operation to continuously improve the maturity of operation, promote the steady growth of the financial sharing center, and achieve excellent operation through continuous self-iteration.
"1 Support": Based on the strong base of business and financial integration big data, it provides intelligent, real-time, fine and multi-dimensional business and financial data, unifies data sources and standards, and consolidates the data foundation.
A good strategy for financial sharing: 3 stages and 6 steps
The construction of financial sharing carries many expectations of enterprises to benchmark the world-class financial management system. Enterprises hope that the financial shared service center can break down business barriers, have end-to-end integration capabilities, be compatible with heterogeneous systems, and flexibly support business with rich data services, so as to form digital intelligence sharing; at the same time, they hope that the financial shared service center can connect various Functions, IT, human resources, taxation, assets, supply chain, etc. in the whole value chain other than finance are connected together, enabling enterprises to achieve professional internal service capabilities such as efficient collaboration, rapid response, risk management and control, and data sharing. Through reasonable planning, precise design, integration of digital intelligence technology, and industry characteristics, a digital intelligence financial shared service center can become a reality. The construction path of digital and intelligent financial sharing for large enterprises is three stages and six steps.
- three stages
The first stage is the transformation of the financial organization under the shared model. Based on the overall strategic transformation goals, the enterprise should set the vision definition of the financial shared service center, and combine the current situation analysis of the organization, business, system, etc., scientifically plan the plan and path, go online in batches, financial organization form, work process and mode, etc. Major changes will take place at this stage, and the division of labor between strategic finance, business finance, and shared finance functions will be completed, laying the foundation for professional upgrades in various fields.
The second stage is to deepen the application of the sharing model in various fields of finance. Based on the unified process and standardized rules, promote the docking of all business sectors to the financial shared service center, the integration of business and financial systems, data fusion, and real-time import into the shared platform. , to maximize the sharing effect.
In the third stage, sharing realizes data empowerment. The financial shared service center that has been operated to this stage can already manage a large amount of rich business financial data, sort out rules, and build analysis models to empower business operations.
- six steps
Step 1: Overall planning and detailed design
The huge organizational scale and stable and mature business model of large enterprises, to a certain extent, doom the cost of enterprise reform. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and the construction of financial sharing begins with scheme design. By clarifying the definition of the vision and combining the research results of the current situation of the enterprise, the framework design of the financial sharing construction is started, the specific path is planned, and the construction plan and implementation path are finally formed.
Enterprises need to consider all aspects, including the choice of management mode, the relationship between the financial shared service center and the group, the business sector, the management and control mode of the financial shared service center, the functional positioning of the financial shared service center, etc.; including detailed organizational planning, strategic finance, business finance , Shared financial responsibility division, financial shared service center service catalog, organizational structure, etc.; including sorting out business operation processes, summarizing the status quo of end-to-end business financial processes, designing process blueprints, etc.; including descriptions of requirements for systems and tools, such as system Architecture design, demand output, intelligent scenario planning, etc.; including infrastructure construction plan, office location selection of financial shared service center, site design, office design planning, etc...
In this link, each demand point carefully described by the enterprise will constitute the core value of the financial shared service center.
Step 2: Build in batches and promote in an all-round way
Due to the great differences in organizational business forms among enterprises, the construction mode can be selected according to the characteristics of their business forms. For example, for a Fortune 500 iron and steel metallurgical enterprise, the group business is relatively single, so the group headquarters takes the lead and presides over all the specific work of the financial shared service center construction, and other business units cooperate with it. For example, in a large automobile manufacturing company, the business units are the first to carry out pilot projects, and the group headquarters is responsible for unification and integration. This model is suitable for large enterprises with relatively single business types or highly related business types. Or, for example, for a state-owned energy enterprise with related and diversified business types of the group, the group headquarters first formulates the regulations, and each business unit implements them separately. For another example, a metallurgical state-owned enterprise with non-related and diversified business types of the group has a first-level financial shared service center built by the group headquarters, and each business unit subsequently builds a second-level financial shared service center.
However, under the diversified construction mode, building in batches and step by step is still the core direction. The construction of an enterprise's financial shared service center needs to go through detailed process setting, organizational reform, system implementation, and pilot launch to achieve comprehensive promotion.
Step 3: Build an operation management system and a maturity assessment system
Focusing on the core vision of building a financial shared service center, an enterprise should divide it into four levels when building a specific operation management system. Guiding opinions penetrate layer by layer from top to bottom, and support layer by layer from bottom to top.
Strategic orientation layer: Oriented by target management, the organizational goals of the financial shared service center are determined, and the goals of the financial shared service center are different at different stages.
Operational improvement layer: Continuously promote the innovation and upgrading of shared operations through the four levels of talent training, knowledge empowerment, performance incentives, and service management.
Basic guarantee layer: focus on organization, process, quality and system to provide management guarantee for the operation of the financial shared service center and lay a solid foundation.
Technical support layer: The system management of the financial shared service center is the technical support to ensure the stable operation of the information system of the financial shared service center.
Apply the operation maturity evaluation model, conduct regular self-evaluation, discover operational problems in a timely manner, optimize and improve them, and continuously promote the maturity of shared operations.
Step 4: Lay out the five-level advanced road for the integration of business and wealth
On the way to help business take off, the enterprise is based on the construction of a financial shared service center, with process separation and fine management as the financial orientation. It needs to break through a total of five layers of advanced problems in order to realize the business-finance integration model that serves the business and supports decision-making.
In the face of business and financial breakpoints, enterprises need to open up the meridians among decentralized business systems, integrate data, and solve the problem of process penetration.
In the face of differences in business understanding, data fusion will be realized, from "single" to "multi-dimensional", "extensive" to "fine", "periodic" to "real-time", to solve the problem of business-finance alignment.
In the face of changes in financial responsibilities, enterprises need to start with the unification of "guidelines" and standardize "operation" management to solve the problem of lean management and control.
Facing the development of enterprises, the management perspective needs to realize the transformation from "finance" to "business". The financial shared service center is not only responsible for the processing of financial affairs, but also to solve the problem of value creation.
In the face of value creation, implement the transformation from "indicators" to "decision-making" and gain insight into the business, so as to solve the problem of high-level consensus.
Step 5: Deepen the application of sharing mode
When the concept of sharing is deeply imprinted in the management of the enterprise, it indicates that the construction of the financial shared service center is relatively mature, so the enterprise can carry out the deepening of the sharing model, expanding from the financial accounting type financial shared service center to a richer functional dimension . In terms of responsibility accounting, economic activities can be collected based on this to realize multi-dimensional apportionment, internal settlement, management caliber management, period-end adjustment, etc. In terms of cost management, it can realize the cost management and improvement of the whole value chain, such as standard cost accounting, real-time cost warning, financial actual cost, cost analysis report, etc. Driven by sharing, it can also realize efficient budget control and budget analysis, intelligent consolidation and report sharing, lean treasury management and fund management, precise tax calculation and precise risk control, etc., and the two-way rapid deepening of business functions and business management.
Step 6: Upgrade Data Service
Real-time, precise, multi-dimensional, digital intelligence technology endows data with infinite possibilities. More than 20 kinds of data sources from many business sectors, such as mysql and oracle, are all collected and exported in a unified manner. The vertically connected and horizontally connected data makes enterprises no longer have data islands.
Strong development capabilities will make the data value mining process more efficient. Standardized data warehouse modeling, professional offline development and real-time development have improved data standardization and development efficiency.
Therefore, users are supported to analyze business data in a step-by-step exploratory manner, deeply tap the potential of data, and quickly explore the value of data. What you see is what you get in data analysis.
Data presentation will also reach users more intuitively and efficiently, gain insight into operational status quickly, and provide accurate decision support, so as to perfectly understand the overall picture of the business.
Data services start from basic business scenarios, gradually enrich and deepen, and accumulate step by step and even thousands of miles. Through data collection, data cleaning and processing, algorithm modeling, and visualization, the financial shared service center must extract, organize, and utilize data in a targeted manner, provide basic data services, gradually accumulate data assets and modeling capabilities, and improve The ability to create value. For example: digital intelligence risk early warning, which can digitally control the performance risk and credit risk of suppliers, customers, and employees, or build in various regulatory policies and rules to establish a risk early warning model.
Leading Practice: Shandong Hi-Speed Shared Financial Management Innovation
Shandong Hi-Speed Group Co., Ltd. ("Shandong Hi-Speed") is a state-owned capital investment company in the field of infrastructure in Shandong Province. It has been selected as one of the "Top 500 Chinese Enterprises" for 15 consecutive years. Shandong Expressway is owned by more than 500 legal persons, more than 1,500 independent accounting units, three main businesses, more than 20 industries, the main business covers transportation and other infrastructure and derivative industries, smart transportation, new energy, new materials and green chemicals and other emerging industries industry, financial asset investment and management. It involves more than 20 industries including bridge engineering, pavement engineering, highway engineering, maintenance engineering, municipal engineering, railway engineering, bridge and tunnel engineering, construction engineering, equipment manufacturing, port and shipping engineering, building materials, logistics, and construction. Diversified industries, large differences, complex business, the group's financial management and control are facing great challenges.
Under the new economic normal, the financial management environment faced by Shandong Expressway’s financial management is becoming increasingly complex. First, Shandong Expressway will merge with Qilu Transportation Group in 2020, and more than 100 subsidiaries will be acquired in 2021. The number of financial personnel will increase from more than 1,400 to more than 2,300 , the group’s financial management and control is facing greater challenges; second, the profit of the expressway group has been concentrated in the two major business areas of expressway operation and finance for a long time, and the development pattern of “multi-level support” has not yet been effectively solved, and there is an urgent need to reduce costs and increase efficiency; Expressway hopes to improve the efficiency of fiscal and tax work through the application of new technologies such as RPA, tax cloud, electronic files, and smart business travel.
Shandong Expressway takes the construction of financial sharing as the entry point for digital and intelligent transformation, and in accordance with the construction strategy of "transitioning from one master to multiple points, and integrating multiple points into one", the implementation is carried out in three phases:
In the first phase, pilot projects were carried out while exploring, and the expressway shares were first tested, and the financial sharing sub-center of the expressway shares was established.
The second phase, multi-center construction and promotion, was piloted and promoted in the Construction Management Group and the Road and Bridge Group. The financial sharing sub-centers of the Construction Management Group and the Road and Bridge Group were respectively established to complete the multi-center construction and the pilot of the Group's main center.
In the third phase, multi-centers are aggregated and unified, and the aggregation becomes a single sharing center for the high-speed group's financial sharing services to obtain greater scale effects.
Based on the three-point financial structure of "strategic finance-business finance-shared finance", Shandong Expressway promotes the transformation of financial management concepts and mechanisms; and takes the construction of shared services as the starting point to build the "four beams and eight pillars" of financial sharing, which promotes the further development of the financial management system. Optimization to achieve group management and control, refined operations, quality and efficiency improvements, and decision-making support. At present, Shandong Expressway Sharing Center has a 100% online coverage rate, 437 legal entities are involved, and the certificate automation rate reaches 85%. It has successfully completed the acceptance of the SASAC within one year and won the 2022 annual accounting information quality award from the Department of Finance.
After three years, Shandong Hi-Speed has built a financial sharing platform with distinct main business and diversified industries, and built an industry benchmark—a first-class accounting and supervision financial sharing center of provincial state-owned enterprises. By the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan", Shandong Hi-Speed will build a domestically leading and world-class value-creating financial sharing center to support business expansion, achieve strategic synergy among multiple business types, improve the group's comprehensive management and control capabilities, and help the company's high-quality development.