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Bank of Ireland Finance Shared Services
Combining finance functions and
delivering superior customer satisfaction
Bank of Ireland has declared the combining of all finance functions as one of its strategic objectives. To realise that ambition, the Bank set up Finance Shared Services (FSS), operating the accounting and financial reporting function for approximately fifty business units, processing over 200,000 invoices per annum for all their suppliers, and managing the payroll for 20,000 employees. As the FSS project evolved the Bank also decided that it wanted to move onto one Enterprise Resource Planning software package; the Bank selected SAP.
Delivering change
While promising substantial business benefits, successful implementation of the new operational structure and system required a reorganisation of processes and roles. It also provided clear evidence of a lack of uniformity across the FSS customer base in resolving issues and queries and in adherence to standards e.g. invoices arriving in non-standard condition, which resulted in re-work, duplication and ultimately waste.
Gerry Real, the Director of FSS who leads a team of over 100 people, saw the need to develop an issue resolution process whilst also delivering operational improvements. VISION carried out extensive interviews with employees to determine the opportunities for improving both business and FSS performance and processes. New processes, procedures and roles were designed and implemented. VISION assumed these key operational roles and highlighted productivity gains immediately through a series of iterative designs.
Speed of implementation
During the project VISION:
- set up a customer care and issue resolution process to enable Finance Shared Services' Accounts Payable section manage all issues proactively and lead to customer satisfaction
- installed new operations processes and practices to optimise operational performance, increase productivity and motivate the team members
- created new MIS tools and processes to provide accurate performance improvement metrics
- trained the Bank's people to take on new roles
Benefits delivered
Within a six-week timescale, the combined Bank of Ireland and VISION team:
- delivered 98% customer satisfaction rating in the new process
- produced capacity for a 100% increase in productivity
- implemented customer care focused practices
- streamlined operational processes
- provided accurate performance metrics
- introduced productivity targets
New customer care ethos
During the project, VISION developed and introduced formal and informal 'coaching' practices, especially in the critical area of customer care. Their purpose was twofold - to build morale and confidence of staff that worked with the new processes and practices and to build skills and competencies for resolving issues.
Employees now work together to drive business process improvements and have a new "customer satisfaction" mindset. Joan Fennell, Accounts Payable Manager with FSS commented: "each team member now has a greater productivity and customer focus; this has increased morale and given greater clarity than existed before".
Future benefits
The design and implementation of new processes enables Bank of Ireland to get the benefits out of their investment in SAP and the shared services structure.
Gerry Real, at the conclusion of the project, commented, "VISION changed our ethos around customer care and delivering customer satisfaction; we now take a more holistic approach to resolving issues."
The FSS team is now proactively identifying and addressing other opportunities to enhance customer service even further by transferring the 'customer care' ethos throughout all of FSS.
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