MANAGING SMARTER
Accenture wasn’t just looking for cost reductions. When it converted from a private partnership to a publicly held company in 2001, “we were publishing our reports 40 days after closing, and the deadline then was 45 days,” recalls Coughlan. “That didn’t look as good as we wanted.”

A big reason reporting took so long was that Accenture’s decentralized organization—designed for a partnership—didn’t support the visibility that investors and regulators demanded and that senior executives could use to be more nimble. “You end up with different versions of the truth. With different systems, you get timing differences that make it hard to cross-check your financial data,” says Modruson. That slowed both the close and reporting processes and risked incomplete, conflicting information that could hobble the company.

Coughlan, Modruson and management reporting chief David Rowland tackled the problem on two fronts over a three-year effort that ended in September 2004. (“We had to join at the hip,” recalls Modruson.) The first front was to rework a series of sequential processes into a single one, thereby reducing touchpoints. The second was to consolidate various financial systems into a single instance of SAP’s ERP system, converting 450 systems into one ERP implementation. In addition to reducing expenses, these efforts lowered the reporting time from 40 to 22 days, letting Accenture’s financial staff go on vacation for Christmas 2006—a first, Coughlan notes. United Technologies Corp. (UTC), a $48 billion diversified manufacturer, also gained a quality-of-life ROI from its financial integration efforts, notes CIO John Doucette. “People no longer work until 2 a.m. to meet reporting deadlines,” Doucette says. “They go home on time.”

But the critical business advantage UTC reaped from its faster close is actionable insight. “It’s about getting information quickly, to be able to act on it,” says Greg Hayes, UTC’s VP for accounting and finance. For example, in fall 2006, he noted a drop-off in air conditioning orders just as external data showed a decline in new-home construction across the United States. Armed with current sales shifts, UTC adjusted its orders so it wouldn’t get stuck with inventory, and it adjusted factory schedules so it wouldn’t produce as many air conditioners. “Knowing only the general trend wouldn’t have shown us the specific implications for our business,” says Hayes.

To achieve that degree of agility, UTC consolidated 250 instances of Hyperion financial reporting tools into one instance of Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) across its six subsidiaries, such as helicopter maker Sikorsky, aircraft engine maker Pratt & Whitney and air conditioning maker Carrier. By having a common reporting and analysis tool into which all subsidiaries feed consistent financial data, the company has achieved a five-day close, down from eight.