Controlling
Conance has broad experience and expertise in the business controlling and management accounting challenges, that also can occur in your organization. Below you’ll find a description of the recent and relevant projects and assignments that Conance worked on.
Pension service provider | Revenue 300 mln | 4,4 million pensions | 1450 fte
Situation The Executive Committee requested a faster budgeting process, at a moment where staff resources were lower than normal. Also, there was a need for more detail in the numbers. The financial models that Conance built also needed to be usable as input for negotiations with a large client.
Besides these, the company also was in need for a more thorough, frequent forecasting process.
Role and actions Conance was co-lead in the budgeting process and was a member of the deal team responsible for negotiations with a large client. The financial calculation models were subsequently used as a baseline for the budgets for next year, and as a tool to monitor margin development during these processes.
Besides this, Conance redesigned the periodic forecasting process and built and maintained the technical side of the forecasting processes (Excel templates and consolidation tool).
Results Thanks to successfully filling this position, insights in the budget have increased and the negotiations with a large client resulted in a good deal.
Also, the budgeting process has been completed much faster than usual. The better forecasting process helped management to signal upon delta’s earlier and make better management decisions. This helped improve PGGM’s financial result.
Pension service provider | Revenue 300 mln | 4,4 million pensions | 1450 fte
Situation Due to a resurce shortage, the hiring manager was in need for extra staff. Conance was asked to take on the role of Senior Business Controller
Role and actions Conance took on the job and worked as business partner for several business units. Conance worked for IT, Operations, Sales and Asset Management.
Results The P&C cycle has resumed without problems and according to the regular timelines.
Situation The unexpected leave of a team member caused a resource shortage. Although the handover and available documentation were very limited, the P&C cycle had to continue as planned.
Role and actions Conance operated as a strong and independent business partner, has set priorities, evaluated issues where necessary and eliminated exceptions in the processes as much as possible. This created the possibilities to use existing knowledge about standard processes as much as possible.
Results The P&C cycle has resumed without problems and the quality of budget and cost control has improved. The level and quality of documentation of assumptions and calculations used for budgeting and forecasting have increased to the quality level needed.
Situation Management and the Board were in need of new (forms of) management information, due to organizational and scope changes.
Role and actions Conance investigated wishes and requirements and organized data submission processes. Together with stakeholders the right tooling was selected. Subsequently, report formats have been set up and are handed over to Finance Operations.
Results Various new management information reports are now available, based on both financial and non-financial (big) data. This has given the management and Board new insights on the performance of the organization.
Pension service provider | Revenue 265 mln | 2,9 million pensions | 1400 fte
Situation After the departure of an employee, there was an immediate need for a capacity increase to continue the complex reporting processes.
Role and actions Conance quickly got up to speed on running, and later on managing processes. Subsequently Conance focused on further optimizing and documenting the processes.
Results The runtime of processes has been reduced, documentation has significantly improved. As a result of better control on the reporting process flows within the whole company, more time was available to do analysis.
Production of airplane parts | Revenue 890 mln | 4700 fte
Situation The client needed more insight into, and tighter grip on the progress of a cost saving project. Financial project data was incomplete and was not trusted upon.
Role and actions The available financial data of the project has been reassessed, evaluated by the business partners, and validated by finance controllers. In addition, a periodic report has been compiled. New initiatives for cost savings have been assessed on validity from IFRS and other perspectives.
Results The client gained more insight into the financial impact of the project on the P&L, and was able to make better choices with the more accurate management information available.
Mortgages service provder | Revenue 164 mln | 1500 fte | 1 mln mortgage contracts
Situation The annual external audit had been difficult in the past, and the department’s permanent contact had announced her departure. The client therefore needed additional capacity to service the external auditors.
Role and actions Conance coordinated building the audit files, managed quality, and assisted on operational means where necessary. Conance also functioned as spoc during the audit, coached accounting employees, and wrote explanations for the annual reports. Also process improvements have been identified.
Results Thanks to tighter coordination and quality assurance, the duration of the external audit has been shortened and additional invoiced work has reduced substantially.
Consultancy
In many projects in which Conance participates, management consulting aspects also comes into play. Sometimes clearly formulated as such by the client, sometimes proactively offered by Conance. Below you will find a description of recent and relevant recent and relevant management consulting projects and assignments to which Conance has contributed in recent years.
Pension service provider | Revenue 300 mln | 4,4 million pensions | 1450 fte
Situation In preparation for an organizational redesign, PGGM was in need for insights into cost level on the new design. Conance was asked to create and provide these insights.
Role and actions Conance interviewed people from the business to achieve understanding on how to divide and allocate costs. A cost allocation tol was built as well. Initially using Excel, but due to the increasing complexity Conance advised to switch to Power BI
Results Conance built the cost allocation tool in Power BI, did the required maintenance en provided the requested insights. The tool is now used as blueprint for KPI dashboards.
Situation The cost allocation keys in use were outdated. Drivers needed to be re-aligned with organizational changes, and reasoning and motivation for the chosen drivers and allocation needed to be updated. Conance led a project with the aim to review and update the cost allocation keys.
Role and actions Relevant stakeholders have been aligned and the project management was set up. Progress was monitored and reported to the client on a regular basis. The revision proces of the cost allocation keys by the business and in collaboration with finance was managed by Conance, and we facilitated additionally where necessary.
Results The complete set of cost allocation keys has been updated, and the project completed on time with satisfactory results. An additional result is that finance and the business had good conversations on topics like costs, sales prices and added value. Finance now has more knowledge of the business, their activities and cost drivers.
Situation The organization was in need of more control on the flow from software development to release and actually incorporating that software in the regular processes. The cooperation between IT, Finance and the business also needed to improve.
Role and actions Together with all stakeholders, Conance drafted up plans, schedules and followed up upon. Conance also organized, facilitated and participated in various meetings between IT, Finance and the Business, aiming to increase knowledge building and sharing.
Results The number of releases and integration in regular processes has increased considerably, and management have gained a better insight into the progress related to long-term planning. The cooperation between IT, Finance and the business also improved.
Production of aircraft parts | Revenue 890 million | 4700 fte
Situation
Following the acquisition by an Anglo-Saxon, larger branch competitor, the client was asked to deliver on an ambitious cost savings target on procurement spending. Progress towards meeting that target was significantly behind on schedule, and the parent company began to increase pressure and take more control.
Role and actions
Conance played a very active role in project management and control, helping management to increase their influence. also facilitated, organized and participated in disucssions with procurement professionals and the finance function. As a result a cultural change has been set in motion in both Procurement and Finance, making these functions better adapted to the Anglo-Saxon culture of the parent company.
Results
Since the start of the project, a considerable catch-up has been achieved in realizing savings. In addition, the initiated cultural change and discussions have led to more mutual understanding and a more proactive attitude. The target was overachieved and the client has been able to maintain its independence within the group.
About
PREFERRING CHALLENGE.
Steven Annegarn was born in 1983 in an entrepreneurial family. His father and sister are entrepreneurs, Steven decided to go independent as well after having worked for seven years in an already entrepreneurial jobs within companies. Steven always tends to choose the more challenging paths. He went to a different high school than his friends, went backpacking on his own, drove around Australia in a small van and lived in empty office buildings. This life didn’t change after having met his wife Ramona, although some more stability is needed after having two young kids (born in 2016 and 2018). Nevertheless they still choose to do things the adventurous way, for example in the travel destinations they choose.
Steven graduated at Erasmus University in Rotterdam as a Master of Science in Business Administration, with focus on Strategic Management. In 2014 he decided to deepen and broaden his scope by following the Executive master of Finance & Control at Nyenrode University. He graduated in 2017.
Besides being entrepreneurial, Steven is also an innovator and stimulator. He is analytically strong, likes to cooperate closely with the business and has extensive experience with facilitating, organizing and stimulating change.
His colleagues mention as strongest abilities his persuasiveness, not-for-granted view and ability to create connections between Finance, IT, the business and Sales.
Contact.
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