Transforming the Finance Function of a Healthcare Provider
The Situation
A public and PE majority owned leading operator of 150+ ambulatory surgery centers and 18 hospitals launched a multi-faceted Finance Function Transformation initiative. Due to rapid growth, there were a large volume of manual activities dispersed across disparate systems. Each month, Accounts Payable manually processed 35k invoices and Accounting manually posted 4k entries supported by 5k reconciliations. Accordion established a Transformation Management Office and fully transformed Finance.
Services
Financial Close Automation & Acceleration
Business Process Outsourcing
Robotic Process Automation & Optimization
Transformation Management Office
The Execution
- Supported all workstreams via a comprehensive Transformation Management Office strategy for people, process, technology, and automation.
Workstream 1: Accounting and AP Business Process Outsourcing and Process Transfer to Offshore Location
Objectives Accomplished: $3M annual cost reduction, 100+ FTEs outsourced, redeployed onshore team to more value-add tasks, designed end state scenario.
- Vendor selection; led RFP, pricing/scorecard comparisons, vendor roadshows, and client committee options and selection.
- Contractual agreements; Accordion negotiated contract commercial terms and coordinated with client and vendor legal departments for execution.
- Accordion led workshops, established governance, project managed all phases of transition – Procedures, Discovery, Knowledge Transfer, Steady State.
- Advised on client impacted and retained employee communication and retention strategy.
- Established service level agreements, breach thresholds, and credit levels for BPO partner conformity.
- Led offshore expansion to support scalability and F&A managerial resources required following acquisitions and process centralization.
Workstream 2: Comprehensive Process Automation Across the Enterprise
Objectives Accomplished: Replaced manual time-consuming processes with faster solutions, improved controls, increased visibility, and supported ability to scale.
- Module A – Financial Close Automation and Acceleration: Led BlackLine implementation for Task Management and Account Reconciliations for 100+ users.
- Module B – Robotic Process Automation (RPA): Developed business case and ROI, Vendor selection/negotiation, 55 automation use cases defined across – Accounting, AP, HR, IT, and Facilities, served as interim center of excellence, established governance, PM leadership.
- Module C – Dynamic Models & Dashboarding: Created Power BI dynamic metrics to track Accounting & AP team performance and working capital optimization.
- Module D – Process Optimization: Accelerated close from 12 to 7 days. Accounting/AP acceleration and error reduction. Created inter-company end state design.
Workstream 3: Procure to Pay Transformation (P2P)
Objectives Accomplished: Transformed operating model and workflow; system architecture upgrades, workflow digitization, 3-way match, reporting, and training.
- Led 2-day P2P workshop, identified 9 distinct workstreams.
- Established governance across multiple departments.
- Project managed and executed on deliverables.
Workstream 4: Enterprise Data Warehouse
Objectives Accomplished: Led, assembled architecture, provided governance, and support delivery of the data warehouse over a multi-phased initiative.
- Defined a future state Data Flow Diagram (DFD) and selected appropriate SaaS tools to support system architecture.
- Architected a data pipeline, created new mappings and leveraged existing IP.
- Consolidated data sources into a single-source-of-truth for reporting and analytics.
- Authored comprehensive data dictionary, clean and conform processes, data lineage and structure diagrams, documentation, and KPI definitions.
- Developed and managed governance controls across the data warehouse, integrate direction from Data Governance Council.
- Implemented Agile methodology across data warehouse development and project management.
- Developed and managed all stages; requirements gathering, backlog grooming, development, user acceptance testing, go-live, adoption, and training.
2023 Other Commencing Workstreams
- Revenue Cycle Management Transformation.
- Procure to Pay Tool Selection and Project Manage Implementation.
- Corporate Performance Management Tool Modernization via OneStream solution.
- IT Applications Rationalization.
The Results
As a previous client, the Sponsor hired Accordion because they valued our strong track record to drive superior transformation results and our deep experience in the healthcare sector. The operating model was transformed, processes were successfully outsourced to an offshore location, and manual accounting/accounts payable processes have been standardized and automated. A significant ROI was achieved as the workflow accelerated and controls were enhanced.