Organizations follow the strategy to integrate, consolidate, and standardize processes as part of success of continuous improvement initiatives. The creation of Shared Services Centers (SSC) plays a key role in this strategy. These entities are responsible for the flawless execution of operational tasks mostly related to accounting, payroll/HR, IT, auditing and supply chain functions. Their functions are migrated from corporate headquarters and subsidiaries, and then, standardized for better implementation (eg. process streamline, elimination of duplicative or non-value added activities, staffing rationale). SSCs are location sensitive in terms of labor costs/market and operational security. In the last years, Buenos Aires was chosen as a major business hub for SSCs. Buenos Aires is a preferred platform because of the sizable qualified staff, availability English/Spanish bilinguals, good communication infrastructure, time-zone between Europe and US, top international living standard, Western European culture, workforce flexibility and cost competitiveness.
I will describe the current SSC projects related to accounting functions in Buenos Aires (Argentina).
Exxon: The ExxonMobil Business Support Center Argentina (Catalinas) was established in Buenos Aires in 2004 to provide centralized services to affiliates in Controlling (Accounting/Processes), Procurement, and Human Resources. Controllers supports the Upstream, Downstream, Chemicals and Corporate functions in Financial accounting & reporting, Fixed Assets and Intercompany accounting, Inventory and Exchange accounting, and AP/AR. It employs 580 professionals.
Chevron Texaco: The Chevron Buenos Aires Shared Services Center serves the LATAM, UK and US region for accounting posting and reconciliation. It typically hires junior and senior accounting analysts, some of them with some experience in SOX and US GAAPs since 2007.
Google: With more than 100 professionals, Google Shared Services (Puerto Madero) supports adwords clients from LATAM, Italy and Spain. Finance is focused on billing, and customer care. Google was chosen as one of the best company to work for by Fortune.
McDonalds. The McDonalds Centro de Servicios Compartidos (Martinez) supports AR, AP, accounting, reporting, planning, administration and controls from the LATAM region from 2007.
IBM: The IBM Service Delivery Centers (Martinez) employs 300 professionals since 2000 (headcount increase is recent). They are currently migrating more activities.
SAP: The SAP Latin America Shared Services Center (Puerto Madero) supports areas related to billing, contact admin, procurement, AR/AP and internal customer care since 2007. The German software developer employs 40 professionals in this center. It supports North American operations (Can&US).
Cargill Shared Services Center delivers services for regional HR and payroll functions.
Other players are DHL Buenos Aires Shared Service Center related to imports/exports, MySpace, Phillip Morris, Huawei, Accenture for consulting and backoffice services, Quilmes (Inbev) for backoffice services, Centro de Servicios Compartidos de SC Johnson (Global Shared Services Center), TMF Argentina and Axial Analytics outsourcing finance services. The Big Four audit firms are implementing global audits and outsourcing to Argentina.
Also discussing about ethics, audit, management, fraud, SAP and monitoring tools
Showing posts with label Careers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Careers. Show all posts
Hiring Talent in Current Economy
I believe that this blip in the global finances will create opportunity for Companies to right-sizing by combining layoffs and hiring to reshape the workforce in order to meet current and future conditions. Even companies conducting sizable layoffs keep looking out for potential new hires. The long war for talent will not be affected. In bull or bear markets, top performers are always in demand.
As I discussed, applying a companywide hiring freeze is not a good alternative since there is not control about which areas need to grow or shrink. On the other hand, the current economy allows recruiting staff in high demanding areas as finance, IT, bilingual executives, and Oil & Gas experts. For the last years, finance and IT, in particular, have been hard-pressed to find all the qualified staff they need, ever since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act stirred up demand for professionals in these areas (even with low expertise). These candidates have been firmly in control and salaries have risen.
The risk is that real talent does not get laid off often. Top performers know their value (as they can detect an unevaluated stock). Also, they can easily start their own projects and 2009 will see the born of multiple consultancy firms. Best talent is always on move seeking for new opportunities.
As I discussed, applying a companywide hiring freeze is not a good alternative since there is not control about which areas need to grow or shrink. On the other hand, the current economy allows recruiting staff in high demanding areas as finance, IT, bilingual executives, and Oil & Gas experts. For the last years, finance and IT, in particular, have been hard-pressed to find all the qualified staff they need, ever since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act stirred up demand for professionals in these areas (even with low expertise). These candidates have been firmly in control and salaries have risen.
The risk is that real talent does not get laid off often. Top performers know their value (as they can detect an unevaluated stock). Also, they can easily start their own projects and 2009 will see the born of multiple consultancy firms. Best talent is always on move seeking for new opportunities.
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