The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has said that the move by regulators to encourage shared services among financial institutions in Nigeria would create a lot of opportunities and value for the economy.

A report from the professional body yesterday pointed out that even though there might be some challenges associated with the initiative, it remained a future model for transformation of finance functions. It stressed that the use of finance shared services and outsourcing to transform the finance function was here to stay, arguing that it would bring about reduction in cost and help in improving processes.

Head of Employer Services at ACCA and co-author of the report, Jamie Lyon said: “In this report, we wanted to explore how leaders are transforming the finance function to improve finance capability through shared services and outsourcing and the issues, challenges and opportunities faced. Finance transformation continues to be a critically important issue for Chief Financial Officers and finance leaders, especially in an ongoing challenging business environment.”

On his part, Anoop Sagoo of Accenture, said that shared services had much greater opportunities to drive improved business results beyond cost savings and efficiency in processes.

“The Chief Finance Officers I work with see finance transformation as a vehicle to drive change. Now they are most interested in business performance,” it added.
However, the report “recognised capability shortfalls, from the effectiveness of change management processes to the lack of focus on the retained finance team and inability to see shared services and outsourcing in the context of an overarching vision for finance,” as major barriers to finance transformation success.

Lyon said further: “What comes across clearly from the global leaders we interviewed for this report is that there is much more value still to be gained through finance transformation with shared services and outsourcing that drives long term sustainable business performance improvement.

“The key issue here is about capability; the capability and ambition of business leaders, of providers and their clients to optimise the finance model that best supports the business; the capability to manage the ongoing change process effectively; the capability of the retained finance team to develop effective business partnering skills and provide true insight to the business.”

Source:http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/acca-supports-shared-services-among-financial-institutions/107519/

ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) asserts in a new report called “Changing the I in IGAAP – Perspectives in India’s transition to IFRS”, that Indian businesses need to be better prepared to meet the introduction of IFRS (International Financial reporting Standards) in 2011.

Sir David Tweedie, Chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board commends the report in its foreword, which he says “continues ACCA’s long-standing support for global standards, and will provide a useful aid to Indian companies as they implement IFRS.”

Feedback given to ACCA during a series of round tables held in the late summer of 2009 in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune, showed that there was a lack of focus in the Indian business community about conversion to IFRS from Indian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (IGAAP).

The roundtables were organised by the research wing of Get Through Guides (GTG). Vandana Saxena Poria, CEO of GTG said: “The purpose behind the roundtables was to speak to those who have been through the process of moving to IFRS and those who are embarking on it, to share knowledge and look for ways to make the process easier for the thousands of companies in India who will move to meet the 2011 deadline.’

Aziz Tayyebi, Global Financial Reporting Officer at ACCA, chaired the roundtables and says: “With 2011 rapidly approaching, Indian companies and financial professionals are faced with a major change in financial reporting. Experience from other countries has shown that not only can financial statements be impacted significantly by the transition to IFRS, but that this change process needs to be well planned to ensure costs and resources are not strained.”

Aziz Tayyebi continues: “Indian companies have already embraced globalisation, as evident in the prominent role they play in the international outsourcing and information technology sectors. It was heartening to hear from participants that Indian organisations will not only embrace IFRS, but will flourish through increased global trade and the creation of new knowledge-based business opportunities which will flow from IFRS.”

However, ACCA warns that there are hurdles ahead as successful progress towards IFRS depends on a number of factors, from having the right number of staff to ensuring IT systems are in place to capture and analyse data relevant to IFRS. It is also crucial that business managers are made aware of how IFRS will affect their decision making, and that there is high level buy-in to the IFRS strategy.

Aziz Tayyebi concludes: “Education and training of staff is essential to successful implementation of IFRS. A key challenge is to ensure companies, auditors, regulators and the investment community are appropriately skilled to apply and interpret IFRS. We found during our round table discussions that the majority of businesses were yet to embark on a full scale training programme for relevant staff. The perceived lack of focus is one of the main challenges facing Indian businesses. Without this focus, achieving a successful and worthwhile conversion could prove troublesome. It is vital that a clear and detailed roadmap to convergence is announced by government and regulatory bodies to bring confidence to the overall convergence project.”

Source:http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=293856&Itemid=30