Treasury Strategy & Transformation
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Cost, Capability and Competence: Factors in an SSC Success

by Jack Gogarty, Global Finance Operations (GFO) Europe, Eurasia and Africa, Coca-Cola

In 2009, The Coca-Cola Company announced its vision to double system revenues by 2020, effectively replicating 125 years of success in only a decade. To achieve this, the company needed a fundamental shift in the way that we ran our business, of which the creation of GFO is an important part. By concentrating operational (and latterly more analytical and strategic) activities into a centre of excellence, our operating business units would be able to focus on growth rather than diverting resources into activities such as accounting and compliance.

Establishing GFO

Since our GFO centre here was first established, we have built a team of 110 finance professionals who provide all accounting, control, compliance, statutory reporting and treasury operations for 130 legal entities, with 450 accounts and 40 banks across Europe, Eurasia and Africa. As we have migrated local operations from each country into GFO, we continue to look for ways to streamline our activities to allow us to scale up our activities and deliver additional value year-on-year. Inevitably, this becomes increasingly challenging as the organisation matures and all the obvious efficiency opportunities have already been captured.

Role of technology

Technology is a key enabler to achieving our efficiency and control objectives and supporting the business effectively as it grows. We use an ERP which forms the backbone of our operations. Although we use SAP wherever feasible, we also use specialist solutions such as a treasury management system (TMS), although we plan to replace our current system with another specialist TMS in due course. We also use proprietary software for reconciliation and journal posting and we are implementing solutions for human resources and travel & entertainment expenses management.