Streamlined Operations and delivered process efficiencies for a global hospitality group

When this 5-star hospitality provider engaged Sundaram Business Services to take on its processes the transition had to be seamless. And the whole process had to be managed remotely, with no onsite visits possible.

The hospitality business was experiencing:

• payment delays resulting in unhappy vendors
• delays in responding to guests queries
• a time lag in the month-end closure, with over 5 days before the reports were finalised
• poor credit recovery
• high turnaround times for critical components.

We conducted a process study at another property in a different country owned by the group, and used that knowledge to:

• define end-to-end finance and accounting operations
• introduce time tracking and metrics to capture utilisation, quality and efficiency parameters
• implement cross-training to ensure resources were optimised, and peaks and lows across the finance process were properly managed.
• assisted and supported them through multiple software transitions

We also implemented standard operating procedures, including failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) and a Six Sigma based structured approach for discovering potential errors and failures. Once systems were streamlined and conditions for the remote transition established, we set up its extended office model to handle accounting work such as payables, credit control, income audits and month-end activities.

Sundaram seamlessly implemented our extended office model for the hospitality client, with the offsite challenge supported by onsite research at an alternative site, effective training and round-the-clock support. The results were:

• books closed 2 days after month-end, down from 5 days
• maintenance of the credit recovery score at under 2% for the ageing bucket of 90+ days
• turnaround time reduced by 50%, through process improvements
• an efficient process to manage 1,500+ vendors from different parts of the world.