Finance business partnering: the importance of end-to-end processes

Finance business partnering is about creating impact for the business. This entails enabling decision making, supporting continuous improvements, and driving positive change, thereby creating lasting success for the business.

The importance of business process understanding

The ability to create impact comes from a comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals of what the business is actually doing. This includes having an in-depth understanding of the value chain that ensures input is transformed into products and services resulting in good customer experiences.

"A solid process foundation is needed to connect the dots between: strategic intent, business relationships, business capabilities, enabling technology, and human resources." Source

Consequently, a good finance business partner should have an intimate understanding of the company's primary end-to-end processes and the overarching value chain.

Dissecting your company's end-to-end value chain

When striving to understand your company's end-to-end value chain, a good starting point is the APQC Process Classification Framework. APQC is a global authority in process mapping and benchmarking.

Here are the 6 end-to-end business processes, you should aim to get acquainted with.

By gaining a thorough understanding of these business processes - in the context of the business, you are supporting - you will build a strong foundation to act as a trusted and value-creating finance business partner.

The processes are presented at a high level below - all processes are adaptations from the APQC Process Classification Framework - and must be adjusted to the circumstances of your specific business context.

Core business processes

Idea-to-Market (ITM): The ITM process ensures that ideas are transformed into marketable products and services. This includes ideation, research, and development.

The ITM process includes the following high-level process steps.

Market-to-Order (MTO): The MTO process ensures that products are marketed and sold to relevant customers. This includes marketing, sales, and other commercial activities.

The MTO process includes the following high-level process steps.

Order-to-Cash (OTC): The OTC process transforms orders into products and services that can be delivered to the customer. This includes production, distribution, and invoicing.

The OTC process includes the following high-level process steps.

Supporting business processes

Hire-to-Retire (HTR): The HTR process covers employee-related matters from identification of relevant candidates through recruitment, development, and discontinuation of employment.

The HTR process includes the following high-level process steps.

Procure-to-Pay (PTP): The PTP process covers the company's process for acquiring relevant material and other input related to production and other supporting activities to keep the business running.

The PTP process includes the following high-level process steps.

Record-to-Report (RTR): The RTR process covers recording of transactions through proper bookkeeping, consolidation of numbers, and reporting to internal and external stakeholders.

The RTR process includes the following high-level process steps.

Other relevant business processes

Besides the six business processes introduced here, several other processes might help you understand your business in greater detail. No two businesses are the same, so you must be aware of the quirks or nuances that define your organization.

Other business processes that might be relevant to explore include S&OP, M&A etc.

The benefits of understanding the end-to-end value chain

By understanding your company's end-to-end value chain, you can reap the benefits in several areas.

Customer experience: understanding the entire value chain can aid a greater outside-in perspective of the organizations, which allows you to focus on the value created for the end-user or customer; ultimately improving their experience.

Optimization & digitization: understanding the entire value chain lets you facilitate holistic business process optimization and digitization without risking the adverse effects of sub-optimization arising from the silo mentality that often exists in business units across a large organization.

Performance management: understanding the entire value chain allows you to design advanced performance management processes that drives the organization towards the common and overarching strategic objectives rather than just the efficiency of the individual components.

Cross-functional coordination: understanding the entire value chain ensures that you outline the causality between upstream- and downstream activities along the end-to-end business processes. This allows you to improve coordination and streamline workflows by facilitating dialogue between the relevant stakeholders.

Want to learn more?

• APQC: The importance of end-to-end business processes
• APQC: End-to-end Process Maps and Measures