Ajinomoto
Food and Beverage BPO
Ajinomoto stabilized its expense processing operations by using transcosmos Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services
transcosmos helped Ajinomoto realize workstyle reform by shifting and centralizing management resources
Challenge
strengthening its function as chief of staff for management as well as governance & support functions for the group companies.
Benefits
- Visualized adequate man-hours & costs for the accounting process based on research & analysis.
- Centralized operations to BPO Center. Currently driving efficiency by setting KPIs.
- Freed-up 80% of operating hours* in the Accounting & Finance dept. and shifted resources to governance function. *General accounting operations.
We highly value transcosmos’s contribution to our initiative to centralize & stabilize accounting operations at group level.
We have been making an effort to centralize and improve the efficiency of our accounting operations. With a view to centralizing accounting operations at group level, we considered using BPO services.
Thanks to transcosmos’s expertise as a BPO player and their professional support in setting KPIs even to operations that are hard to quantify, whilst thoroughly managing operational quality, we now have a scheme which enables us to centralize accounting-related operations including the issuance of accounting documents and registration of master data. In order to further boost operational efficiency, we will extend the scope and drive the use of BPO services at group level.
As a mutual business partner and not an outsourcer, we appreciate transcosmos’s continuous collaboration with us in boosting quality and productivity through project carried out together.
Mr. Hideki Nagano
General Manager of Staff Group
Group Accounting Center
Finance & Accounting Department
Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
* Information shown, including job title, is as of the time of interview in November 2017
CHALLENGES
- Educate & keep members up-to-date with expense processing
- Stabilize expense processing operations
Since the release of “AJI-NO-MOTO”, the world’s first umami seasoning in 1909, Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (Ajinomoto) continued to make remarkable growth and now operates a wide spectrum of businesses including foods, amino acids, and pharmaceuticals across 30 countries and regions around the world. Setting a goal to become one of the top global 10 food companies by 2020, Ajinomoto strives to achieve its vision to become a “Genuine Global Specialty Company”. In order to realize this vision, the company’s Accounting & Finance department was given the task of strengthening its function as chief of staff for management as well as governance & support functions for the group companies.
At Ajinomoto, expense process flow starts from member in charge of the process in each department. They issue accounting documents for their respective departments and submit the documents to the Accounting department for confirmation. To make this flow work, the members need to spend some time in order to gain and keep up-to-date with knowledge of expense processing.
In order to achieve 3 goals, namely, reduce accounting operations workload for members, stabilize the operations process, and reallocate Accounting & Finance staff to other areas that need to be reinforced, Ajinomoto considered the option of outsourcing the accounting process to a third party. As a result of discussion, Ajinomoto selected and entrusted their operations to transcosmos in appreciation for its extensive record and experience in offering BPO services.
SOLUTION
β Move Finance & Accounting staff to other areas by reducing accounting operations
transcosmos first visualized adequate man-hours and costs required for expense processing operations based on research and analysis. Next, the company reviewed the current operations flow and calculated the potential lift in operational efficiency by centralizing and standardizing operations. transcosmos then rebuilt the operations process, taking actual accounting operations into consideration.
Subsequently, transcosmos centralized all its expense process operations that have been handled by each department and the Accounting department to one of its BPO operations centers, “BPO Center Nagasaki”, including the issuance of accounting documents and content check (journal entry, consumption tax handling, etc.). After standardizing operations, transcosmos now continues to optimize operations by setting KPIs. In particular, in order to make adequate judgements for account title entry, transcosmos deployed support tools to reduce errors and man-hours. transcosmos also simplified operational flow for members in each department. With the new flow, members only need to submit data for management accounting to BPO Center Nagasaki and the agents there will enter data and issue accounting documents on their behalf.
Ajinomoto also introduced a cloud-based expense reimbursement system to make the employee expense reimbursement process more efficient. To help Ajinomoto and its employees smoothly complete system migration and become familiar with the new system as early as possible, transcosmos prepared a user manual and a helpdesk to support system-related inquiries.
Through the centralization of operations and the use of transcosmos BPO services, Ajinomoto has successfully reduced their operational burden in each department and the Accounting & Finance department, enabling the company to maintain stable operations even when members in charge of the expense process have moved to other functions or organizations. Ajinomoto also freed up 80% of Accounting & Finance staff’s time for general accounting operations, and ultimately shifted them to governance and support functions.
NEXT STEPS
β Realize “workstyle reform” through the creation of a paperless, digitalized environment and boost efficiency
transcosmos will continue to improve current operations whilst proactively making additional proposals to achieve the goal of centralizing and streamlining common operations in the Ajinomoto Group, making the most of its know-how as a digital BPO player.
Today, Ajinomoto is strongly taking initiatives to offer its employees workstyle options that meet global standards, including the introduction of a new system which improves productivity and the quality of their work. Going forward, transcosmos will continue to aid Ajinomoto in realizing “workstyle reform” by driving an initiative towards digitalization of receipts and invoices using OCR, whilst further improving operational efficiency and accuracy by automating journal entry using AI-based learning.
Services provided to Ajinomoto
