Sweet success for Mondelēz International's finance team

For the last eight years, Mondelēz International and Genpact have been on a journey to completely transform the company's finance function. This global snack and beverage manufacturer – with multiple household name brands across the world – had the vision to drive efficiency across the finance function through digitized operations, touchless processes, and user-centric technology.

Since Genpact's partnership with Mondelēz International started in 2015, we've streamlined and modernized operations for finance through data and analytics to drive business growth.

To date, this has resulted in material savings of more than 50%, which Mondelēz International reinvests in its brands and brand acquisitions.

And we're still on the journey, continually sweetening systems and processes.

An organization the size of Mondelēz International needs a finance function that operates seamlessly across multiple geographies. But before its partnership with Genpact began, that wasn't the case.

Fragmented finance systems and policies – with nonstandardized, country-specific, and manual processes – resulted in lengthy close cycles and planning procedures. Not to mention high running costs.

Stuck in a silo, compliance wasn't optimal. Genpact released it by instituting a global vision to automate and assimilate controls.

Finally, productivity needed a boost. Employee time was consumed by manual activities. Genpact worked with Mondelēz International to empower employees with digital skills that help them evolve alongside business needs.

Genpact helped Mondelēz International transform the finance function by applying modernizing, standardizing, and digitizing principles to financial processes. Here's how we did it:

Optimized operating models: Using our proprietary blueprinting tool, we benchmarked operating model performance against industry best practices. From here, we created a roadmap to standardize operations, such as consistent ways to manage balance sheet reconciliation, manual journal entries, intercompany reconciliations, and fixed assets.

We also standardized policies and technology to establish a global – rather than multiregional – operating model. Together with Mondelēz International, we united finance operations from over 70 countries into just two delivery centers.

A framework for efficiency: Using Lean Six Sigma methodology and continual improvement tool kits, we created a framework to increase efficiencies across the finance function. This included a global reconciliation policy, standardized journal templates, and automated reporting.

Leveraging technology and data:

1. We deployed technology like BlackLine, intercompany workflow tools, Nakisa Lease reporting tool, and SAP for enhancing operations efficiency

2. We enhanced enterprise resource planning and engagement with:

• Cross-organizational workflow tools
• Automated month-end reporting
• Touchless system extracts
• Multiple robotic process automations (RPAs) and quick process automations

3. We improved data reliability, reporting, and delivery through touchless extraction, ingestion, validation, cleansing, and reconciliation

4. We created a hyperautomated, industry-first cognitive accounting platform using Genpact's artificial intelligence capabilities

5. We established an analytics framework to evaluate performance and deliver insights to regional teams. This now informs Mondelēz International's growth strategy for people, processes, and digital transformation

6. We improved employee experience with data visualization and insights delivered via intuitive, self-service analytics dashboards. Drill-down capabilities allow for personalization and sharing

The Mondelēz International finance function is now a global system that delivers business value through enhanced compliance, improved employee experiences, efficiency gains, and reduced costs.

With 70% of finance processes, policies, and procedures standardized and simplified, the business has significantly enhanced timelines, accuracy, compliance, controllership, and reporting.

Our cognitive accounting platform set an industry benchmark of more than 50% digital penetration in a core record-to-report account. And we've improved the finance employee experience by reducing 700 reports to just 40 digital dashboards. To date, more than 1,000 users have adopted the financial dashboards, which receive more than 50,000 views annually.

Looking ahead, our two teams are building a vision for the future that puts digital, data, and business value at the core of our journey. The perfect recipe for sweet, lasting success.