THE HEINEKEN CHALLENGE - SUPERIOR
FINANCIAL SERVICES AT A LOWER COST
itself. However, it's only in re
years that this same type of
innovation has been applied to
the finance function." Ed Prins
trends and innovations
THE WORLD OF HEINEKEN
International companies around the world have increasingly begun to implement
financial shared services programmes over the past few years. These are platforms
designed to improve the quality of a company's financial administration while
simultaneously reducing its cost.
In line with this trend, Heineken is taking up the
challenge and has established shared services
initiatives in a number of European markets,
including the Netherlands and Poland. The
company is committed to continuous
improvement and providing a better standard of
financial service to its customers. It is now
centralising its transactional finance services,
improving the quality of administrative IT and
recruiting highly skilled financial professionals.
"Technological developments and innovation
have lead to a continual improvement in
Heineken's production process," says Ed Prins at
Heineken Nederland. "Breweries around the
world are operating more efficiently and
effectively when it comes to brewing and
packaging process itself. However, it's only in
recent years that this same type of innovation
has been applied to the finance function."
Prins says that Heineken has centralised the
operations of 25 business units into one location
at the Heineken brewery in Zoeterwoude over
the past three years. This has helped to
streamline the accounts payable/receivable and
general accounting processes. At the same time,
financial IT support has also been upgraded.
"We're focusing our efforts towards providing a
higher level of service to our customers," says
Prins.
Heineken Nederland has established an
improvement office at the financial shared
services centre as part of this focus on
improvement. A full-time staff is designated to
ensuring that systems and process continue to
progress and develop.
"In addition to an efficiency gain, we have also
professionalised all our processes," says Ronald
den Elzen, Director Horeca at Heineken
Nederland. "That means our customers now have
a professional one-stop shop, instead of having
Ed Prins, Manager Financial Services, Heineken Nederland
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