Summer 2007
25 different ways of dealing with our internal
processes."
Grupa 2ywiec, Heineken's operating company in
Poland, is also in the process of establishing a
shared services centre in the country's southern
city of Bielsko Bfala.
The establishment of this unit will mean
significant cost savings for the Polish operation,
as well as providing consistent customer quality
for selected processes. The new shared services
centre - expected to be fully operational by 2008
- will consolidate all finance and accounting back
office functions for the business.
"Shared services centres represent the
streamlining of an organisation's functions to
ensure they deliver the services required as
effectively and efficiently as possible," says
Radovan Sikorsky, Chief Financial Officer at Grupa
Zywiec. "Ultimately, this reaps the benefits of
economies of scale."
Bielsko Biala is the ideal location for the
establishment of a shared services centre. Many
of the operating company's existing workforce
can be maintained, and the city is strategically
located nearby airports and highways. At the
same time, the city offers a multitude of
resources for new recruits, with a total of seven
universities in the surrounding area.
The Heineken Nederland financial shared
services programme will continue to expand
in 2007, says Prins, with the centralisation of
additional processes, such as credit
management.
"At the end of the day, the platform is about
making Heineken a better provider of financial
services," he concludes. "To achieve our dual
Radovan Sikorsky, CFO at Grupa tywiec
objectives of higher quality at a lower cost, we
must have a solid IT infrastructure and the right
people in place. I believe we are fully equipped
to do this."
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