Organisational Consulting

Supporting change

Businesses must review their structure on a regular basis in order to improve performance and adapt to changes in the market. The reasons are multiple: expansion of the group, establishing a global presence, new skills, regulatory constraints.

The company’s business model should reflect its strategy and be part of a progressive and secure approach.

Finance and accounting functions have undergone many transformations over the last few years, on an organisational level, in working methods and also though IT systems. All these developments, whether due to regulations, technology, implementation of ERP, computerisation or SSC roll-out, necessitate a review of the organisational model.

Meeting diverse expectations. From providing information to measuring performance

Positioned at the heart of the business, at the crossroads of all decisions, the finance and accounting function must meet demands that are becoming more and more exacting and diverse, and within shorter and shorter time-scales. It must combine the ability to work reliably, securely and cost-effectively with the ability to add value through performance analyses and projections. The structure must integrate its interactions with other departments and its communications dimension.

Our Service Offer

To meet these needs, RSA assists public and private businesses to improve the organisational processes of their administrative, accounting and finance support functions. Our methods are built on a very pragmatic approach, based on interviews, quantitative and qualitative analyses, cross-checked at each of the different stages. At each stage, deliverables are submitted to the steering group.

Project launch

The objective of the launch phase is:

to introduce the consultancy team and Rsa’s methodology,
to set up the steering group,
to identify a key point of contact for the project: a member of the supervisory board to liaise with the consultancy firm,
to confirm with the client organisation’s management team: the scope of the desired objectives of the project, the time-scale of our involvement, the names of those to be interviewed, the interview guidelines to be used to carry out the project,
to list, together with the management team of the organisation under audit, the documents to which Rsa will be given access.

Interviews and analyses

The objective of the interview and analysis phase is to gain an understanding of the specific organisation of the business and to study existing procedures.

Our teams conduct individual interviews based on the interview guidelines in order to learn about the structure of the unit under audit, to identify the key role-players, calculate FTE (full time equivalent) staff numbers per function and process, identify shortcomings and gather suggestions for improvement.

This information will make it possible, among other things, to allocate tasks and to bring to light inadequacies in human and non-human resources. This stage allows us to examine, together with those concerned, the potential channels for evolution of current procedures and processes. From this information, we then form analyses that will enable us to create action plans.

Creating action plans

The objectives of this phase are to fine-tune the change scenarios. Once the target scenario has been chosen, an operational action plan will be drawn up.

Proposals are structured around a variety of possible targets. This leads to a number of change scenarios being defined (usually two or three). It is left to the steering group and the company management team to select the most appropriate scenario.

The processes in the chosen target scenario are organised, prioritised, and numbered in a detailed action plan (reallocation of resources, training needs, redefining core procedures etc.)

Implementation and support in deployment

Examples of past projects:

French restaurant group: Audit of the financial function and redrawing its scope and its structure.
Insurance broker groups: Auditing the structure of their accounts management and cash flow. Redefining the organisation to optimise processes in keeping with an internal control that conforms to financial security law.
Professional sports league: Management audit. The objective of our assignment was to give consideration to reshaping the management style of this association in conformity with the legal constraints governing this type of business activity.

Our Approach to Projects

Our consultancy projects are conducted in the framework of a pragmatic, operational approach. They are based upon:

Listening to your needs
An in-depth understanding of your objectives, your business structure and your strategies
The associate’s strong commitment to achieving a successful outcome
A collaborative approach and ongoing liaison