【正文】 oying stateofthe art Technology to support business decision making through provision of realtime financial and operational information Financials Procurement Human Resources Other Vendor Other Vendor 30 169。 2000 Arthur Andersen All rights reserved. Contents Section A. Defining Best Practice B. Illustrative Best Practices Appendices I Fortune 500 Companies II Andersen Global Best Practices Manage Financial Resources Manage Procurement Manage Human Resources 32 169。 2000 Arthur Andersen All rights reserved. Fortune 500 panies are ranked by their market capitalization Position Company Name 7 Enron 17 Duke Energy 54 Dynegy 55 Reliant Energy 60 Utilicorp United 76 Southern Company 82 PGamp。E (Pacific Gas and Electric) 85 TXU (Texas Utilities) Position Position Position Position Position Position Position Position 34 169。 2000 Arthur Andersen All rights reserved. Appendix II Andersen Global Best Practices 36 169。 2000 Arthur Andersen All rights reserved. Manage Financial Resources Best Practices cover the processes: ? Develop Budgets ? Manage Capital Planning ? Manage Cashflow ? Manage Fixed Assets ? Process Accounts Payable ? Process Accounts Receivable, Credit and Collections ? Manage General Ledger ? Provide External and Internal Financial Information 38 169。s resources are finite, it is important that panies develop procedures to allocate resourcescash, facilities, equipment, personnelto support key strategies. Since the budget expresses all resources in financial terms, resource allocation is expressed in financial terms as well. Best practices panies establish consistent guidelines for resource allocation and equitable ways to resolve peting needs. By doing this, best practices panies save time in making resource allocations. They also fund the projects and operations that support strategy most effectively. Another benefit is that by designing efficient and equitable procedures, panies municate strategy clearly and strengthen panywide mitment. Tie incentives to performance measures other than meeting budget targets. By changing the evaluation process and reinforcing the change with incentives that recognize the importance of measures other than meeting budget targets, panies shift to a more balanced view of management performance. Under this type of system, managers who meet the budget but fail to meet market share, customer satisfaction, or other measures receive less reward than if they had met all the measures. This shift usually enhances overall performance. It also brings more honesty to the budgeting process. Develop Budgets 39 169。s overall performance. Top management can strengthen credibility with stakeholders. By keeping stakeholders informed of changes in tactics or strategies, top management assures them that the pany39。 2000 Arthur Andersen All rights reserved. Best Practice Assign accountability for capital budget performance Tie performance incentives to the capital investment strategy Incorporate scenario planning, portfolio analysis and other evaluation tools into capital investment planning process Rationale Often we find that budgets are set, but little monitoring of budget performance (variances) is performed. Moreover, if budgets vary widely (negatively), lack of accountability can contribute to enterprisewide underperformance. Most of the decisions affecting capital investments are made by line managers and employees. Each day, pany executives rely on their employees to implement the guiding strategiesand the decisions employees make affect how and where capital is invested. Performance measurement systems and incentive plans ensure that employees execute the investment strategies effectively by tying employee interests to the capital investment strategy, aligning employee and pany interests in ways that promote valuebuilding investment decisions. Companies need to test the impact of spending (and of not spending) in order to determine the true value of the capital investments being made. Establish a formal and consistent method for ranking, paring and selecting investment projects Track asset condition and age profile and link to capital planning profile Competent Capital Project Evaluation Team Investment decisions are often driven by those managers who hold more influence over their peers, and driven less by their contribution to pany strategic goals. Providing a formal process for scoring and paring projects allows the pany to make better, more equitable capital allocation decisions. Asset condition, age profile and other asset characteristics should feed into the planning process when making capital allocation decisions. Capital evaluation personnel should be skilled in various areas such as economic modelling (discounted cashflows/NPV), scenario analysis etc. Manage Capital Planning 41 169。s cash management banks have reached parable levels of technological petence, reliable, highquality service is the yardstick panies now use to select banking partners. And partners is the key word. Today panies consolidate their accounts and use fewer banks. They partner with these select few banks to explore innovative ways to streamline and automate processes, to improve information flow, and to lower costs. Develop accurate cash forecasting models. Because cash flows are neither certain nor synchronized, panies turn to forecasts to reduce uncertainties and to help time disbursements with ining receipts. Some businesses use forecasts to look for cash surpluses so that they can decide how much and for how long to invest excess cash. Other businesses use them to foresee cash shortfalls so they can plan how much and when to borrow. Specifically, cash forecasts help determine: frequency of funds transfers。s ability to prepay deb