Mary Driscoll, senior research fellow at American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), recently conducted an interview with Brad DeMent and Trey Robinson, partners in ScottMadden’s Corporate & Shared Services practice. This article discusses the benefits, challenges, and future of financial shared services.
In the fall of 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its fifth assessment report confirming the reality of climate change and the critical role of human activity in causing it. Importantly, curtailment of the climate change process through drastic CO2 reductions has been downplayed, and governments and businesses worldwide are now focusing on adaptation.
Today’s businesses operate in an increasingly global environment. As a result, globalizing operations has become a key focus area for progressive HR organizations in order to be responsive to the company’s needs. The focus has evolved from ensuring basic services are in place or being hands off to country operators to developing an enterprise-wide model that better positions the company for global success. For HR, this means improving services, reducing costs, increasing compliance adherence, and being a better advisor to the business on needs like talent management.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently mandated a new Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) that reduces the amount of renewable fuels required to be blended into the petroleum fuel supply by approximately three billion gallons. Since cellulosic and advanced biofuels rely heavily on RFS mandates as a key external-funding driver, this change appeared to be a significant setback for the renewable fuels industry. However, taken in context with the larger economic factors, potential technological advances, and potential policy gains, the newly mandated standards do not appear as extreme, and renewable fuels continue to be one of the best paths forward to increased energy and environmental security.
The design of an organization is often a critical enabler for the achievement of a company’s strategy and goals, ongoing innovation, and streamlined operations. During our years of experience helping clients reorganize their operations, we have identified seven mistakes made by companies.
Lately, we have heard quite a shift in CFO thinking toward Business Intelligence (BI) technology solutions. The recession certainly seemed to take its toll on aggressive technology decision-making in the market place. We now see more CFOs that are concerned they will be “out-innovated” by competitors hungry to harness the power of predictive data analytics. There is a growing following that believes the secret recipe to clobbering the competition is out there.
Church Ross of Electrical Contractor writes, “It’s a complicated time to be an electricity-generating company in the United States. Volatility in the natural gas market is forcing utility planners to rethink fueling options, and new emissions regulations are adding even more questions to their
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The solar market heated up in 2013. Annual solar installations increased 43% to 2,936 MW according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. These figures, which focus on utility-scale systems and exclude net-metered systems, provide a metric for comparison with new coal, wind, and natural gas installations of a similar scale.
Net metering is one of several policies supporting the growth of distributed generation. In many instances, net metered systems receive credit at retail rates for excess generation supplied to the electric grid. Utilities and regulators have begun raising concerns that net metered systems, and rooftop solar systems in particular, are not paying an equitable share of fixed costs required to support the electric grid.
In 2008, the state of California established a goal for investor-owned utilities of 33% renewables by 2020, an amount skeptics considered wildly unrealistic. As a result of this policy support, RPS capacity installed has grown tenfold from 692 MW at the end of 2008 to an expected 7,225 MW by the end of 2013. The state has served as an incubator to test new technologies, policies, and business models for renewables. This trend continues as California turns its attention to kick starting the storage industry.
ScottMadden recently conducted a survey to gather opinions on the top strategic priority for not-for-profit electric utilities. While 44 percent of respondents selected “Keeping Costs/Rates Low” as the top strategic priority, the majority selected different priorities. This indicates that these utilities face challenges on multiple fronts. Customers expect low rates, help with local economic development, and improved service and performance, among other things.
This article, by Mary Driscoll, senior research fellow at American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) and ScottMadden partner Brad DeMent, discusses how a well-defined shared services strategy and continuous process improvement mindset can add value to a business.
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