eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY:

The purpose of this study is to construct a cost-benefit analysis of the case company's shared finance service center as an assignment to a listed Finnish consumer goods company. The case company is in the middle of the implementation of its shared finance service center, and analysis focuses on the benefits, the costs and the risks of the company's shared finance service center. Based on this analysis, the case company is able to analyze and address the critical benefits, costs and risks of the project thus improving the focus and approach of managing the implementation.

METHODOLOGY AND DATA:

The case study approach was chosen as the study was executed as an assignment for the case company. The data was mainly gathered by performing seven semi-structured interviews. In order to create as comprehensive interpretation as possible, the interviewees were chosen to represent all the stakeholders of the shared finance service center's implementation. Due to his contract of employment with the case company, the author was also able to collect both formal and informal evidence in written and verbal form in addition to the semi-structured interviews. The data gathered from different sources was triangulated in order to maximize the validity and reliability of the findings.

MAIN FINDINGS:

The main findings of the study showed that the implementation of the case company's shared finance service center has both financial and non-financial benefits that exceed the cost of the implementation although the benefits are not realized immediately after the implementation. Moreover, the study indicates that the implementation of the shared finance service center is a risky project and changes in the key factors may have drastic effects on the profitability of the investment. With the help of this analysis, the case company's finance function is able to investigate both the present situation and the outlook of its shared finance service center. Furthermore, the information originated from this study can be used to manage the implementation phase and to bring the project to profitability and maturity.