Managing finance and administration during COVID-19

The pandemic is changing the way we live and work. Being productive from home may seem like an easy request if you work on a laptop, but many people have found it is not quite that simple. Setting up a comfortable new workspace is not always easy, and can be tougher depending on your role within a company and how much you rely on the office infrastructure to do your job.

Finance and administration requirements can also be challenging. For example, reporting, transactions, and cheque processing are not easily portable to a dining-room table, and segregation of duties becomes very challenging when minimizing the number of staff who have to go onsite.

We support a number of clients on the finance and administration side and each case required adaptation. For one client, the entire finance and administration team needed to work from home as soon as the government recommended it. Many of them had never worked outside the office, so this required many adjustments.

More people logging in remotely meant many in the group encountered system slowness, leading to frustration as they tried to run reports. The F&A team was encouraged to stagger its work hours to lessen the load on the system and make the processes more efficient.

Month- and quarter-end reports and variance analyses still need to run on time, especially for public companies. The pandemic has not changed these timelines, so Inergi (a Capgemini company), through virtual meetings internally and with the client, managed to deliver on each deadline and without compromising quality.

There is also a push to make more processes paperless. The F&A team is exploring options to handle refunds for clients via electronic funds transfer, rather than cheques. An EFT can deliver a touchless and efficient refund.

Working from home will continue to be the reality as we grapple with the coronavirus. It will evolve the way we handle processes in F&A and beyond. Businesses need to adapt and ensure they have the right resources in place to manage cash flow and adhere to reporting requirements. We are learning that the best way to manage this new world is by improving existing processes and working remotely, and sometimes deciding that a small number of people can safely return to offices to complete those tasks that simply can’t work from a kitchen table.

Tom Mosseau is a Vice President at Capgemini as part of the Energy & Utilities practice in North America. He currently manages a large, multi-year services agreement for a leading Canadian electricity transmission and distribution utility. He can be reached at tom.mosseau@capgemini.com.

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Tom Mosseau

Expert in Energy, Utilities & Chemicals

I enjoy building rapport with clients and working together to solve their most complex business challenges. As a Vice President at Capgemini’s Energy & Utilities practice in North America, I am known for consistently delivering growth, operational excellence, and value to the industry. I execute strategies to successfully develop and implement end-to-end business initiatives. I gain the confidence of executive client stakeholders by applying my technical skills and sector expertise to effectively convey complex technical details, enabling me to help secure major accounts.
My recent work includes:
• Supporting a client in delivering a large customer-service operation and successfully meeting their timeline, budget, and overall expectations
• Modernizing, implementing, and delivering a multi-year IT and business-process solution for a large Canadian utility, generating $15 million in annual operational savings
• Leading facilitated sessions at the client CxO level to successfully align technology strategies to better support the client’s line of business
• Supporting a client’s transition to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, meeting its essential business-service requirements.
Before joining Capgemini, I held multiple roles in the energy and utilities industry. I have been recognized for my strong commitment to our clients and have been a recipient of multiple Capgemini awards for customer service excellence, delivery excellence, and sales.
I spend my spare time with my wife Lindsay and our two daughters, Addison and Ella. I enjoy the outdoors and spending time at the lake with my family and friends.