Manager, Business Solutions Centre APAC

Job Description

Manager, Business Solutions Centre APAC
Overview:

SPE recently launched a centralized Governance, Oversight and Adoption (GOA) team to ensure that SPE remains aligned to the strategic direction defined in our transformation projects. GOA will ensure that SPE realizes the expected operational value of its investments.

GOA will assist with two challenges SPE faces: (1) the transition to a strategy whereby we are outsourcing our accounting processes to a non-captive BPO partner Capgemini which requires global standardization and (2) the objective of lowering the cost to serve of our financial systems. Historically SPE had dedicated finance teams to support the needs of unique LOB/Territory processes and self-defined requirements. Today we must align to a strategy of simplification and consistency.

Secondly, SPE has created the visibility to the business of the cost of running our financial systems and have made them accountable for those costs. This new transparency has increased the pressure to reduce our support costs which will only be achieved through strong governance, oversight, and the insurance of adoption to the standards established by the transformation projects.

The Role:

The Manager role in APAC will support the Adoption arm of GOA and report to the GOA Business Solutions Center Director. Adoption includes conformity to SPE's finance policies, systems, and processes. This includes identifying areas of non-compliance, drafting a remediation plan, and executing that plan. Adoption also includes working across the GFO and Cap Gemini to standardize processes and metrics, which is needed for GOA to track adoption metrics.

The role will be responsible for managing the GOA Business Solutions Center in the APAC region. In addition, it will be accountable for sustaining and evolving Sony Picture Entertainment's strategy of simplification and consistency in the region.

The Business Solution Center will be instrumental in driving Governance and Adoption in the region of any transformation projects during and after these projects have been completed. The Business Solutions Center will support end-users with changes and ensure they are following processes and policy; this will be done by providing hands-on support, proactively reviewing metrics, and following up with remediation plans.

The APAC Manager will play a significant role in monitoring, enforcing, and ensuring adoption to the new systems and process standards. The APAC Manager will enable process and system owners, via visibility, to achieve the greatest level of system adoption in a fit-to-standard environment in order to realize the value of the investment. This leverages the foundation established by a project for incremental transformation initiatives. Standardization creates less complication. Ensuring that SPE holds true to the philosophy of continuous improvements through (1) standardization which allows for greater efficiencies and expanded outsourcing, and (2) the realization of Continuous Accounting, the exploration of automation

The initial remit for GOA will be the processes and policies launched with the implementations of Ariba on Demand (AOD), SAP's S/4 HANA, and Cadency.

Core Responsibilities: include the following (but not limited to):
• Manage the APAC Region and ensure the Business Solution Center is operationally efficiently for the end-users
• Maintain the BSC issue intake process and managing tickets and resolutions
• Capture, triage, track and resolve inquiries related to technology, process or policy related to transformation programs post-go-live
• Perform root cause analysis for complex problems working alongside project teams, GFO and IT
• Review and escalate support requests to appropriate teams when resolution falls outside of the Business Solutions Center of Excellence
• Monitoring, enforcing and ensuring adaption to new System/Process standards
• Partner with GFO Team on strong and consistent best practices across all regions
• Partnering with IT on the resolution of any issues related to system processes
• Support user acceptance testing for issue resolution and new releases to ensure feedback to project teams
• Provide, coordinate and manage training as and when required as part of the transformation project implementation/enhancement lifecycle
• Ensure risks and issues are addressed management
• Support Transformation programme with regional efforts and ensuring successful implementation of new processes and policies in the regions
• Collaborate with business partners to define business requirements for new functionality
• Lead efforts for driving regionally related processes and undertaking continuous improvements focused on user experience, process efficiencies, issue resolution and updates to solution features and functionality
• Work as part of the GOA team providing support globally.

Candidate Requirements:

Level of Education Required:
• Bachelor's Degree (preferred)
• SAP (S/4 HANA) and Ariba knowledge required
• Familiarity of the Procure to Pay process (Requisition to Payment)
• Entertainment experience preferred
• Multi-language speaker fluent in any languages for APAC region (Japanese desired)

Experience:
• Typically Five+ years' professional experience with a background in process improvement, managing strategic projects and experience in business transformation programmes

Knowledge:
• Understanding of best practice Financial Operations processes, particularly those associated with the Media & Entertainment industry
• Significant experience managing Financial Operations processes or other core finance, accounting, or strategic planning processes, within a complex, high volume environment
• Appreciation of US GAAP, IFRS, and regulatory requirements
• Strong familiarity with month-end reporting processes and standards

Skills:
• Experience working with Global stakeholders and end-users
• Extremely detail-oriented with good organizational skills, able to balance multiple tasks in a time-sensitive atmosphere
• Excellent ability to communicate complex information to others, presenting messages in a way that enhances understanding of large-scale projects
• Excellent ability to consistently anticipate users' needs through an in-depth understanding of the regional business processes and operations
• Ability to balance multiple activities in a fast-paced environment while delivering a timely and high-quality end work product
• Strong ability to perform analysis of large complex business, workflow, and technology issues to support decision-making
• Ability to work independently as well as in a team environment
• Demonstrates strong and effective verbal and written communication skills necessary to interact effectively with internal and external customers as needed
• Must be pro-active with issue identification and resolution
• A 'Customer' centric attitude with a 'continuous improvement' mindset.
• Demonstrates willingness to perform additional duties when requested

Sony Pictures Entertainment is committed to equal opportunity in all its employment practices, policies and procedures and to ensuring that no worker or potential worker will receive less favourable treatment due to any characteristic protected under applicable local laws.

SGP - Offsite/Home/Remote - SPENA

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gxnzp1-18-116-63-174-42 in your application.