There have been many changes at alcoholic beverage firm Beam Suntory in the decade since Japanese multinational brewing and distilling company Suntory Holdings acquired US whiskey producer Beam.
The merger involved legacy processes that by the company’s own admission have taken some time to flush out. These included lack of standardization, processing inefficiencies and multiple bank accounts – not all of which were set up in the most efficient manner.
“One focus was to have our shared service centres and our accounts payable teams operate solely on [enterprise software firm] SAP,” explains treasury manager Petar Tomicic.
This has allowed the treasury teams to focus on funding, liquidity and other core treasury tasks, streamlining the payment process.
“The current structure allowed the opportunity for more of a focus on standardization and efficiency,” Tomicic says. “As it relates to payments, the local treasury teams have the primary relationship with the shared service centre, so having a centralized, automated system assists with getting things done quicker and in the best way possible.”
With an adequate understanding of the existing internal processes of the companies involved, the integration process can be used to further optimise current processes.
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