Shared Services Lead
CurrentJohnson Matthey is a speciality chemicals and sustainable technologies company headquartered in the UK. It is listed on the LSE and is a constituent of the FTSE 250.I joined Johnson Matthey in June 2019 after relocating to the UK and took over the fledgling Shared Service operations in Teesside and Hertfordshire. I initially streamlined the operations by migrating the Hertfordshire hub to Teesside to create a single Shared Service Centre and then managed a wholesale change in the operations, developing a more robust operational model, improving processes and controls and leading the Centre to become the well-regarded hub it is today.These changes included reorganising the R2R function, resolving some long-standing system, reconciliation and audit issues, dramatically improving the month-end close and introducing well-regarded monthly review meetings with each of the businesses. The department has brought-in additional work from around the UK as well as centralising the management of Fixed Assets into the SSC and has dramatically improved external audit timing and quality.In the banking area, existing processes are more efficient with the implementation of new payment solutions and having successfully semi-automated the payment process. This leading role we take in system and banking process improvements means the department is seen as the model for other locations to follow.With the consolidation of the SSC in Teesside, the critical mass in the AP team enabled leveraging of experience and good processes to improve overall performance. We identified new processes and I developed a new reporting dashboard to give insights into the underlying issues, enabling backlog to be brought under control within a period of only four months. The department subsequently provided assistance and then took over processing for South Africa and the US Corporate office as well as taking on other work from businesses in the UK, and now operate on five different ERP solutions.
