Jim Link Email & Phone Number

Olmsted Falls, Oh, Us

Designing, building, and optimizing budgeting, planning, forecasting, and financial consolidation processes utilizing the SAP software solutions -- primarily SAP Analytics Cloud and S/4HANA Group Reporting. Responsible for managing client relationships and mentoring staff on engagements to deliver quality results that exceed client expectations.

Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Worked with more than two dozen companies to deliver full lifecycle implementations of planning and consolidation solutions using BPC, SAP Analytics Cloud, and S/4HANA Group Reporting. In addition, led or supported many other customers' projects such as upgrades, blueprints, assessments, and rescues.

Headed the establishment of the Business Architecture domain of the Global Finance Architecture organization to support multi-million dollar business transformation initiative utilizing SAP software as the backbone of future state processes. Progressed from lead Solution Architect for consolidations, planning and forecasting to broader Business Architecture role across all finance areas.• Authored business process architecture principles to lay the foundation for the practice;• Managed the Finance Process Classification Framework, ensuring that it aligned with the Enterprise Process Classification Framework; • Enabled better decision making by business and IT through working with other Global Finance Architecture domains to map high-level dependencies between processes, applications, data, and technologies;• Lead Solution Architect for the BPC implementation, covering daily and monthly consolidations, intercompany matching and planning and forecasting processes;• Oversaw a team of six solution architects assigned to the BPC implementation to endorse a cohesive design.

Reporting to the head of Enterprise Architecture, facilitated the streamlining of financial closing, monthly forecasting and annual budgeting processes which allowed greater productivity for accounting personnel. Multiple full lifecycle implementations with involvement from the planning phase to end user training and post-implementation support have provided exposure to all aspects of SAP projects.Implementation of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation• Played key decision making role in enabling planning and forecasting processes utilizing SAP BPC;• Rationalized planning and forecasting processes, reducing the annual budgeting cycle by three weeks and monthly projection cycle by several days through collaborating with each of the lines of business to consolidate prior planning schedules and processes to a single company standard.Implementation of SAP Business Consolidation (SEM-BCS) and SAP Business Warehouse• Managed consolidation of more than 1,400 legal entities with highly complex ownership structure;• Shortened the time to close window by 2 days by providing the business users with several enhancements to current processes.Implementation of SAP Financials and Controlling (FI/CO)• Assisted in the creation of the organization structure during the design phase of the project;• Led the team responsible for mapping legacy system master data to SAP master data, including mapping several thousand entities to SAP Company Codes and Profit Centers to enable a successful migration.

• Ensured timely and accurate filing of the Forms 10-Q and 10-K and the furnishing of the Supplemental Package to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC);• Aided in the preparation and review of the Annual Report and Proxy statement;• Responsible for managing and developing the Supervisor-External Reporting as well as the other staff members of the department;• Coordinated with accounting personnel from strategic business units to resolve significant accounting issues in a timely manner, including running the quarterly Transaction Committee meetings;• Prepared all supporting accounting records for external legal counsel in conjunction with the Company's senior notes offering in January 2005;• Reviewed separate entity financial statements for all strategic business units.

• Lead senior associate in charge of several corporate financial statement audits;• Responsible for audit staff and review of their work, including oversight of the tie-out and review of SEC documents (primarily Form 10-Q and Form 10-K);• Coordinated with senior managers and partners for their review of the workpapers and SEC documents;• Organized and assisted in the planning for engagements.