Norsk Gjenvinning: Outsourcing Finance Delivered Higher-Quality Accounting

Outsourcing Finance Delivered Higher-Quality Accounting

“With ECIT NORIAN as our partner, Norsk Gjenvinning has raised the quality and efficiency of how we manage finance and accounting, gaining access to new technology and expertise we couldn’t reach before,” says CFO Paal Skoe.

Norsk Gjenvinning is a group that delivers a wide range of recycling and environmental services through numerous companies across the Nordics. As the business has grown, it has taken on an increasing number of IT platforms along the way, making it a challenge to maintain expertise across SAP, Xledger, Visma and a range of smaller systems.

“Our financial processes were handled by an in-house accounting firm, set up as its own company within the group. It managed most of the companies, but not all of them, and the internal challenges came down to both capacity and skills development. We needed to standardise, but we also realised that Norsk Gjenvinning’s strength lies in waste management, not accounting. So we decided to buy those services from providers who specialise in delivering accounting as a service,” Skoe explains, describing the motivation for seeking an outsourcing partner for finance and accounting.

Outsourcing Criteria

The process began in late 2018, with the goal of finding a provider that could serve the Nordic market.

“We were looking for expertise across different regulatory frameworks, help professionalising our finance functions, and more efficient processes,” says the CFO.

Three providers were evaluated during the process.

“We were looking for a partner of a certain scale, one that could handle our specific challenges,” says Paal.

The key criteria were:

• Experience working across different IT/ERP systems
• End-to-end accounting expertise
• Strong payroll capabilities
• Knowledge of accounting regulations across the Nordics
• A systematic, professional partner for the long term
• Price

ECIT NORIAN was chosen because it stood out as a partner able to see the bigger picture and help raise overall quality.

“Price naturally played a role, and ECIT NORIAN was competitive there too — but quality and expertise were the deciding factors,” says Skoe.

Full-Scope Outsourcing

Norsk Gjenvinning wanted to outsource a broad set of tasks:

• AR and AP
• Accruals
• Payroll
• Master data setup
• Monthly bookkeeping and reconciliation
• Annual reports and more

Tasks were transitioned one by one — an extensive process spanning many companies, so the transfer of both entities and processes is still ongoing.

“That’s entirely natural, since it’s part of the transformation we’re going through,” says Skoe.

Norsk Gjenvinning was especially dependent on having someone skilled at running payroll.

“We’re a complex case, with 1,600 employees and many different pay models,” he explains.

Planning Together

Outsourcing the bulk of the finance function was itself a substantial process that required effort from both sides.
“NORIAN assigned a dedicated project manager to our work, and we had to do the same. Together they took the lead and built a plan for carrying out the outsourcing,” says Paal.
The work took place both on home turf and with the specialists at NORIAN’s nearshoring centre in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Central to the plan was a clear handover schedule for each process. As NORIAN became familiar with the tasks and systems, the partner was able to take them over. Paal was struck by the pace.
“It moved fast, which says a lot about the level of expertise — and about the fact that we’re dealing with a company with genuinely capable people,” he says.

marter Methods, Lower Costs

After more than a year of operation, the CFO concludes that ECIT NORIAN has more than delivered on its promise.

“I’ve barely had to be involved in day-to-day operations. It runs itself, through close collaboration between their team and our key people. ECIT NORIAN has been proactive about improving processes throughout — either we come to them with requests, or they come to us first with their own suggestions. We have an ongoing dialogue about what can be done differently and more efficiently. As a result, we’re seeing more and more tasks handed over to the partner, like running monthly reporting and developing RPA for our processes,” says Skoe.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA), in short, means routine tasks are automated and carried out by machines. ECIT NORIAN specialises in RPA capabilities that deliver higher quality and faster processes.

“This improvement work takes some effort on our part, but ECIT NORIAN lays the groundwork themselves. They run internal lean processes on their end before we meet for a workshop to finalise new methods that raise quality and cut costs,” says the CFO.

Better Quality in Factoring

The quality improvements have produced visible results. Norsk Gjenvinning has a large share of factoring, but was previously dissatisfied with the visibility into invoice status — which payments had actually come in wasn’t always clear. This created enough discrepancy in the balance sheet that the auditor wasn’t fully satisfied. After the first year with ECIT NORIAN, however, the processes were cleaned up and clear routines were established. In their annual report, the auditors were able to confirm that quality had improved significantly.
“The auditor has genuinely praised ECIT NORIAN for the improved quality of the group’s accounting,” Paal Skoe points out.

Workforce Reduction

There’s no getting around it: outsourcing finance functions this way has consequences for employees on the client’s side.

“Our in-house accounting firm was wound down as a result of this process, which meant 15 employees had to move into the job market. We took that process seriously and made sure our people had good support to help them get back into work,” says Skoe.

The reduction in staff took place gradually, as ECIT NORIAN progressively took on more responsibilities. In practice, employees were released from their notice-period duties once they had finished handing over their tasks to the new partner. Several found new jobs within a short time, according to the CFO.

Here too, ECIT NORIAN played an important role.

“They were professional throughout the process. We handled the workforce reduction ourselves, but ECIT NORIAN worked closely with the people who were leaving. The new partner made sure this group experienced the transition in a considerate, well-managed way,” he says.

A True Partner

After a year and a half of planning, implementation and operation, ECIT NORIAN has taken responsibility for most of the finance functions across Norsk Gjenvinning’s complex organisation. CFO Paal Skoe sums it up:

“I see ECIT NORIAN more as a partner than simply an outsourcing provider.”