Episode 85: Why and How I built an FP&A Center of Excellence at Verizon - Ed Hyer

Show Notes

Ed Hyer, CPA , as VP FP&A at Verizon , built one of the most ambitious centers of excellence (COEs) undertaken in finance.

Put simply, a center of excellence centralizes similar types of work into a single entity. While relatively common for payroll functions or “back-end transactional work”, FP&A presented an altogether bigger challenge for the COE concept.

The creation of Verizon’s Center of Excellence at the $134 billion revenue 118,000 employee company counts as one of the most audacious challenges undertaken in FP&A–ultimately comprising 175 professionals, took more than a year to complete and fanning through 24 different waves of transformation to take effect. Though the impetus from the beginning was to prove the concept could work, Verizon's FP&A COE has now transformed the business in impactful and unexpected ways.

“I remember one case, where someone showed there were 16 different processes here. He said he could get it down to two, and I've just saved myself six hours on workday one. It didn't require any new tools or technology.

In this must-listen to episode Hyer reveals the secret of Verizon’s FP&A transformation:

In this episode:

• How my passion for FP&A was lit compared to other finance work

• Led FP&A for some of the biggest US companies, including Hertz and Verizon

• The “why” of creating an FP&A CoE - and it is not just about cost-saving

• The lessons of building a Center of Excellence

• How COE-building places finance teams at the vanguard of automation

• The  oh-crap moment when building the COE

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