BearingPoint has announced the appointment of a new Partner, Rob Staples, who will be responsible for BearingPoint’s UK Communications practice. In this newly created role he will be building upon BearingPoint’s extensive global telecoms and media experience with clients such as Vodafone, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica to support UK based clients in the sector.

Staples is a communications industry specialist with over 20 years operational and consulting experience gained working in Europe, Asia, Latin America, the United States and the Middle East. He has extensive experience working with CEO’s and board level clients in the telecommunications and media industries to help shape their strategic agendas.

He joins from Capgemini Consulting, where he was Vice President and Global Sector Lead for the Telecom, Media & Entertainment sector. Staples has particular experience working on the convergence of the content, distribution and device value chain and how this is impacting companies in the media and telecoms industries.

Commenting on the appointment, Stefan Spohr, Managing Partner UK and Ireland said: “Rob’s appointment is an important strategic step for BearingPoint in the UK. The telecoms and media sectors are amongst the most dynamic in the UK and are at the heart of technological and social development. BearingPoint has substantial depth of experience in these sectors and Rob joins us at the ideal time to grow our presence and help UK based telecoms and media companies exploit these developments.”

Staples added: “The communications industry is undergoing a very significant transformation of its business models, competitive landscape and revenue streams. Telecom operators must increase their customer centricity, innovate to find new sources of growth and improve their systems and processes to become far more efficient. I am very much looking forward to bringing BearingPoint’s expertise in these areas to support UK and Ireland clients.”

Source:  www.top-consultant.com

European consultancy brings partnership to 138 members.

With effect from July 1st 2011, management and technology consultancy BearingPoint has admitted six new partners to the firm.

The newly appointed partners are: Elisabeth Denner, Axelle Paquer and Jérôme Martin (France), Christian Bruck (Austria), Stefan Lauritzen (Germany) and Alexander Zuzukin (Russia).

“I am excited to announce the admission of six new partners and the expansion of our partnership. This is a major step for our firm, both on a national and international basis”, says Peter Mockler, Managing Partner at BearingPoint. “All of them have applied best thinking to create real client value. They have long term experience and excellent know how in combination with the right portion of entrepreneurial thinking. The new team will successfully expand and push our consulting services – for our clients and our firm.”

Two years ago, the European management of the profitable BearingPoint EMEA Practice bought its own firm via management buy-out. By admitting six new partners, BearingPoint continues to strengthen its position as an independent consultancy.

Christian Bruck, age 42, has a diploma in banking and has been with BearingPoint since 1998. He is responsible for the firm-wide Payments Consulting. Bruck has long-time experience in the Banking and Insurance segment, being renowned as one of the experts for Transaction Banking and SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area).

Elisabeth Denner, 36 years old, graduate from the Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Grenoble, has been with BearingPoint since 2002. She is supervising projects on organisational issues, process reorganisation and information systems implementation. Appointed partner in the Financial Service Department, she will be responsible for business transformation, reorganisations and optimisation of financial and administrative processes.

Stefan Lauritzen, age 45, has started his career at TÜV group (MOT) and SAP AG. In 1998, he joined BearingPoint. Lauritzen has long-time experience as a leader of data centres, SAP CCC Director and CIO focussing on IT Management Consulting, IT Strategy and Information Management.

Jérôme Martin, 39 years old, has graduated from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications de Bretagne. After 7 years in New York, he joined BearingPoint in Paris, where he works with the IT management to assist in transformation programmes, interacting with General Management, CFO and Human Resources. He is now partner in the IT Consulting team.

Axelle Paquer, age 38, graduate from Sciences Po Paris, has been with BearingPoint since 2002. She is supervising projects in the Public Sector on organisational issues, process reorganisation and change management. Additionally, she teaches Change Management at Sciences Po. Appointed partner, she will be responsible for transformation projects in the Public Sector department.

Alexander Zuzukin, 39 years old, joined BearingPoint in 2007. Zuzukin is focused on Consumer Markets, Chemicals and multinational companies and specialized in Finance and SCM transformation as well as IT enablement. Zuzukin is an expert in Oracle Advisory and a leader of the Oracle Advisory Service Line in Russia.

Source:  www.top-consultant.com

Recent research by UK management and technology consultancy BearingPoint has shown that the financial services industry across Europe is increasingly looking to optimised Shared Service Centre (SSC) models – organisational units in companies that centralise, bundle and provide process oriented services – to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

According to the report, Shared Services Industry Specifics and Trends in the European Financial Services Market, nearly 80% of large companies that have looked to introduce and optimise SSC models have realised cost savings of over 20%. As a result they recoup the initial set-up costs within three years. Research by BearingPoint on eight leading UK retail banks and building societies suggests that, across the financial services sector, firms could save up to £8 billion by successfully implementing and optimising SSC models.

There is a range of ways SSC models can be optimised including new sourcing strategies, automation and process innovation. These can generate significant cost savings by improving processes and methods and lowering the cost per transaction. As a result there is more time available for the creation of value-adding services. A key trend is focus on optimising managed offshore services.

“Significant additional cost savings up to £8 billion are possible for financial institutions in the UK by optimising their shared service models,” said Stefan Spohr, Financial Services Partner at BearingPoint.

While a greater amount of business and IT processes could be moved to lower cost locations, the most valuable improvement can be gained from better integrating shared service centres with core operations, mutualisation of teams and better collaboration with third-party service providers.

According to BearingPoint’s calculations, moving beyond the traditional SSC and looking to optimise their models, would enable the top UK financial services organisations save around £3 billion in staff costs and £1 billion in administrative expenses. The rest of the £5 billion savings can be found by consolidating premises, equipment and other expenses.

“More and more of their global competitors are optimising their shared service models as a way to cut costs and deliver a better service for customers,” continues Spohr. “Despite the substantial savings on offer, the UK banks seem content on relying on the ‘lower-hanging fruit.

Despite the benefits on offer, optimisation of SSCs needs to be done carefully and thoughtfully in order to work effectively. The report found that processes with a relatively low complexity and a high level of standardisation prove to be the most effective in this format – according to the research, over 50% of financial services customer care and payment services across Europe have already been outsourced to SSCs.

Location is also key, with Eastern Europe proving increasingly attractive. Although only 23% of SSCs surveyed are currently located here, 35% of respondents cited it as their preferred future location, compared to 47% and 28% respectively for their home country, and 21% and 28% for Asia.

Source:  Top-Consultant News