Alcon Global Services (AGS), India is the global hub of Alcon Global Services, a captive shared service organization of Alcon, providing services in areas of Finance, QA, IT, HR, Clinical Evaluation and Procurement worldwide. AGS Bangalore operates in a functionally led model and consists of AGS site management and Functional service delivery teams.

Alcon is a global leader in eye care, dedicated to helping people see brilliantly. With its 70+ year heritage and over 23,000 employees serving patients in more than 140 countries, Alcon is the largest eye-care device company in the world.

Global Alcon Financial Reporting and Accounting (FRA) Operations is an Alcon Finance sub-function with a team of over 700 associates spread across 40+ countries.

A Strategic Decision that Created an Opportunity

In April 2019 Alcon spun off from Novartis and got listed on the New York and Swiss stock exchanges. This strategy enabled Alcon to be more focused and flexible as a leader in the MedTech eye care sector. In standing up on its own, at the new Alcon, transforming the business and the culture became a top priority. A strategic objective was to simplify operations and improve outcomes, by leveraging global Shared Services, named Alcon Global Services (AGS). Following the strategy, the Alcon FRA team began to challenge the status quo and enhance customer experience through better speed and quality of service.

Alcon FRA Operations: From Separation to Transformation

FRA Operations’ separation from Novartis differed greatly from that of other functions.

The post-separation Transition Service Agreement with Novartis assumed continued Novartis’ support for IT and HR for two years – an advantage that was not available to FRA. Without reliance on Novartis, FRA was compelled to build a brand-new standalone organization from day one of the separation with no impact on operations. In these circumstances, the worldwide FRA footprint and new-norms implied by Covid-19 pandemic made the way to success even more demanding.

In order to rise to this challenge a 6-phase transformation and transition model was put into place with a meticulously designed control and governance mechanism and a gate review process.

A Steerco (steering committee) and Opco (operations committee) governance was set up so that the right stakeholders were involved with clear roles and responsibilities, using a DRCI (Decision, Responsibility, Consult, Inform) approach.

There was yet another significant challenge to deal with – simultaneous and almost immediate hiring for many managerial and team leader positions. This was needed to backfill the several colleagues who were transitioned into other teams due to the spin-off. Talent selection was done completely in partnership with the in-country teams and AGS centres, where the hiring would principally take place.

Building this standalone organization was an incredible amount of work for all involved, and it came with several challenges, such as:

• Growing pains and incremental costs. Due to this, many services became more expensive when compared against peer companies and best-in-class benchmarks.
• Subpar service delivery levels compared to those same peer benchmarks. 

It seemed Alcon was paying a premium for below average FRA service levels. This predicament compelled the organization to create a transformation plan, which would allow the FRA organization to improve service delivery levels at a more competitive cost by leveraging shared services, process standardization and technology. This was baked into the 6-phase master transformation plan and tracked meticulously.

The Unexpected Challenge – Transitioning and Transforming during a Global Pandemic

The onset of Covid-19 and its trailing lockdown immediately compelled the organization to adjust to the new dynamic of remote working. To ensure that the transformation journey could go on according to plan, the teams had to quickly figure out new ways to communicate and collaborate within the FRA Operations teams and with stakeholders.

It was a top priority to maintain the expected level of quality of service delivery, while balancing personal obligations in a newly established home-working environment. With concerted effort and focus, each member stepped up to overcome the challenges and succeed as a team.

With remote working, getting used to new ways of interacting, and the constant growth and build-up of the FRA teams, the larger AGS organization played a critical role to keep the team well connected.

During the lockdown period, the team executed over 10 country/region transitions remotely. This encompassed building all the business cases, defining roles, posting positions, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, training, and stabilizing the new FRA associates and services without the use of the AGS offices or the option of face-to-face interactions. AGS India is now a 500+ people strong team with almost 200 associates working in FRA Operations.

High Impact FRA projects

As the FRA team was grappling with the complexities of separation, assimilation, recovery, growth and lockdown, two critical projects were implemented within AGS that had a significant impact on FRA Operations:

Many ‘Firsts’ for FRA

While Alcon is a 70+ year-old brand, there are a number of things that AGS / FRA was first to do within the Alcon world. Some of them are:

• Carried out an FRA Customer Experience Survey (CES) to obtain the voice of the customer for the core FRA Operations services
• Built a formal GPO (Global Process Owner) team and governance structure
• Established measurable KPI’s that could be visualized for analysis in a dashboard format
• Established a Continuous Improvement Program (CIP) with the roll out of the Finance Ideation Tool (FIT) to track innovative ideas and initiatives that bring efficiency and productivity gains
• Created an integrated technology solution initiative that laid out the foundational elements for projects around change management and communication.

Finally, with such a large footprint of teams and services, FRA Operations has become the backbone of AGS. AGS’ credibility has been firmly established across Alcon and seen as being among the first functions to plan and execute both, insourcing strategy and a service delivery model that really puts the focus on the customers’ needs. 

A Recipe for Success

The foundation for a successful organization has been laid. The new FRA Operations service delivery model is firmly in place and there are already significant improvements being realized. There is now a need to carefully review the services provided within each process, find opportunities to improve, listen to customers and refine the processes to make sure that the team continues to deliver or even exceed their expectations.

One of the most important guiding principles of Alcon FRA Operations is to do everything “first time right”….. Ensuring accurate reporting while also continuously looking for efficiency opportunities requires building a strong culture and a team that embodies the culture. 

Going forward, the spotlight will be on:

• Pro-active communication to ensure that stakeholders and customers stay involved in FRA’s evolution, updating regularly on status, challenges, risks, support required, etc.
• Connection and collaboration with other internal functions and external peers to understand their perspectives and gain insights that could be leveraged and applied
• Customer Experience Surveys to define actions to make a positive impact on stakeholders, teams, and culture
• Empowerment and recognition of the team members, including consistent engagement and reciprocal feedback
• Leveraging technology, for enabling process improvements, and capturing and analysing key data at the most granular level practicable

All of the above will provide insight on how the FRA team can continue to be a world-class organization.