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Mobile Phone Design & Manufacturing Company

“I would say that costs within the accounts department were definitely reduced using e-Financial Management and the level of skills provided was far higher than we could recruit and retain”

Mike Ashdown
Managing Director
V tech Communications Ltd

The company Vtech Mobile Ltd, who design and manufacture mobile phones was formed in July 2000 when Vtech Holdings Ltd purchased Sensei Ltd. The company employed over 60 staff based at their site in Aylesbury. Initially, Vtech as a group, used a mixture of internal accounts staff and external financial consultants to perform their finance function.

Sensei Ltd, at the time of the business purchase used e-Financial Management as their accounting services provider and had benefited from a complete financial outsource solution.

Mike Ashdown, director at Vtech through his dealings with Sensei became aware of the benefits that financial outsourcing could potentially bring to Vtech. “In October 2000 the management structure of the organization was changed and I took responsibility for the day to day running of the business which included responsibility for finance. As part of that re-structuring process, we met with Gary Jesson, Managing Director at e-Financial Management to find out whether it was possible to outsource any part of Vtech’s finance function. We were very impressed with the range of services that e-FM could provide and they effectively took over immediately – with total responsibility for the Vtech Mobile Ltd. finance function

Initially V-Tech had planned to recruit a financial director. After a short period of working with the team at e-Financial Management they first downgraded that recruitment position to a financial controller and then eventually cancelled the recruitment altogether when they realised that the finance department could be handled just as efficiently through outsourcing.

“Along with the day-to-day bookkeeping requirements, the team provided us with valuable management information and advice that helped us with our strategic business decisions. They worked closely with other key finance personnel within the Vtech group and dealt with all the financial reporting requirements of our corporate headquarters. Effectively. e-Financial Management became very quickly, our outsourced financial director,” said Mike.

“One of the main benefits of choosing the outsourcing option was access to much higher level of financial skills than we could possibly have recruited into a small company” says Mike Ashdown. “However, the cost benefit of acquiring this skill wasn’t the only driving force. e-Financial Management took a truly active role in the business and provided us with a director level skill base in addition to general bookkeeping, that we came to rely upon in our decision making processes”.

Vtech don’t believe there are any disadvantages in using financial outsourcing, says Mike “It was not essential to have an in-house accounts department. e-Financial Management handled it all and I have been very pleased with the way it has all panned out. The team have also provided us with assistance in matters such as tax and business re-structuring and we have been able to benefit from their extensive financial knowledge to guide us through some difficult times”

Mike regularly recommends e-Financial Management to other businesses and gives some good reasons why companies should consider financial outsourcing “I would say that costs for us were definitely reduced using

e-Financial Management but conversely the level of advice we got was far higher than you could recruit and retain. It is very difficult in a small company to keep a finance director for example, fully occupied and if they were good, they probably wouldn’t stay”

Another key piece of advice for anyone considering outsourcing that Mike would pass on is “Its critical that the personalities that come into the company from any outsource service are the right ones. You need to establish a close working relationship, if the chemistry doesn’t work then the relationship won’t work. The e-Financial Management team are professional, yet friendly and went out of their way to create the right rapport with our team”.