Clients that work with Strafford engage a diverse, growing organization of professionals ready to assist them change to their business process and supporting technology.
With success across countless projects over many years, Strafford brings far more to your efforts than simply a widget demonstration and the closure of a “deal”. Our vast experience both from the business side as well as from the technology side ensure that you have a partner with “skin in the game”, an organization as vested in the success of your efforts as you and your team.
Real World Finance Experience
Background - Our staff has a signficiant component of true Finance folks that have actually worked these processes in industry before joining Strafford.
Application Expertise Required - Why not work with consultants that have experience actually leading a statutory consolidation process or running an annual budget? You know from your experience that someone that has "real world" experience is going to know your issues better than a lifelong consultant. Some of the jobs our staff have experience at include:
- Accounting Manager
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Controller
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Corporate Controller
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Director, Financial Planning & Analysis
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Director, Worldwide Reporting
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Financial Systems Manager
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Hyperion Administrator
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Information Systems Auditor
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Manager, Consolidations
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Senior Financial Analyst
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Staff Accountant
Application Expertise
Background - Our team will always have application experts in the chosen technology. This ranges across specific modules of the software was well as deep expertise in many facets of the application. In addition, we work closely with many software vendors so we can expect support from them when required.
Application Expertise Required - Examples of some of the specific areas we sometimes find expertise necessary include:
- Application Design
- Database Configuration
- Data Management
- Business Logic/Calculation Creation
- Workflow Configuration
- Report Development
- Input Template Creation
- MS Office Support Utilities
- Dashboard Creation
RESPECT FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Background - We have built business performance management systems in complex information technology organizations for over a decade. During this time we have developed a healthy respect for those that keep financial systems software working every day to meet everchanging business needs. You will find our team welcomes the involvement of your technical team and we will look to add their skills to the project or supplement them where IT time might not be available.
Areas the Technical Team Contributes - Among the many contributions, we rank these the highest:
- Knowledge of existing systems
- Awareness of data quality issues
- ETL from source systems
- Security
- Understanding of key issues around consolidation, budgeting & forecasting, etc.
- Project management methology
- Expertise with supporting technology (DTS, SSIS, SQL, Oracle, etc.)
PROJECT LEADERSHIP FOR SUCCESS
Background - We have built business systems in complex information technology organizations for over a decade. During this time we have developed a healthy respect for those that keep business systems working to meet everchanging business need. You will find our team welcomes the involvement of your IT staff and we will look to add their skills to the project or supplement them where IT time might not be available. Key areas we include IT include project management and review, software & hardware installation, data management (not just ETL, but the entire process of ensuring key data is available for the business users when needed), security, and ongoing administration.
Strafford understands the role of a systems implementer - to deploy software or technology changes that will enable the organization to improve business process around Finance. An effective implementer is someone who follows a plan - but can also change a plan when the implementation itself reveals previously unforeseen opportunities or problems. On-time completion, minimum disruption, and maximum leverage of existing resources in combination with appropriate off-the-shelf technologies are key performance indicators of Strafford implementations.