NEPTUNE ORIENT LINES OUTSOURCES ACCOUNT SETTLEMENTS

NEPTUNE ORIENT LINES OUTSOURCES ACCOUNT SETTLEMENTS    Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines, the parent company of APL Liner and APL Logistics, is outsourcing its transaction-based finance functions to Accenture, the management consultant, for a period of eight years.
   Under the agreement, Accenture will assume responsibility for accounts payable, accounts receivable and accounts reconciliation processes of the Neptune Orient Lines group, including APL Liner and APL Logistics. Account settlement operations, managed by Accenture, will be consolidated in a future service centre based in Shanghai.
   Neptune Orient Lines describes the agreement as innovative, and said that it would provide incentives for both parties, with a sharing of savings and benefits achieved.
   Lim How Teck, chief financial officer of Neptune Orient Lines, expects average annual cost savings of 30 percent over the eight years for the activities concerned, compared with doing the work in-house.
   “Our core business is transportation and logistics, not financial processing,” Lim said.
   Neptune Orient Lines now plans to look at further consolidation of activities across the business units of the group, using a model similar to the consolidation of account settlements.