
“Our decision to establish a Shared Service Centre in Brno was made back in 2008 at the beginning of the financial and economic crisis. The private equity fund that owned Edwards Group at the time was seeking ways to streamline supporting processes and therefore decided to centralize finance and customer care activities in one location. Brno was selected as the logical choice partially because Edwards already had a service hub operation in Brno and a manufacturing site in the nearby city of Lutín. The strategic location, combined with a university city, a young educated workforce and competitive labour arbitrage made Brno a very attractive option. The transition mainly took place between 2009 and 2011, moving finance processes (Procure to Pay, Cash Collection, Credit Risk, Accounting & Reporting, Indirect Tax, and Business Controlling support) and Customer Care operations (Opportunity, Quotation and Order Entry, Invoicing, Customer Complaints Handling, and Technical Support). Edwards currently has over 90 Finance, 50 Customer Care and 10 other professionals supporting its global operations in Europe and the US from Brno. Edwards Brno Shared Service Centre takes great benefit from the city’s well-educated and diverse workforce and further invests in its employees’ education (such as ACCA). Our people-centric model proved to be very successful in attracting and cultivating talent for the Edwards organization (within shared services and beyond). Our Internal Customer Surveys as well as informal customer feedback provide ample evidence of continuous improvement in Quality of Service provided by Edwards Brno SSC. In 2014, Edwards was acquired by the Atlas Copco Group, which has provided even more opportunities for expanding our current successful SSC model and will add more processes (especially in Finance) in the near future. In summary, Brno provides a great foundation to set up, operate and grow a Finance SSC. We are able to attract and retain the right people, invest in quality training and create opportunities for advancement. We are proud of what we have built and it is working. We are open to new opportunities and expansion!”
Roman Pavloušek
Global Finance SSC Manager, Edwards
