Principal Specialist: Finance Business Partner VB Decision Support - Midrand at Vodafone Global Enterprise

Role purpose:

• Working closely with the VB Products, the Finance Business Partner will be the central Finance point of contact for all VB Products support. This role strives to deliver robust reporting, analysis and financial control of all VB Operations operating/capital costs and also provides essential Finance expertise in the appraisal of new projects and the measurement of cost performance in project delivery. 
• The Finance Business Partner will also drive and support the implementation of process improvements and reporting enhancements to deliver management information to the VB Operations team, which evolves with business needs and consistently exceeds expectations. 

Your responsibilities will include:

Business Case Development    

• Support the business to make the best product decisions by providing financial guidance to the VB team through a comprehensive financial evaluation of business proposals for new product launches, pricing changes or targeted campaigns.
• Develops viable business cases in partnership with business, through identification and gathering of financial and other relevant data; 
• Gather financial inputs and other relevant data from the commercial departments & external references;
• Understands dependencies and inter-relationships between elements of business case
• Interprets the cost and revenue implications within a business case;
• Support senior management to take the appropriate decision;
• Identify ways to track actual results; 
• Carry out ex post analysis & propose recommendations; and
• Ensure Governance Policies are followed.

Finance Business Partner Decision Support    

• Drive the budgeting and forecasting processes for VB Mobile products
• Participate actively in VB Mobile strategic planning processes ensuring that realistic budgets are prepared 
• Perform detailed analysis on financial or commercial issues  and report back on findings and recommendations where appropriate;
• Ensures all risks are highlighted and managed;
• Acting as an interface between business teams and specialised finance functions, influencing at senior levels.
• Provide insightful, timely and value added input so that VB management teams see Decision Support as a key contributor.
• Develop credibility with segment management in order to be able to challenge the business to achieve its objectives and generate value for the company and assist in bringing consistency across all the business units in terms of decision support.
• Enable improved decision making and identify and drive focused corrective actions:
• Be an active member of the finance business partner management team;
• Challenge the business to drive sustainable value proactively through informed and insightful decision making by analysing actual results;
• Evaluate product performance;
• Post implementation reviews (Capex, Opex, Contract and Product) and developing the enablement processes to make corrections to products.
• Provide advice and support to the business unit on all business issues:

Management Reporting

• Provide timely and accurate financial information to support decision making
• Contribute to Management reporting to EXCO and Board.
• Compile monthly performance review pack including full LOB P&L up to EBITDA level
• Ensure that the learning’s generated through post investment reviews is effectively shared with the relevant business unit for future proposition development

Business Intelligence    

• Understanding the BI Tools available and being able to obtain and analyse relevant information from the various source systems.
• Good understanding of IT and Finance processes including data warehouse / business intelligence applications.

Projects

• Revenue Assurance
• Review toxic revenue (billing not paying/usage)
• Responsible to independently project manage the timeous delivery of implementations of ad-hoc VB projects on a tactical and operational level to ensure customer satisfaction and revenue assurance to support the sales objectives. 

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

Education:

• Three Year Degree/Diploma or equivalent in Accounting, i.e. B.Com Accounting degree, or equivalent. 
• Post-graduate qualification, relevant to the job (If a certificate it should at least be at NQF 5 level or 1yr certificate) – advantageous
• CIMA - advantageous

Job Experience:

• At least 8 years’ relevant industry experience, preferably gained in a fast moving multinational environment (experience of supporting a large Customer Operations function would be an advantage); 
• Financial accounting, reporting/analysis, business support, financial planning and cost modelling expertise are all essential for the role; 
• Experience of cost efficiency programs is essential; 
• Experience of working with a range of business managers with differing or competing requirements and consistently exceeding their expectations  
• Excellent presentation skills, particularly where communicating to a non-Finance audience. 

OR
Education:

• Matric (essential)  
• Job specific certification / short diploma's / short courses (advantageous; pending the position)  

Job Experience: 

• Min of 10 years relevant experience - clearly defined / in depth and job specific of which 4-5 years should be in field of expertise required by position

Core competencies and knowledge:

Job Knowledge

• Financial Modelling
• Budgeting
• Cost efficiency programmes
• Working knowledge of Customer Operations – advantageous

Job Related Skills

• Strong analytical and technical accounting skills; 
• Strong commercial acumen; 
• Builds strong professional relationships; 
• Able to resolve conflicts successfully; 
• Excellent communicator and can deal effectively with non-finance people; 
• Self-starter with proactive approach to problem solving; 
• Tenacious and hardworking;  
• Advanced Microsoft excel and Financial Systems skills