Dublin, Ireland February 6, 2003 Lucent Technologies has signed up managed services provider Equitant to handle key order-to-cash processes for the company's business in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Under the multiyear outsourcing arrangement, Dublin-based Equitant will assume responsibility for the people, processes and technology that drive key back-office processes at Lucent.
Lucent will augment its current team with Equitant's order-to-cash expertise, using Equitant's technology platform, AR Collect, with the goal of optimizing the company's financial processes and performance.
The order-to-cash process comprises key activities in the financial supply chain, including order management, credit analysis and approval, invoice and billing, cash collections, dispute resolution, cash application, and financial analysis and reporting.
This complex and labor intensive process is typically non-core, yet the process is also critical as it significantly affects a company's cash position, cost structure and customer relationships.
Commenting on the agreement, Len Rinaldi, Lucent's chief financial officer and vice president for EMEA, said, "In terms of the big picture, it is precisely steps such as those we have taken with Equitant that will help increase the company's focus on our core business, while simultaneously improving important aspects of our operations and how we serve our customers."
Timothy Hascall, general manager of Equitant's business in North America, where the deal originated, said, "In keeping with Equitant's approach to order-to-cash management, our partnership is based upon strategic business metrics and our responsibility to delivery on performance results."
Equitant's other clients include such companies as Microsoft, Cisco and Hewlett-Packard.
For more information on solutions for payment processes, see the article "Global Enabled Supply Chain Series: Payment" in the February 2002 issue of iSource Business.
To learn how one company took its payment processes "e," read "Taking the Pain Out of e-Payment," the Links column in the June 2002 issue of iSource Business.
