MSN, Microsoft's online information portal, is the provider of the familiar Search, Money, Hotmail and Messenger

The Problem
The business generates revenue from the sale of online media advertising space and this dynamic market has experienced year on year growth in excess of 35% for the last 5 years.  However, different processes across international subsidiaries mean MSN have struggled to give a consistent service to their customers, and lacked efficiency in collecting debt and processing orders.  They called in WCI to help build a set of lean back office processes to support them going forward.

The Challenge
MSN realised that they needed to build a standard set of lean processes which not only created value from the customer's perspective but allowed actions to flow without interruption.  These processes needed to be rolled out and imbedded in 20 different countries in Europe, Asia and South America.

The Project and Key Deliverables
A programme was agreed with three clear objectives: implement lean and standardised sales processes, reduce outstanding Accounts Receivables balances, and build a consistent platform for future global processes and systems.

WCI worked in partnership with MSN to develop a lean back office solution that would allow for the implementation of a new advertising sales process across nearly 20 subsidiaries over a seven month time period.  Each country validated the new processes and customised them where necessary, within carefully prescribed limits.  A centrally managed feedback process ensured that any generic improvements developed by specific countries were immediately fed back into the core process and shared throughout the business.

Another major focus of the project was improving the Accounts Receivable balances and processes.  A comprehensive set of lean processes and measure has allowed MSN to gain a 70% reduction in the AR balances that are tied up in a query.  This query value can now be collected and converted to cash.

With a stronger Accounts Receivable position, well defined advertising sales processes and a way to measure the operational performance of the business, MSN is poised to grow their business in a profitable way going forward.

The company has made a step change in their business from being a small, fragmented group of subsidiaries, managed in an informal manner, to being a cohesive team which manages the business in a consistent fashion and is measured with a standard set of performance measures.