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Driving $80M in AR Recovery Through Global OTC Transformation

Driving $80M in AR Recovery Through Global OTC Transformation

An industrial equipment manufacturer with global operations sought our help to free up as much as $300 million in cash flow from its accounts receivable (AR) balances. Working alongside the internal collections staff, we identified high-priority order-to-cash (OTC) improvements that would immediately improve collections.

Challenge

A global manufacturer of pumps and valves launched a working capital initiative to unlock $200-$300 million in cash flow from its accounts receivable (AR) balances. Following rapid growth through acquisition, the organization operated as 900 distinct engineering and manufacturing facilities across 52 countries—each running on one of 132 separate ERP instances. To improve cash flow, the company sought to streamline and centralize its Order-to-Cash (OTC) processes through a Shared Services model built on a common instance of S/4HANA. 

Solution

SolomonEdwards stood up a 12-month Program Management Office (PMO) to drive consistency across global OTC processes and identify the root causes behind persistent, extreme past-due AR. PMO command was based at the client’s U.S. headquarters, with SolomonEdwards resources also embedded onsite at the Shared Services Center in Hungary. 

We began with a comprehensive assessment of the center’s AR function, followed by coordinated discovery sessions with key leaders from Treasury, the CFO, and global leaders across four operating divisions: aftermarket parts, commercial products, engineering solutions, and milestone industrial projects. The PMO focused on six core program towers—Quotes, Unbilled Orders, Billing, Collections, Dispute Management and Cash Application—each structured to balance global efficiency with regional regulatory requirements around customer data and AR recovery communications. 

Our efforts helped the client design a unified and efficient collections strategy, accelerate recovery of previously reserved AR, and standardize finance processes globally across diverse data systems.   

Outcome

Our process improvements resulted in $80 million of AR collected over a 120-day period—including the recovery of $19 million in receivables previously reserved as bad debt. Streamlined workflows were implemented across all six program towers, enabling a 30-day reduction in DSO. These improvements delivered a 700% return on consulting investment and established a sustainable model for OTC transformation worldwide.

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