In particular, Transaction Processing and Reporting will have to be largely consolidated into one place. If the operator is only working on country, this should be done by consolidating all the regional activities into one central location. If the operator is working cross-borders, it is advisable to first of all consolidate the in-country activities and then all countries into one single location.  

In respect of the Decision Support activities these will have to be decentralized into cross-functionally aligned business units. Each of these units will have to be attached to a major business department with the task of bringing more financial knowledge to the decision-making. Furthermore, the decentralized financial units will carry back vital business knowledge into the remaining parts of the Finance department increasing their awareness of the internal performance situation and day-to-day challenges of the business. It is recommended to implement a low administrative methodology to regularly report on Key Performance Indicators (KPI), cost drivers, human resource and financial outlooks at a departmental level. These can then be consolidated on a group level to ensure greater transparency on the performance of the business and its main drivers. 

In relation to Special Services teams, such as M&A, Audit and SOX, it is advisable to keep them centralized at a ­headquarter level as a key support team for strategic decision-making by the Chief Finance Officer. It is vital, that the Special Services teams have a close interaction with the decentralized Decision Support teams. This will ensure a regular flow of information and base-lining strategic decision-making on facts rather than % of revenue assumptions, as it is frequently done today. 

Last but not least, Chief Finance Officers need to consider streamlining their management department by merging similar functions, for example Cash Management and Financing, and ensure that non-core Finance activities are aligned to the Chief Finance Officer to allow for a better control on costs (e.g. Tax and Procurement). 

Focus on risk management: Luckily, Chief Finance Officers in the telecommunications industry do not have to be too fearful of decreasing demand. Instead, they need to fear that the cash which is needed to continuously grow the business has become scarcer and more expensive due to the financial crisis. For some countries, such as Poland (-16.5%), Russia (-16%) or Romania (-13.5%), the drastic devaluation of national currencies to the US Dollar in Q1 2009⁵ has become a serious challenge to refinancing rounds with lenders. Those companies that have not planned for the worst and taken precautionary measures (e.g. currency hedging) well in advance are in a dire situation now. The learning experience from that is that Chief Finance Officers should establish a risk management function that looks into potential cash related future risks, quantifies them and seeks to build up mitigation measures early on.