Job Description
The Internal Controls Team in Global Business Support (GBS) is responsible for monitoring effective financial control design and operation across GBS, leading initiatives to improve performance, efficiency and effectiveness of the GBS control activities, investigating controls issues as they arise and ensuring that the GBS drives compliance through the Informa business.
The newly created role of Process Controls Manager (APAC) will be based in Hong Kong or Shanghai and reports to the GBS Head of Internal Control.
The Process Controls Manager (APAC) will be responsible for ensuring that the GBS Process Controls environment remains appropriate to Informa’s needs from both a regulatory and financial control perspective, whilst also ensuring that Business and GBS operations are able to function efficiently.
Global Processes which are within the scope of the Internal Control Team’s activities include Purchase to Pay, Order to Cash and Record to Report, Tax and Financial Accounting, HRSSO and Payroll.
The primary aim of the role is to develop and monitor the effectiveness of the internal control environment within the Global Business Services (GBS), and to lead building a fit for purpose financial and supporting IT control framework across the Informa APAC organisation and shared service centres.
A key requirement of the role is to maintain effective working relationships and communications with internal stakeholders inside and outside of GBS and Global Technology.
including the Global Process Owners, APAC Regional Delivery Lead and each APAC SSC leadership team, SAP and Oracle ERP Teams, Internal Control Administrators and Informa’s Internal Audit team and its External Auditor.
The Process Controls Manager will support the drive for constant control improvement in the APAC region (and globally) that does not encumber the efficiency of operational activity.
Outcomes will be maintenance and improvement of a GBS Control framework that safeguards Informa’s assets and adequate manages financial risk enabling the external auditor to move to a controls-based audit.
The role will also support the collation and reporting of fraud instances with the GBS organisation and tracking and reporting on status of open remediation items.
You must ensure that all company policies are adhered to. You must also ensure that duties are carried out within set time limits whilst providing an excellent level of service to all Informa customers and colleagues.
Informa takes the security and privacy of company, colleague and customer data seriously and you are responsible for working securely and supporting this.
Key responsibilities
The Process Controls Manager (APAC) is expected to assume the following key responsibilities plus any other reasonable duties as required :
Gain a detailed understanding the GBS Control environment and how that fits into the overall Informa Control environment
Assist the Global Process Owners and APAC Regional Delivery Lead in governing the Process Control environment
Support the activities of the Global Process Control Administrators and the activities of the SAP and Oracle GRC Managers for the in-scope Financial and IT Control environment
Track remediation of identified control issues and prepare summaries for the fortnightly GBS Remediation meetings (Chaired by Head of GBS) and the monthly Controls Radar Meeting (Chaired by the Group CFO)
Ensure the Internal Controls team contributes to the Global Communities of Practice help ensure that operational processes are aligned with the Risk and Control Matrices (RaCMs)
Monitor the ongoing effectiveness of the Internal Controls, including ensuring there continues to be a focus on Internal Control activities during periods of significant operational change and control alignment within the Divisions, GBS, Informa APAC Region and between SAP and Oracle ERPs
Liaise with Internal Audit during their review of Informa’s processes and financial controls in the APAC region
Lead ad-hoc control projects and investigations as required, including review of adequacy business process controls being transition into GBS (e.
g. due to an acquisition) and make improvement recommendations if gaps exist.
Able to travel internationally if required and be able to work outside normal time-zone working hours on request for short periods
People management responsibilities
General duty of care to colleagues
Work collaboratively across teams
Act as a role model to others
Provide help and a buddy system to other members of the team depending upon your level
Can supervise or on occasions directly manage Informa employees, who may not be direct reports to the Internal Control Team to ensure control activities remain on track or remediation issues are addressed timely
Skills & Abilities
Advanced skills in Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook are essential
Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to build good relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, internal departments and key contacts, including Internal Audit and External Audit
Fluent in English and Mandarin
Has a project management mindset, ensures deadlines are met and has excellent time management skills
Risk aware, knows how to manage identified risks and when to escalate identified risks to others in the Controls Team
Problem solves within tight deadlines
Able to supervise and manage others outside of the Control Team to get documentation and projects completed to sufficient quality so outputs can be shared with GBS senior leadership team, Internal and External Audit
Can work with limited supervision and able to apply judgement to keep control activities on track or implement actions to get control activities back on track if behind schedule
Is pro-active and take initiative and encourage others to do the same
Knowledge and ability to use relevant internal systems
Strong influencing skills and can act with integrity, tact and diplomacy
Ability to be flexible within role and willing to expand existing business process knowledge
Confident, highly motivated and organised, diligent with attention to detail and the ability to maintain these skills whilst working under pressure
Knowledge and qualifications
Demonstrable understanding of importance of process risk and controls, especially in a financial processing environment
Has knowledge of SAP and / or Oracle transaction processing and report generation
Minimum five years’ experience working within a multi-national organisation
Proven track record in project delivery, owning issues and managing through to resolution
Understands end to end transactional flows in global processes and the controls to support those processes
Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting required as a minimum