Cushman & Wakefield hires Accenture for back office transformation

Real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield has launched a large scale back office transformation. The new operating model will be supported by Workday technology, with consultants from Accenture brought on board to run the implementation programme.

With over 43,000 employees in more than 60 countries, Cushman & Wakefield is one of the globe’s largest commercial real estate services firms. The company, founded in 1917 and headquartered in ‎Chicago, supports clients with property advisory, agency leasing, asset services, capital markets, facility services, global occupier services, investment & asset management, project & development services, tenant representation, and valuation.

In a bid to improve the performance of its back office, the property advisor has launched a major overhaul of its operating model for a range of processes, including HR, finance and accounting, enabled by digital, analytic, and cloud capabilities. “In today’s increasingly competitive business environment, companies must be efficient and agile. This program is about introducing world-class financial processes and controls through technology-based services, enabling us to innovate and make highly-informed business decisions on behalf of our clients around the globe”, explains Duncan Palmer, Cushman & Wakefield’s global Chief Financial Officer.

To support the redesign work, Cushman & Wakefield has hired Accenture to provide consulting services to help the company design and implement standardised HR and finance back-office processes. Design activity is already underway – adoption of the new delivery models is expected to kick off at the end of this year. Terry Moore, Senior Managing Director at Accenture, says the firm is pleased to support Cushman & Wakefield “in this important global transformation project”, adding “By embracing new delivery models and leading digital and analytic capabilities, Cushman & Wakefield can enhance its focus on superior client service and new solutions.”

The new delivery model will be supported by the deployment of two Workday solutions – Workday Financial Management (FM) and Workday Human Capital Management (HCM). “The unified Workday system provides access to finance and people data in one place and gives Cushman & Wakefield the many advantages of the most up to-date metrics on its global business”, states Palmer. 

After go-live, Cushman & Wakefield will outsource the in-scope back office processes to Accenture, a move, which, according to Palmer, will lower the operational costs and boost the overall service quality. Once the full transition is completed, the firm will be enabled to more effectively capture growth opportunities across its global footprint, as well as reap the benefits from a better-defined risk management strategy and a stronger control framework.