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Speech by ISCA CEO Mr Lee Fook Chiew at the Launch of the Third SAP-ISCA Productivity Scorecard and Benchmarking Findings on 29 May 2015 Grand Hyatt Hotel Singapore

Mr Colin Sampson, Senior Vice President & Ambassador, SAP Asia Pacific and Japan Region,

Distinguished Guests

Good morning.

The accountancy sector is one of the National Productivity Council’s priority sectors of interest. As the national accountancy body, ISCA has been playing a key role in spearheading productivity efforts in the accountancy sector.

The SAP-ISCA Productivity Scorecard and Benchmarking Survey is one of ISCA’s initiatives to drive productivity in the sector. Today, we are pleased to present, for the third consecutive year, the results of the SAP-ISCA Productivity Scorecard and Benchmarking survey. The survey, conducted in collaboration with SAP, aims to provide the accountancy sector a base of comparison between themselves and their industry peers, both locally and globally.

The findings will allow those in public accounting firms, or the accounting and finance functions in companies, to better measure your performance in terms of productivity. For those who have participated in the survey, you will receive your organisation’s individual reports, so you can identify your strengths and weaknesses and how you have performed over time. With the detailed industry benchmarks, you can also compare your performance against your local and global peers. 

 Adding more value to this year’s survey, we have broadened the scope and fine-tuned the questions.  To make the comparison more meaningful for companies from various industries and sizes, we have also incorporated productivity indicators adapted from SPRING Singapore’s IMPACT Assessment Tool Framework, and further categorised the public accounting firms by revenue bands and the companies by industry clusters.  

The survey found that companies whose finance arms are adopting the best practices in technology clearly reap productivity gain. We encourage more companies to utilise technology to gain efficiencies and innovate their processes amidst the fast paced economic environment.

We are heartened that close to 250 respondents participated in this third productivity scorecard and benchmarking survey. About 91% of the Professional Accountants in Business respondents in the survey were chief financial officers, finance directors or financial controllers.  Among public accounting firms, about 88% of respondents in this survey were managing partners, partners or owners.   

We thank SAP for working with us on this benchmarking project and the participants who took time to fill up the survey.

Finally, we would like to thank you for your presence today, and we look forward to your participation in the next survey.

 Have a fruitful session ahead