Regular readers of Accountancy Age interviews will know that many FDs are proud of upgrading and installing new accounting technology into their business, cutting costs and producing better quality data. It clearly ticks a box on their CV that they can get a financial IT system rolled out and up-and-running.

Oliver Gritz, global CFO of the €14bn (£11.2bn) business DHL Express, openly admits that the company was not able to fully achieve this particular aim.

But for a business that runs across 220 countries, employs several thousand accounting staff and only came into existence in its current form in 2006, Gritz is actually delighted with how close it came to the target.

'It's been a very challenging period and I want to pay tribute to finance, which went through a tremendous period over the past 16 months - coming from nothing to building up a robust and solid financial framework that had to be conceptually sound and business relevant.'

The reason for Gritz's pride is that the global transportation business is, as he describes it, a 'hotch-potch' of 40 acquisitions brought together by its owners Deutsche Post.

The group, which has long owned a share of DHL Express, took control of the business in 2002. In 2005, it brought on board US-based Airborne, and DHL Express - a major business - became a giant. The Deutsche Post group itself dwarfs even DHL Express, posting e63bn in revenues for the 2007 year-end.

Strangely, DHL Express was effectively run as two businesses: the rest of the world - of which Gritz was CFO - and EMEA.

With two boards following their own strategies, they struggled to gain efficiencies that would normally be expected from a global business, such as in centralising back-office functions.

'We basically lost many of the synergies that would usually occur in a global business - of which a combined financial system is one, but also in other areas. We used different production equipment in our hubs, different IT systems, different commercial processes… all synergies from a networked business managed as one - all that was lost.'

Two become one

Reality eventually bit hard, and management decided integration would add value. Gritz took on the global role and has spent 16 months trying to bring together its finances. Even though the task looming was great, bringing together the two businesses was 'lucky timing' for him as he had reached the limit of what he could achieve in the previous role.

'With two businesses with obvious conflicts, you can do only so much and you can waste a lot of time keeping both sets of stakeholders happy, but luckily it fell away and [my latest role] is a logical extension of the job I had before.'

Having admitted that some jurisdictions are still running on their own IT platforms, Gritz says that decision was a pragmatic one, but did not get in the way of the more important overall target of bringing them all onto a single 'framework'. It needed strong enough processes to capture all the differences that existed within the business, but flexible enough to allow each region to continue to operate independently.

'Everybody [ran different systems], which was overlaid by a massively complex system geared at bringing together a set of numbers for Deutsche Post. At the end of 2006, we found many companies providing a few numbers to the centre, but, other than that, the entire management information system catered to local business needs - they designed their own P&L and management reports, and everything looked different, focusing on different KPIs, different costing systems and so on.

'I think we were quite successful to build a framework that was very good and not a compromise - but a good path through this jungle of conflicting goals. We then had to go at virtually light speed. It was a new view of looking at the numbers from what they were used to so we had to standardise quickly.'

For Gritz the decision to resist not dragging every subsidiary and division onto the same platform is not about compromise, but about making sure they report into the centre in a consistent fashion.

'They are all very much on the same standard when we look at the numbers, whether it's in Chile, the Philippines, UK or Germany. It looks the same everywhere in terms of financial statements - the same high level KPIs - and they are all standardised. But as far as bringing everyone onto the same systems platform, then no.'

The integration work, while still not complete, puts DHL Express into a position to drive revenues and profits forward.

Gorilla tactics

For Gritz, the focus must be on improving the company's position in the US, where it battles against what he describes as the 'gorillas in the market', namely UPS and FedEx, which, between them, hold half the $4.6bn (£2.32bn) market, according to research.

However, his focus on that market is clear. 'It takes quite a bit of my time and, other than that, Deutsche Post has had a strategy shift at the end of 2005 where it said the time of big acquisitions is over, let's build a world-class company out of what we have.

'But for me it's the US really, how to improve our efficiency in our business.'

He cannot comment on the future of its US operation, where reports have suggested that it is looking to work closely with FedEx.

'All I can say it that there should be an announcement in May.'

Although revenues in emerging markets and Europe have been strong for DHL Express, gaining leeway in the US has proved tough, although the tightening of economic conditions might have affected competitors more than itself.

'We know FedEx and UPS have been suffering, but perhaps that's because of their US businesses - the European market in general is still okay - and we have had a tremendous management focus there on back-to-basics, with less focus on integrating things.'

Accounting issues, thankfully with Gritz's busy schedule, are of no great concern. Deutsche Post insisted on subsidiaries reporting in IFRS, of which he says his colleagues on corporate accounting 'did a terrific job in achieving', and, for local jurisdictions, if they have to report in local GAAP then 'it's their problem really'.

'IFRS for the group is not an issue, it's the primary and completely accepted numbers for every subsidiary. Lots of the companies in Deutsche Post were big international businesses and were already on IFRS, so to move onto a common accounting standard was the first focal point in bringing this group together.'

Even with the future of DHL Express in flux, Gritz is delighted with the position of the business. It is now truly a single organisation and one which he feels is in a position to deliver.

'We have to make a judgment call - is integration the biggest value adding component in a certain period of time?

'We went through that learning curve and the last five years in development of Deutsche Post has been a huge learning experience for many - not many experiments were left out. Everything we do now is more detailed, integrated.'

Green initiative

Deutsche Post, owners of DHL Express, has become the latest business to launch a major ‘green’ initiative. Entitled GoGreen, the business aims to reduce its carbon footprint for every letter mailed, every container shipped and every square metre of warehouse space by 30% by 2020.

It describes itself as the first major company in its industry to introduce such a plan. A big part of the project will be measuring progress in achieving its targets, and for this Deutsche Post will introduce a carbon-accounting system.

About 90% of the group’s air fleet will be replaced by modern, more fuel-effi cient aircraft. New warehouses and energy-efficient sorting centres will be built. New technological innovations around hybrid engines and route planning will also be implemented.

The group notes that two-thirds of its 100 biggest customers are already pursuing their own climate protection goals. It has begun a staff awareness programme for its 500,000 employees, which includes encouraging them to be more aware of their carbon footprint at both work and home, through re-training drivers and providing energy-saving classes.

‘Our organisational approach to GoGreen is very much a collective strategy with each individual playing a part. Of course, in my position as CFO of DHL Express, I am able to influence decision making on investments,' says Oliver Gritz.

‘DHL will also set up a comprehensive carbon-accounting system and the finance department will occasionally be involved in the data gathering process.’