Subject: re : mg integration : resource requirements
dear mike ,
a lot of the needs listed in tim ' s memo will also be needed in ny , but on a
smaller scale . i ' ll put a resource requirement memo together by the end of
the week and then we can determine who would fit these requirements and where
these people should come from ( london / houston ) .
i think this project would be a great opportunity for some
analysts / associates ( of course working under experienced personnel ) .
regards
shona
mike jordan @ ect
08 / 14 / 2000 02 : 56 am
to : tim poullain - patterson / lon / ect @ ect
cc : richard sage / lon / ect @ ect , fernley dyson / lon / ect @ ect , andrew
cornfield / lon / ect @ ect , shona wilson / na / enron @ enron
subject : re : mg integration : resource requirements
a good tee up - and one we should regularly reassess - here goes some initial
feedback which you should push back on : -
valuation review - resource requirement to be defined in detail by andy in
his new role - i think the offer from eric of finding some analysts and
associates for the short term assessment may be the immediate answer .
balance sheet substantiation - at present i assess the power and gas
substantiation process as priority - although we should review the resources
coming free from global ( chris and rashpal ) as they may not be easily
useable by raewyn - chris is free at present and rashpal promised for
thunderball . whilst i am as concerned as you are we should reassess level of
risk because
aa would have done ( could do more ? ) some substantive / due diligence on
balance sheet
the trade accountants at mg had a simplistic entity structure based around an
infrastructure where the as 400 did both the dpr and account posting - unlike
our own systems - so inherent risk is lower ( excluding inventory )
we must make certain our efforts are aligned to fin ops !
inventory - interesting one this - it should be very accurately controlled
already ( it is the business ? ? ? ) yet the problem is that it is not
transparent at the consolidation level . i would like you to get david tregar
to assess the level of risk with you ( and discuss with me and philip lord
the current securitisation of inventory ) before we put an action plan in
place for this balance sheet category
integration / controls - you should continue your efforts to bring the mg
priority to the functional stripe leaders ' agenda - after friday ' s meeting
they know the effort required are that recruitment is key
sap - we will look to michael heap on this ( but we did identify some key
business analysis work for kevin rhodes to be done asap - we should track
this )
remote offices - continues to be the dog that has not barked ( yet ) -
richard , you and i need to rethink where we are - particularly with south
america
overall - we both agree more resources are required but they have to be
scoped quite precisely !
thanks for the note
tim poullain - patterson
11 / 08 / 2000 18 : 59
to : mike jordan / lon / ect @ ect
cc :
subject : mg integration : resource requirements
mike ,
as you know we still have a very full issues list and we are spreading the
few resources we have on ground pretty thinly , leaving a residue of partially
completed tasks that will need to be revisited at some point . also , though we
are leveraging mg staff where we can , we have already made an assessment that
their support infrastructure is very lean - this is being stretched to
breaking point by the rw acquisition and various enron integration
initiatives , e . g . establishing functional teams .
at present we have the following resources on the ground :
we are continuing to identify issues that add to our assessment of
operational risk . if we are to reduce this risk to an acceptable level we
need to commit additional resources to the project .
i assess our current resource needs as follows :
valuation review : the valuation review that andy and i performed prior to
" effective control " date identified a number of complex valuation issues that
require further quantitative analysis . also , there is imbedded optionality in
a lot of the physical business transacted throughout mg which should be
modelled to determine the correct valuation and accounting treatment ( and if
there is any extra value to be extracted - eric gadd has recently prioritised
this ! ) . requirement - risk manager with developed quantitative / modelling
skills .
balance sheet substantiation : a comprehensive validation of balances
including a review of reconciliation ' s , evidence of account ownership
( detection of " 88888 " ' s accounts etc . . . ) is overdue . requirement - lead
accountant plus two juniors .
inventory : a lot more analysis is required of the global inventory balances
- see earlier note to eric gadd . requirement - one / two risk manager ( s ) .
general integration : having now identified the functional leads for mg in
london , we are now due to involve the " stripe leaders " in the process of
creating the functional groups , including identifying gaps in resourcing . i
will not prejudge the outcome beyond saying that each functional group will
need extra staff that i am expecting the " stripe leaders " to provide .
requirement - to be determined by " stripe leaders " .
sap : ? ? ? requirement - to be determined by sap project team .
remote offices : the above requests relate to the london office only . having
identified enron controllers for the offices in the far east i do not
envisage significant issues integrating those offices . however , i have
minimal understanding of what our requirements in the us and south america
are , and propose deferring that discussion to another time . . .
regards ,
tim