Each business unit operated under its own local Target Operating Model, with no shared process catalogue, common data definitions, or unified governance. This made it impossible to establish a consistent operating baseline or enforce organisation-wide standards.

Finance and procurement teams relied heavily on spreadsheets and offline tools for routine transactional activities including invoice processing, reconciliation, and month-end reporting. This created significant processing delays, increased error rates, and consumed high volumes of staff time on low-value work.

There was no common data model across the organisation. Vendor master records, cost centre structures, and chart of accounts definitions varied by entity, resulting in duplicate records, poor data quality, and an inability to produce reliable consolidated reporting.

Legacy ERP platforms operated in isolation with minimal interoperability. Finance and procurement functions were disconnected, preventing end-to-end process visibility and making it difficult to track spend, commitments, or supplier performance across the organisation.

The existing systems and operating structures were not designed to support centralised service delivery. Transactional processes were duplicated across entities, creating unnecessary cost and preventing the organisation from realising the efficiency benefits of a consolidated model.

With multiple stakeholder groups, varying levels of readiness, and no central design authority, the risk of fragmentation during transformation was significant. Ensuring consistent adoption of a standardised model while accommodating legitimate local requirements required a structured and evidence-based governance approach.