APC 2013 Annual Report Download - page 38

1OVERVIEW OF THE GROUP'S STRATEGY, MARKETS AND BUSINESSES
ORGANIZATIONAL SIMPLICITY AND EFFICIENCY
Mutualization: The business is organized around Operational
lserves as the mutualization driving force and Schneider
Regions: Global Operations, North America and China. These Electric’s main representative in the country, most notably in
Regions are split into 17zones with empowered Zone dealings with employees and local officials.
Presidents and Country Presidents, which are appointed in Globalization: Major support functions that are not specific to
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each country to oversee all delegated businesses (and a given country or business are gradually globalized to
associated income statements), monitor the full transversal increase experience and leverage a significant scale effect
P&L of the country, deploy Schneider Electric’s strategy in the around cost and service. Manufacturing and supply chain
country (including all local cross-functional topics such as operations, areas of shared services or expertise (such as
increasing cross-selling among businesses) and pooling of finance or human resources), information systems, Strategy
local back-office resources. These resources are gradually and marketing functions are now included within the Group’s
brought together in each country or region under the Country Global Functions. Global Supply Chain is continuing to focus
President’s supervision and can include multiple local support on the areas of Global Productivity, Customer Differentiation
functions ranging from administration to project execution, and Customer Satisfaction.
depending on the situation. In addition, the Country President
Geographic dimension and legal structure
The Group’s goal is to establish, where ever possible, a single legal structure in each country.
Schneider Electric’s simplified legal organization chart is as follows:
Schneider Electric
Industries SAS Boissière Finance
Operational
companies
Schneider
Electric SA
The list of consolidated companies is provided in note32 to the Finance is the Group’s centralized cash-management structure;
consolidated financial statements (see page 241). Boissière it also centralizes hedging operations for all subsidiaries.
A more modular approach to information systems 6.2
Schneider Electric is in the middle of a 3-year strategic IT plan in make diversity efficient: ERP federation with coordinated data
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line with the company strategy and Connect company program. achieved by minimizing the number of ERP migrations by
The IT Strategy for Schneider Electric is comprised of four replacing only when necessary, ultimately aiming for a
strategic directions: consistent ERP landscape per country;
working smarter: Leverage a global IT platform to provide an
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standardize where it creates value: six IT domains as
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interface accessible anywhere and anytime by end users;
modular as possible and which can be easily integrated for
run IT as a business: Clear governance rules to run IT with
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agility and focused differentiation;
efficiency, speed and security.
36 2013 REGISTRATION DOCUMENT SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC