Today's markets are growing globally and moving faster. Supply chains are leaner. Quality interruptions have dramatic financial and brand loyalty impact. To be effective, quality management systems (QMS) must keep pace, but unfortunately, everything is relative.

Figure 1 compares the average days to close for financial systems vs. quality systems. In the Hackett Group presentation, "Journey to World Class" dated September 2010, best-in-class, quarter-end close times ranged between 4–6 days, as shown in figure 1. The QMS benchmarks resulted from a Sparta Systems anonymous customer survey about quality systems data reconciliation. The general ability to close financial systems using global ERP systems illustrates the speed and clarity around financial data and company performance.

Figure 1: Quarter end closing process

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