Natalia Merkulova
Finance Director at AllPoints Fibre Networks
Natalia Merkulova has brought a fresh perspective to cross-functional collaboration since joining AllPoints Fibre (APFN) as Finance Director in early 2024.
Over the past 12 months, she has been able to draw on her extensive background in finance and commercial to forge stronger collaboration with the procurement team.
Alongside Stuart Farrell, the company’s Chief Procurement Officer, Natalia has championed a closer working relationship between the two departments, recognising their interconnected challenges and shared objectives.
A natural evolution
Having spent 20 years in finance, which has included roles in auditing, investment banking, finance and commercial teams, Natalia brings valuable insights to the partnership.
“Achieving value for money in any commercial deal is multidimensional and the success would be measured differently depending on the circumstances,” she says. “Sometimes we need the flexibility of a break clause or certainty of fixed price as we progress on our transformation journey, which come at a premium but could be valuable for the business.
“Further, although the deal is important, what I find is even more critical is getting the execution right, including in live contract management, having efficient operations underpinning supplier invoice and payment processing, regular reviews of actual outcomes vs planned, to name a few. It is important that finance and procurement are aligned across every aspect of the journey and we’re fortunate we have managed to build a strong partnership between the two functions in AllPoints Fibre”.
Building on success
With the partnership having already yielded positive results, Natalia admits it has changed her perspective on procurement.
"My previous experience of procurement was simply understanding baseline costs to calculate savings, but there's so much more to it and we've demonstrated that over the last few months," she notes. “When we reflect, what we've done is unique.”
Natalia also sees significant opportunities ahead, with the wider team now focused on several key areas.
She adds: "There's a lot more work to be done relating to enhancing automation around supplier payments, optimising working capital and, importantly, continuing to forge our partnership with procurement to achieve the right outcomes for the business.”
To read the full article in the magazine, click HERE.
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