Account Structure Redesign
Redesigned the account structure and updated affected planning processes, reports and mappings.
Stabilising and Optimising Financial Planning in SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) for a Global Media & Advertising Organisation
Enhanced SAP Analytics Cloud planning for the US business, connecting Revenue, OPEX and Financial Statements into a more integrated forecasting process.
- SAP Analytics Cloud
- FP&A
- Budgeting
- Forecasting
- Financial Reporting
- EPM
- Chart of Accounts
- Planning Transformation
Client Overview
The client is a London-based global media and advertising company with over 50,000 employees and annual revenue in excess of $7B.
This leading global organisation operates across multiple markets, with finance teams responsible for budgeting, forecasting, revenue planning and financial reporting across a complex business structure.
CloudScouts has supported the organisation across multiple stages of its SAP Analytics Cloud journey, from transforming manual forecasting processes into a centralised and integrated planning solution, to restructuring financial reporting and strengthening planning processes for one of its largest markets.
The engagement has focused not only on implementing technology, but on making financial planning simpler for users, more reliable, agile and insightful for Finance and more easily adaptable as business requirements change.
Customer
Leading Global Media & Advertising Organisation
Industry
Media & Advertising
Location
United Kingdom
Organization Size
50,000+ Employees
The Challenge
The organisation’s finance teams were dealing with a number of challenges across different markets and different stages of the planning process:
- Planning and forecasting relied heavily on spreadsheets and multiple disconnected systems, making the process manually intensive, time-consuming and difficult to manage consistently.
- Different versions of files and information were being used by different teams, creating confusion and making collaboration, transparency and visibility for finance more difficult.
- Forecast data had to be manually transferred between teams and their planning templates, significantly increasing the risk of errors and making it harder to maintain a clear and transparent end-to-end process.
- To add to these challenges and due to the increasingly competitive environment, the organisation needed greater visibility and more detail to better manage and plan the business and therefore introduced a more detailed financial account structure. They needed to do this without disrupting existing reports, historical data or ongoing planning and forecasting activities.
- Finally, the planning solution needed to continue evolving while the business was actively running Budget, Reforecast and Monthly Forecast cycles, so improvements had to be delivered without disrupting ongoing finance operations.
What CloudScouts Delivered working in Partnership with the Organisation
CloudScouts partnered with the organisations finance and IT teams to design and implement a centralised and standardized SAP Analytics Cloud planning platform focused on improving forecasting accuracy, visibility, process efficiency, and driving full and enthusiastic end-user adoption. The engagement started in January 2023, and we have continued to work with the Finance and Sales teams to incorporate each of the planning and forecasting cycles into the SAP Analytics Cloud Solution since then.
The solution that this successful partnership has delivered so far includes:
“This was a complex and critical financial transformation, successfully delivered through strong SAP Analytics Cloud expertise, planning process understanding and detailed data reconciliation. The team’s attention to detail and commitment were key to ensuring a smooth and successful transition.”
Modernising the Financial Accounts Structure
CloudScouts supported the organisations transition from a simplified Chart of Accounts to the more granular and detailed financial accounts structure while protecting existing planning and reporting processes.
This element of our engagement included:
Historic Data Migration
Migrated and validated historic financial information into the new account structure to maintain consistency.
Testing & Validation
Validated existing reports and supported business testing and understanding of the more detailed chart of accounts before transition.
This enabled the organisation to adopt its new financial structure without rebuilding the planning environment or losing continuity with historic reporting while enhancing visibility of detailed cost and revenue data and their planning drivers across the whole planning and forecasting process.
Use of Advanced SAP Analytics Cloud Planning Capabilities
To support the organisations complex business planning requirements, the solution incorporated several advanced SAP Analytics Cloud planning features, including:
User Enablement
Alongside the technical implementation, CloudScouts supported successful business adoption through:
Interactive Training
Interactive end-user training sessions
Learning Resources
Training videos and user documentation
Go-Live Support
On-site support during UAT and Go-Live
EPM Universe Access
Access to the interactive SAP Analytics Cloud Training environment
This created users who fully understood the new planning processes and how to operate successfully with the new SAP Analytics planning tool.
Dashboards & Planning Solutions Delivered
The project introduced a centralised planning environment supporting multiple finance functions and business users.
Key Solutions included:
The implementation standardised planning processes while providing users with a consistent experience for budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis in a modern and intutitve technical environment.
The Business Outcome
A re-engineered and modern cloud planning platform using SAP Analytics Cloud which replaced fragmented manual processes and systems with a more structured, consistent, flexible and integrated planning and forecasting environment.
This delivered accelerated planning and forecasting processes, greater forecast accuracy in quicker timescales and gave users room for far greater analysis and business partnering:
The engagement also strengthened reporting and analytical capabilities by providing finance teams with interactive planning tools and dashboards that support faster planning and forecasting and more informed business decisions.
CloudScouts continues to provide application management support to the organization following its successful Go-Live in January 2023.