Acquiring a large organic food and beverage business helped a global CPG company expand its operations and nearly double its revenue in the U.S. However, as with most mergers, the integration posed some challenges.
Two disparate IT environments with different accounting and reporting models, separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and multiple business intelligence (BI) tools required extensive manual intervention and offline data manipulation, preventing uniform reporting and analysis.
Data was trapped in silos. Visibility was insufficient. A new CFO and the finance and accounting teams lacked the insight to support effective forecasting and both strategic and tactical decision-making.
In a sector as competitive and fast-changing as food products, this company needed to increase visibility quickly.
Poor visibility threatened business objectives.
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Future
Replace aging applications that differed across divisions and subsidiaries
Reduce manual, disparate processes freeing up more resources for advanced analytics
Enable enhanced reporting and make it more widely available across the enterprise
Act with greater speed and agility to capture value in acquisitions
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Company-wide
opportunities
Process hundreds of thousands of transactions per month with greater efficiency
Reduce 10,000+ manual journal entries per period
Decrease >3-week close
Shorten the >3-month annual budgeting cycle
Provide better support for a growing e-commerce business
Control rising finance function costs and derive greater value
Finance
opportunities
Reduce 10,000+ manual journal entries per period
Decrease >3-week close
Shorten the >3-month annual budgeting cycle
Provide better support for a growing e-commerce busines
Control rising finance function costs and derive greater value
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Improve technical capabilities to keep pace with increased hiring needs
Reduce dependence on IT and tech resources for supporting and enabling continuous compliance with more than 800 collective bargaining agreements
Unify and automate workforce administration processes across the enterprise
Eliminate the need for employees to learn new systems and interfaces as they move from recruitment to training to managing benefit
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HR
opportunities
Before
Future
After
While this CPG company’s business is spread across two continents (and originates from a number of acquired companies), its financial operations are now centralized and unified.
A cloud-based platform extracts and loads data from numerous global sources, then configures and stores it in a central location.
Accounting staff across multiple back offices work within a single governance structure and with a single set of streamlined processes, enabling effective reporting and supporting a swift, accurate close.
Across the enterprise, visibility is excellent, and insights are at the ready, because analysts can perform real-time calculations and drill down swiftly to the meaning behind the numbers.
Unified financial operations helps this $48 billion player predict accurately, plan effectively, and act swiftly—all crucial in a sector where windows of opportunity close as suddenly as they open.
Unified financial operations support global success.
Developed all the necessary processes to support a single, modernized digital platform serving the entire enterprise
Migrated 290,000 employees from legacy systems to Oracle Cloud
Increased insight-driven decision making across functions, driving performance and growth gains
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Company-wide
success
Decreased balance sheet reconciliations
by 85%
Achieved a consolidated retail and
corporate close within a shortened period
Reduced the types of P&L statements from 100+ to 4
Reduced operations costs across the board
Enhanced availability of data-driven insights that help to capture maximum value during acquisitions
Achieved a consolidated retail and corporate close within a shortened period
Reduced the types of P&L statements from 100+ to 4
Reduced operations costs
across the board
Enhanced availability of data-driven insights that help to capture maximum value during acquisitions
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Finance
successes
HR
successes
Deployed a custom application for union-rule processing enabling a single HCM platform to administer benefits to all employee populations under 800+ complex union agreements
Created a digital-first, digital anywhere experience resulting in higher employee engagement
Reduced new-hire onboarding time
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Reduced new hire onboarding time
Streamlined and improved the process integration of new employees post-acquisition
Integrate processes and technology across the employee lifecycle from recruiting through compensation and performance
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There will be more acquisition targets in the company’s future. And with a cloud-based platform, governance framework, and standardized processes in place, integrating financial operations will be a swift, sure process.
A successful integration inspired the CFO and global finance team to consider other areas for transformation. From evolving multiple layers of the target operating model within Finance, to jump-starting transformation across other functional areas, a powerful ripple effect began and continues across the enterprise. Having the right tools and processes to support a grander vision driven by meaningful insights will continue to empower positive change.
Continue to enhance analytics-driven planning and forecasting
Optimize the supply chain
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Company-wide
vision
Achieve a continuous, virtual accounting close
Achieved a consolidated retail and corporate close within a shortened period
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Finance
vision
HR
vision
Establish a continual feedback-and-improvement loop based on quarterly HR reports from the field and deployment of new capabilities
Migrate payroll, benefits, and absence management to Oracle cloud for 2023
Insource benefits administration
A strong foundation that can keep pace with continued growth.
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After
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Future
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