In early 2022, an internal whistleblower alleged that sales representatives and other employees in the Russian office of a global pharmaceutical company had bribed doctors and healthcare providers. The allegations specified that payments had been made through third-party healthcare event organizations. The report was considered high priority by the client’s senior management and general counsel.
To protect the company against possible legal action and penalties, the client understood the immediate need for a thorough, unbiased investigation. Having provided forensic accounting services to the company during other investigations, KPMG was now asked to support the client’s outside counsel by gathering and analyzing local company data.
Executing this assignment would require an unusual combination of healthcare industry knowledge as well as risk, forensic accounting, and data analytics experience. And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 would only add to the challenge.
An internal report poses serious consequences
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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
Next
After
At the direction of outside counsel, our team addressed two major data-driven investigation needs. First, we analyzed records to identify signs of red flags and improper practices within the event data between company employees, healthcare providers (HCPs) and healthcare organizations (HCOs). Our analysis of the data and red flags was informed by the team’s forensic risk capabilities, healthcare industry experience, and data analytics skills.
Our testing and analysis identified more high-risk events than those originally flagged by outside counsel based on reporter allegations. These were uncovered by new red flag data points developed via data analytics.
We followed up this analysis by targeting new areas for investigation, assessing the effectiveness of existing controls and recommending additional applications or approaches to improve them.
As the case continued, the client’s outside counsel was better equipped to conduct further interviews and research. And the client was better positioned against possible penalties after an exhaustive investigation.
A data-driven analysis delivers
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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Looking ahead, our client now stands better prepared to detect and deter future illegal and improper activity.
KPMG has helped the client improve existing compliance monitoring. And our work has also defined new procedures and techniques for applying data analytics to future allegations.
Targeting new anomalies and risk events in company data has also been used in related antibribery investigations in other countries.
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
Better protected, better prepared
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After
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Future
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