A US-based global media and publishing company, operating in 11 markets, wanted to unify its global reporting and planning systems.
The company’s heterogeneous IT landscape lacked a single version of the truth, which hampered decision making for 400 business users. Infosys designed and implemented a global planning and reporting platform, powered by Oracle EPM Cloud.
Key Challenges
- Diverse systems resulted in divergent processes and reporting formats
- Legacy manual processes were effort-intensive
- Significant time spent on data collection and reconciliation, rather than analysis
- Lack of data traceability and audit capability
- Multiple systems delayed submissions for finalizing global reporting
The existing planning and reporting systems created business and operational issues:
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The Solution
Process harmonization offers better visibility for planning, forecasting and financial reporting across markets
The global media and publishing company sought a common process across markets for consistency in financial planning and reporting. Multiple core finance systems, chart of accounts (COA), and analysis dimensions across 11 markets produced between 300 and 2,500 Microsoft Excel-based reports, with varying levels of input data for planning.
Moreover, the ecosystem lacked a single version of the truth with diverse manual reporting processes causing delays in finalizing the chart of accounts and global reporting.
Infosys undertook process harmonization across 11 markets, and implemented Oracle EPM Cloud in a phased manner.
In the first phase, our team implemented a summary profit and loss reporting solution based on Microsoft Excel for agile, scalable, and flexible reporting.
We enhanced the enterprise planning solution with interactive dashboards, enabling decision makers to spend more time on financial planning and analysis tasks rather than data collection. The solution connected the reporting process with data from the company's source finance systems – Workday in the US, and other systems across 11 markets – mapped with a global planning chart of accounts.
In the second phase, we migrated the on-premise planning processes of the US headquarters to the cloud.
In the third phase, we streamlined planning, annual budgeting and quarterly forecasts, driver-based planning, variance analysis, and budget allocation in profitability and cost management (PCM).
Our solution streamlined the planning and reporting process, enabling the company to plan annual budgets, create monthly forecasts, and generate consistent financial statements.
Integration of systems offers single version of the truth
- Harmonization of planning and reporting processes across 11 markets and the US headquarters
- Single planning, forecasting, and management reporting solution for better accuracy, speed, and agility
- Consistent close and reporting schedule across markets ensures standardized reporting
Benefits
Report standardization
Reduced the number of Microsoft Excel reports from 300 to standard 47 reports
Integration with source
Automated integration with 11 source systems, saving one day of effort per market per month, equivalent to 132 person days
Synchronous planning
Ensured connected planning and reporting across the enterprise
