Customer Use Case
Compensation planning, off spreadsheets and out of email.
Fiserv planned compensation in Excel and uploaded the result to SAP BPC, exchanging files with departments around the world. SAP EPM compensation planning replaced that with one place where global assumptions live.
- Industry
- Financial technology and payments
- Accounts on file
- 1.4 billion
- Digital banking users
- 100 million
- Merchant locations
- Nearly 6 million
- In market
- 35 + years
The problem
Every department with its own assumptions
The compensation plan lived in Excel, and finance uploaded the result into SAP BPC. Getting there meant exchanging files with departments across the world, and each one carried its own disconnected assumptions.
The repetitive work sat inside those files too. People recalculated taxes and benefits again and again, in parallel, with no way of knowing whether their version matched anyone else’s.
What finance wanted was narrower than a new tool. Standard global assumptions, fewer planning iterations, the ability to model a scenario, and reporting on headcount and compensation by job role, function, location and organization that everyone could trust.
What was built
SAP EPM compensation planning, with one set of assumptions
A proof of concept came first, which showed how one place could hold the assumptions rather than every file keeping its own. The build followed from there.
- CompensationWorkforce expense planning by job role, function, location and organization
- AssumptionsOne central set of taxes and benefits, applied to every headcount
- IntegrationWorkday feeds headcount and salary, and the plan pushes results back to SAP BPC
- GovernanceA systematic approval process for finance budget requests and changes
SAP BPC kept the financial planning processes that already worked there. The compensation plan feeds it automatically rather than replacing it, which is why this did not become a platform migration.
The hard part
It turned into a change management project
Consolidating the planning function across business units was the real difficulty. Everyone wants a hand in planning, and that is reasonable when the plan is how your part of the business gets funded.
As the planning effort shrank, the time freed up went into analysis and optimization instead. That meant redefining roles to match, and that turned out to be the larger share of the work.
The outcome
One version of plan and actual
HR expense planning now follows one standard, business assumptions and requests are visible, and fewer errors slip through unnoticed. Planning iterations came down.
The plan pulls in actuals and refreshes them monthly, so the business can plan by delta rather than rebuilding. HR assumptions sit with the plan, which makes modelling a scenario quick. Global reporting runs on one version of plan and actual across Fiserv, with automated report books.
See the other SAP EPM customers, or read more about HR planning and analytics.
Customer Testimonials
I am very pleased with how the project went overall … our first consolidation has gone very smoothly. SimpleFi's accounting background and expertise were the perfect fit to help us implement significant process improvements and we are already seeing benefits from the automation of intercompany elimination processes.
What stood out to us about SimpleFi was the continuity of the team. The people who learned our business and vision during the sales process were the same people we worked with through design, testing, and go-live.
Kathleen KingSVP Finance & CFO
Planning and coordination time down 25 to 35 percent, with production and financial planning in one repository.
Partnering with SimpleFi has been a success; thank you for making accounting magical again.
S&C can now meet all legal entity and business unit consolidation and planning requirements.
I am very pleased with the results of the SAP Analytics Cloud project. It's nice to be able to dynamically view real time key business transformation in an easy to read format. The consultants from SimpleFi did an outstanding job on this project. Thanks to all!
From Excel to SAP Analytics Cloud for monthly financial consolidations, reporting and data management.
[SimpleFi] delivered consolidations on time and under budget.
A solid understanding of our current state... Combined with an outstanding consulting firm [SimpleFi] was the secret to our success.
Our team could not be more satisfied with your service...we look forward to working your team to deliver our next phase of BPC Mgmt reporting and all future phases of BPC.
