Customer Use Case
A planning tool going out of support, and a lot of spreadsheets.
Wolverine World Wide moved from Hyperion to SAP EPM planning on SAP Analytics Cloud, and brought the offline spreadsheet processes online with it. Cycle time on some processes improved by more than half.
- Headquartered
- Rockford, MI
- Listed
- NYSE: WWW
- Industry
- Footwear and apparel
- Founded
- 1883
- Reach
- About 170 countries
- Replaced
- Legacy Hyperion
The problem
Hyperion to SAP EPM, and the spreadsheets around it
The legacy Hyperion planning and forecasting tool was going out of support. Around it had grown a layer of offline spreadsheet processes, and the whole thing leaned heavily on IT and a system administrator because of complexity that had accumulated over years.
Replacing the tool was the obvious half of the job. The harder half was the spreadsheets, because those processes were invisible to everyone except the person running them.
Corporate FP&A consolidated inventory levels and activity for warehouses and brands by hand every month. Files went out by email, came back, and were consolidated manually. That produced errors, absorbed a lot of effort, and hid opportunities nobody had time to look for.
What was built
End to end planning, with the offline work brought in
The Hyperion to SAP EPM move covered the end-to-end financial forecast and planning process, and then kept going into the work that had never been in a system at all.
- PlanningEnd-to-end financial forecasting and planning, replacing the legacy tool
- WorkforceSensitive employee data fed into workforce planning through a repeatable process with very few human touch points
- CapitalCapEx planning that accounts for open projects entering the cycle, closing a gap in projected capital spending
- InventorySupply chain enters directly, consolidated from purchase orders, shipments and receipts
The hard parts
Employee data, and a gap in capital spending
Two problems took real work. The first was employee data, which is tightly held for good reason. Finance needed it for workforce planning and HR could not simply hand it over, so both teams agreed a secure process that repeats every cycle without people passing files around.
The second was capital. Open projects heading into the planning cycle were not always fully accounted for, which is a quiet way to understate projected capital spending. The new process closes that gap rather than relying on someone remembering.
Change management mattered as much as either. Everyone involved had been forecasting in spreadsheets and sending them to a consolidating spreadsheet, so moving them onto a platform needed training rather than an announcement.
The outcome
Transparency where there had been email
Cycle time on some processes improved by more than 50 percent. Balance sheet and cash flow planning got more robust, and version control became transparent, so users can open a prior version and compare rather than hunting for the file that produced a number.
The wider win is that previously offline processes are now visible, and the platform gives end users a reason to bring more of them online. See the other SAP EPM customers, or read more about the PlaniFi applications.
Customer Testimonials
Over 60 distinct ERP systems brought into one consolidations and FP&A process after years of acquisitions.
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
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.
S&C can now meet all legal entity and business unit consolidation and planning requirements.
Planning and coordination time down 25 to 35 percent, with production and financial planning in one repository.
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!
[We are] way ahead of schedule on our budgeting process as compared to past years... the department is running smooth.
Partnering with SimpleFi has been a success; thank you for making accounting magical again.
From Excel to SAP Analytics Cloud for monthly financial consolidations, reporting and data management.
[SimpleFi] delivered consolidations on time and under budget.
