In Finit’s latest Go-live announcement, our client went live with a solution that moved their Price, Volume, and Currency analysis from hundreds of linked and nested Excel files to Essbase.  With the new application, our client is able to analyze variances in these three categories between Actual and Forecasted results, as well as between different Forecast versions.

Company Profile

• Commercial Seed Producer
• Revenue: $7.3bn (estimated)

Project Highlights

Finit’s solution for the client includes the following features:

• The new application replaces a very complex, manual process.  Our client previously calculated their PVC analysis via hundreds of Excel files.  They would refresh hundreds of worksheets from their Essbase planning application, input some rates and assumptions, and then churn through calculations in one file, then the next, then a combination of those two files, etc.  This was a time consuming, labor intensive, and inconsistent approach.
• With the new solution, our client now pulls data directly into another Essbase application that, combined with the handful of inputs, calculates the PVC within minutes.  Rather than having to wait hours for manual refreshes when the underlying data changes, the whole process is automated and runs on a known schedule through different parts of the close and planning cycles.

Benefits

• The new PVC application helps to improve efficiency by reducing the amount of time spent on the previously labor intensive spreadsheet approach.
• A significant component of the project was identifying, understanding and standardizing slightly different calculation throughout the hundreds of files, and we were able to reduce the number of exceptions from hundreds to fewer than 10.

Finit’s dedication to providing our client an unmatched experience led to a great success for all involved.  For more information on Finit’s Essbase services, please contact us at insights@finit.com