By Lauren Ford January 14, 2021
Executing and managing an IPO is a complex task for any organization. And to achieve a successful IPO requires careful planning. A company must prepare its management team and business units to begin acting and functioning as a public company, both internally and externally. Specifically, it is critical to focus on modernizing accounting and financial processes to prepare the organization to operate in the public spotlight. The better prepared a company is, the more efficient and less costly the process can be. That's why worldwide power technology company Ampleon upgraded to an intelligent finance platform with OneStream Software. Read on to hear their story.
A Leader in Radio Frequency Technology
A worldwide leader in innovative, high-quality RF (radio frequency) Power technology, Ampleon is focused on exploiting the full potential of data and energy transfer in radio frequency. This technology is used for wireless infrastructure for mobile broadband, television, radio, industrial, scientific and medical applications, aviation and defense, as well as for heating/defrosting and plasma lighting applications. The company has 16 locations, including its headquarters in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and employs approximately 1,650 people worldwide.
Preparing for IPO
A former business unit of NXP, Ampleon was faced with the possibility of an upcoming initial public offering (IPO). Once listed, the company anticipates tighter reporting deadlines and external information requirements. With this in mind, it quickly became critical for Ampleon to establish a modern and robust financial process. The IPO was a driving motivator to look for a corporate performance management (CPM) solution, specifically an intelligent finance platform offering fast and reliable information delivery to stakeholders both internal and external.
The goal was to find a solution that would allow Ampleon to consolidate more efficiently and reliably to support investor relations with more accurate and timely reporting. Not only were they looking to produce ad hoc analysis faster, but also increase professionalism by enabling local users to do their own analysis.
Focused on Financial Consolidation
Ampleon previously used Excel for financial consolidation and reporting, which was a very time-consuming, manual driven process. There were often errors in the data, which would take even more time to correct. With a potential IPO on the horizon, Ampleon wanted to be prepared with more professional processes in place. The company wanted a scalable, automated system that would streamline the entire financial close, consolidation and reporting process from validation to analysis.
After an unsuccessful earlier implementation of another consolidation system, Ampleon turned to Finext, the largest independent performance management specialist in the Netherlands. Finext introduced Ampleon to the OneStream Intelligent Finance Platform. Ampleon learned that the implementation of OneStream would optimize financial processes that supports Ampleon's IPO preparation strategy in a structured manner. Ultimately, Ampleon chose to move forward with the OneStream platform.
A Phased Implementation
Working with Finext, Ampleon approached the OneStream deployment project in three phases, starting with optimizing the financial close, consolidation and reporting processes to increase the reliability of data. OneStream was implemented to improving the professionalism of reports and deliverability. This includes bank reports, reports to shareholders, and internally to management. Reporting was the main focus for Phase 1 because of its critical importance with the possible IPO listing.
The second implementation phase is focused on management information and creating a process that allows Ampleon to spend less time on reporting and more on analysis. Finally, the third phase is for developing driver-based forecasting.
Innovation for Ampleon
Before OneStream, all group functions at Ampleon were fragmented and disconnected, and relying on Corporate to strategically process the financial figures. Implementing OneStream has made this process much more efficient. Each group can work independently on reporting with a new innovative consolidation process.
The local managers are now responsible for uploading the figures into OneStream which has taken a huge burden off Ampleon's Corporate office. And feedback from the users has been very positive. Team members are happy with the results, as they see a lot of added value from OneStream. Not only are the figures much easier to retrieve, but the speed of reporting has increased, which leaves more time for analysis.
Learn More
If you would like to learn more about the success of OneStream at Ampleon, we invite you to read the interactive case study article. And contact OneStream today if you are ready to upgrade your financial processes with an intelligent CPM platform.
