By John O'Rourke March 28, 2018
Many organizations utilize Excel spreadsheets, email and their GL/ERP system to manage critical financial processes such as financial reporting and planning. This approach can work up to a certain point. But as organizations grow in size and complexity, this approach often becomes cumbersome and triggers the need for packaged corporate performance management (CPM) software applications.
Such was the case at Lindsay Corporation, which replaced Excel spreadsheets and email with OneStream XF for financial consolidation, reporting, budgeting, and forecasting.
A Publicly-Held Company Based in the Heartland
Lindsay Corporation is a publicly-held company with headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. They manufacture and market irrigation equipment primarily used in agricultural markets which increase or stabilize crop production while conserving water, energy, and labor. The Company also manufactures and markets infrastructure and road safety products under the Lindsay Transportation Solutions trade name.
As a global company with multiple business units, reliance on Excel spreadsheets and their Microsoft Dynamics Navision general ledger (GL) for financial consolidation, reporting, budgeting, and forecasting was no longer sufficient. These critical financial processes relied on manual efforts and took too long. Finance executives didn't have visibility into the right level of operational detail, or impacts of currency rates on their financial results.
Simplifying and Aligning Financial Processes in the Cloud
With a preference towards cloud applications, the company evaluated Oracle's EPM Cloud applications along with OneStream XF's unified platform. "OneStream was a better choice for us," said Brian Ketcham, VP and Chief Financial Officer at Lindsay. "OneStream's unified approach would be easier to maintain, easier to upgrade, and provide a lower TCO vs. Oracle. Plus, the OneStream team did a great job demonstrating the solution, and ensuring the Lindsay team they could capture our financial results at the right level of detail."
Lindsay implemented OneStream XF Cloud for financial consolidation and reporting
of actual financial results. They also use the platform for budgeting and monthly forecasting. OneStream's unified SmartCPM™ platform is used to collect and consolidate data from 20 different GLs, with eight currencies, and different charts of accounts being mapped to OneStream.
The initial implementation was completed in six months, with three months of additional parallel testing before going live in September of 2017. Deploying via the OneStream XF Cloud eliminated the need for internal infrastructure, and minimized the amount of IT time required to set-up and support the system. Finance is now more autonomous, since maintenance and upgrades are easy.
Accelerating Reporting, Shifting More Time to Analysis and Forecasting
"The OneStream solution has given us the capability to wrap up the monthly close process by day five, which is at least a 25% improvement," said Brian Ketcham, VP and CFO at Lindsay. "This has enabled faster management reporting, and more agile decision-making. We were spending too much time reconciling data. We now have time for value-add analysis versus spending time updating spreadsheets. Additionally, Business Units now get their data right away and don't have to wait until the corporate results are finalized."
Lindsay also uses OneStream's unified platform, and the same application as actuals, to support annual budgeting and monthly forecasting. Actuals live together with Budget and Forecast scenarios for instant variance analysis and a cleaner process. "Thanks to the unified approach, we are also saving at least two days per month on forecasting" says Ketcham. "That's just another way we are extending the value of our OneStream investment."
To learn more about Lindsay Corporation's success with OneStream XF Cloud, read the full case study on our web site.
John O'Rourke is Vice President of Product Marketing at OneStream Software. With a background in accounting and finance, John has over 30 years of experience in the software industry, including 20 years of experience in product marketing at Hyperion Solutions, Oracle and Host Analytics. He has worked with many customers and partners on financial reporting and planning initiatives and has spoken and written on many topics in corporate performance management. John has also held positions in strategic marketing and product marketing at Dun & Bradstreet Software, Kenan Systems and Decisyon. Find me on:
