Ditching Tagetik to Modernize and Manage Acquisitions with Ease

Post Holdings, Inc. is a consumer packaged goods holding company operating in the center-of-the-store, refrigerated, foodservice, food ingredient and convenient nutrition food categories. Its businesses include Post Consumer Brands, Weetabix, Michael Foods, Bob Evans Farms and BellRing Brands.

"For data integration there's a lot of flexibility with load files. There's no forced order or format—it's up to your preferences. With reporting, you can select the best option for you—you can automate the reports to run every month. The sky is the limit with what you can do within OneStream."

— Kevin Wolf, Manager, Financial Systems, Post Holdings

1. Conquering Complex Acquisitions.

Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, Post Holdings employs over 10,000 people and generated $5.7 billion in net sales in FY20. Over time, Post Holdings' portfolio grew in size and diversity largely through complex acquisitions.

The Finance team was leveraging Tagetik and Excel to compile and aggregate financial and non-financial data across the portfolio. As Post was relying on Tagetik for most of the IT support, any delays, errors, and connection issues required a Tagetik IT intervention, which introduced additional time into the monthly closing process.

"We frequently had connection issues and errors during the close process that required us to involve Tagetik IT support services. We needed a system that performed well and was able to be managed within the Finance department, OneStream has fulfilled those requirements."

— Kevin Wolf, Manager, Financial Systems, Post Holdings

Post Holdings was in search of a corporate performance management (CPM) solution that could efficiently handle acquisitions, with flexibility for the Finance team to make changes to the system themselves. The challenges with its current system led Post Holdings to seek a new solution that could accommodate its needs and they ultimately landed on OneStream.

2. Bringing the Divisions Together in One Platform.

Post Holdings evaluated both Oracle Hyperion and OneStream as potential solutions. Ultimately, OneStream was selected for its unified platform, dedication to customer support, and flexibility to allow the Finance team to make changes within the system in-house. Through OneStream, Post Holdings was able to connect six divisions all with different ERPs and processes on one unified platform.

"OneStream's support has been the best I've ever worked with. I've worked with various systems throughout my career and OneStream by far provides the best support to its clients."

— Kevin Wolf, Manager, Financial Systems, Post Holdings

Post Holdings also looked to OneStream for its flexible reporting features including extensible hierarchies and ad hoc reporting, as well as the automation capabilities.

3. Looking forward with Finance Transformation.

Post Holdings started their finance transformation journey with a strategic roadmap to replace Tagetik and Excel with OneStream. The implementation began via the OneStream Cloud with a focus of deploying OneStream for financial consolidation, reporting and account reconciliations, going live in just seven months.

The Account Reconciliation solution from OneStream enabled Post Holdings to improve the integrity of financial results by aligning account reconciliations with financial reporting. Users can begin account reconciliations as soon as trial balances are submitted; no more waiting for the corporate close to complete.

One of Post Holdings' divisions was preparing to work with BlackLine for account reconciliations but switched to OneStream upon learning the division could be incorporated at no additional cost.

"OneStream is a great system to have because it is easy to learn. You can pick it up quickly and do it yourself. It's also very cost-effective."

— Kevin Wolf, Manager, Financial Systems, Post Holdings

During implementation, Post Holdings acquired Weetabix, the UK's number one selling cereal brand. OneStream was able to efficiently incorporate the acquisition without disrupting the implementation process.

4. A Flexible Platform Providing Benefits Across the Company.

With reduced monthly close times, Post Holdings can focus on more value-add activities such as analysis and planning, as well as improved communication during the close process. Post Holdings has streamlined its process for onboarding acquisitions and created an easier process to map various data sources.

Additionally, Post Holdings is able to easily map systems to OneStream's platform as the company continues to grow through acquisitions, simplifying account reconciliation with all information available on a single database. With over 160 users, OneStream's flexible platform provides the team with multiple reporting options to choose from based on the user's preference.

Post Holdings also benefits from OneStream's extensible hierarchies and ad hoc reporting as the organization continues to incorporate acquisitions.

"We usually do one major upgrade a year, and with OneStream we've had smooth upgrades. For data integration, there's a lot of flexibility with load files. There's no forced order or format—it's up to your preferences. With reporting, you can select the best option for you—you can automate the reports to run every month. The sky is the limit with what you can do within OneStream."

— Kevin Wolf, Manager, Financial Systems, Post Holdings

Following the completion of implementing account reconciliations across the six divisions, Post Holdings plans to implement Transaction Matching and Task Manager solutions from the OneStream MarketPlace.