About the Client
The client is a [global leader in the packaging/manufacturing sector], operating with a highly complex financial and organizational footprint. To manage statutory reporting and consolidation across its various divisions, the enterprise relies on Oracle EPM Financial Consolidation and Close (FCC). While the platform is central to their financial operations, the client needed to improve its everyday usability and reliability without sacrificing the historical data, process knowledge, and baseline configurations already built into the system.
Business Challenges
The client’s FCC environment had grown overly complex, leading to configurations that no longer aligned with their fundamental consolidation requirements. Because reverting to manual processes was not a viable option, the business needed to address several critical hurdles within the live system:
- Configuration Misalignment: The existing system architecture was not optimized for core reporting, making the platform increasingly difficult to navigate, maintain, and adapt to changing business needs.
- Eroding User Confidence: Cumbersome usability and recurring data accuracy issues during the close cycle were undermining stakeholder trust in the final financial outputs.
- Risk to Live Operations: The organization needed a structured mechanism to stabilize the application and resolve priority defects without disrupting ongoing financial reporting cycles.
- Asset Preservation: A complete overhaul was premature; the business required a pragmatic method to fix the immediate friction points while protecting the historical data and capital investment already committed to the platform.
What We Did
We executed a rapid discovery phase to evaluate the current state of the application and map out immediate operational friction points. Following this assessment, we deployed a Managed Services framework to serve as an interim operating model while the client evaluated a larger, long-term finance transformation program.
This Business as Usual (BAU) support structure provided dedicated functional and technical oversight. We managed issue triage, defect resolution, configuration refinements, and direct user assistance. By focusing on resolving material issues related to consolidation, balancing, and proofing, we maintained business continuity, improved day-to-day performance, and kept the door open for future reimplementation decisions.
Value Delivered
- Restored Close Cycle Predictability: Stabilized the core consolidation engine, ensuring critical financial reporting periods run smoothly without system-driven delays or disruptions.
- Eliminated Shadow Workarounds: Drastically reduced the finance team’s reliance on manual, offline spreadsheet calculations to balance numbers, freeing up capacity for actual financial analysis.
- Rebuilt Stakeholder Trust: Re-established confidence in the system’s outputs by embedding stricter in-system proofing and automated validation checks, ensuring audit-ready accuracy.
- Protected Capital Investment: Maximized the return on their existing Oracle EPM footprint, providing a high-functioning interim environment while leadership evaluates long-term architectural changes.