Technology Architecture Enables Scalable Growth and Improves Service Levels
Company Profile:
A diverse global company providing comprehensive services for face-to-face marketing events, audio / visual and brand marketing.
Problem Statement:
The enterprise wanted to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of key SG&A functions, in particular Prospect to Cash, Finance, HR, Payroll and Procurement. The enterprise had the following challenges:
- Lack of standardization within and across each of the functions
- Poor visibility and transparency to make timely business decisions
- Heavy use of clerical and administrative activities to make the processes function
- Reduced ability to efficiently integrate newly acquired entities
- Redundant and complex application portfolio that did not effectively provide for the ability to scale
Solution:
Delstra assisted the organization in identifying the technology strategy and architecture required to enable the transformation of the SG&A functions. Highlights of the technology solution include S/4 Hana using a Central Finance architecture, Hana Cloud Platform (HCP) and Hana Cloud for Analytics, Ariba, and Employee Central using SuccessFactors. Working collaboratively with each of the designated process / functional areas, a phased roadmap was developed for each of the recommended technology initiatives. For each technology initiative, the roadmap included the key planning components, dependencies, technology building blocks including architectural fit, timeline, type and number of resources, and overall one time plus recurring cost (Software / SaaS, hardware / PaaS, staff / external).
Results:
The delivered solution will allow the organization to:
- Improve internal and external service levels throughout each function via a streamlined and enhanced Application Portfolio
- Reduce costs in high opportunity areas such as Purchasing via leveraging automation
- Increase the timeliness and accuracy of decision making via a real time visibility and traceability for financial transactions
- Mitigate risk by removing obsolete technology
- Accelerate integrate of new acquisitions via an architecture that quickly facilitates the adoption of new technologies into the environment