Consolidation, Planning, Reporting, Treasury, and Project Management
Customer Profile
M+W Group (until 2009: M+W Zander) is the leading global partner for engineering, construction and project management in the fields of Advanced Technology Facilities, the Life Science Industries, Energy & Environment Technologies and High-Tech Infrastructure.The goal was to design a complete turnkey solution that supports the group in implementation of projects of varying size, rapid development, flexibility and cost efficiency. The result combines information from the company's process technology, automation and complex facilities into an integrated solution. Customers include leading electronics, life science, photovoltaic, chemical, automotive and information technology companies as well as research institutions and universities. The M + W Group GmbH, Stuttgart, manages the holding company's global activities for the group with 4380 employees, orders of 1.56 billion euros, and revenues of 1.27 billion euros in 2009.
Solution Overview
It took significant effort for M + W Group's central accounting department to coordinate information from two different systems before the new solution was introduced. Obtaining data for internal and external accounting, as well as managing finances for the Group's internal network of relationships was both complex and time-consuming. An all-in-one solution that fit the organization and supporting data technology was needed. This has been achieved with a new integrated system based on Tagetik. The new system makes it possible to eliminate redundancies and analyze the Group's data more efficiently. The company headquarters and subsidiaries worldwide benefit from the system's robust workflow capabilities. The results are shorter consolidation and reporting times, improved data management processes and more transparency.
"The reconciliation process is now easy and paperless. Subsidiaries accurately report transaction values from their business operations. Balances are consolidated and available for further analysis in the integrated cockpit.“
Renate Jäger, Project Leader, M+W Group
Tagetik at M + W Group: A Comprehensive Solution
The Accounting and Controlling departments at M + W Headquarters in Stuttgart had been satisfied with the functionality of existing tools. They were already able to create all the necessary reports and analyses - one step ahead of other companies. Closer inspection of the comapny's daily business, however, revealed considerable potential for optimization.
A fundamental problem was that there were two separate systems. Both the Accounting (month end close) and the neighboring Controlling departments (management reporting) were collecting and processing data from subsidiaries throughout the Group. Since these processes were done in parallel, much of the work was performed twice and it took considerable effort to keep the information from the different departments synchronized.
Progress can be difficult with disparate processes under one roof, so people at M + W Group were interested in technology with the ability to unite the various processes in a single system. That the new solution also had to perform and meet users' expectations. "We did not come from an Excel-based solution - we already had a powerful consolidation solution in use and were not willing to give up a certain level of comfort," project leader Renate Jäger commented. The overall objective of the project was therefore to introduce a comprehensive solution with the ability to cover everything from consolidation and planning to managing all subject areas of a project - with the ability to adapt for the future as needed.
Four vendors were invited to present their solutions at the company's headquarters in Stuttgart. pmOne, supported by consolidation experts Alper & Schetter, were selected to develop a design for the new system based on Tagetik technology. pmOne scored particularly well on price-performance ratio and the consolidation functionality that is included with Tagetik.
Passing the Test
M + W Group's engagement with the consultant team of pmOne / Alper & Schetter started with the development of an interdisciplinary proof of concept. This was implemented within a few weeks, in November 2008. Once this "test" was passed, the decision was made by the customer to continue with implementation, introducing new Tagetik software for corporate control.
The project really took off in March 2009, after backing off early in the year for financial statements. In the remaining months before the interim financial statements the team has successfully introduced an all-in-one solution based on Tagetik for group consolidation, planning, reporting, and project controlling. With the new integrated system the company can harmonize internal and external accounting and eliminate redundancies in the collection and analysis of consolidated data. "Go-Live was the same time as half-year results. That was pretty ambitious, but we've managed it, "says Renate Jäger.
Since then, the new system based on Tagetik is used to collect data from all subsidiaries of M + W Group. There are about 100 users, distributed globally,who have been trained by their colleagues from the Stuttgart headquarters. At M + W Group Headquarters the implementation of the new solution went hand in hand with innovations: the two central departments have now combined into one department.
Seamless, Paperless Process Coordination
With the new system, the previously slow process based on Excel spreadsheets or fax that lacked of validation rules and were error-prone were replaced by a web-based integrated IC matching cockpit. Tagetik This feature helps companies perform intercompany reconciliation processes efficiently. The benefit for all parties involved - both locally and centrally - is a considerable reduction in workload. Renate Jaeger: "For us this is a huge advantage, because there are many relationships within the group. Reconciliation is now easy and paperless. Our subsidiaries report transaction data accurately from their business operations. The balances are analyzed using the integrated cockpit and made available for further reporting. Tagetik takes care of differences in currency and enables further processing of the data based on business rules." This method not only promotes an efficient consolidation process, but also contributes significantly to improved data quality. At the same time, the workflow has been optimized. For example, after data has been submitted a variety of data validation steps are involved. The times of transferring Excel files several times back and forth between the headquarters and the subsidiaries are definitely over.
NowTagetik at M + W Group is there to stay, since a lot of unnecessary duplication of effort and coordination effort among departments has been done away with by this solution. In addition, Accounting and Controlling both benefit from simpler processes. The subsidiaries have less work because their data only has to be submitted to a single system. As hoped the new system improved on previously tedious procedures and made organizational improvements including a positive impact on the reporting and consolidation periods. Last but not least, management is pleased to have a reporting system with improved level of detail, speed and usability.
Results and Next Steps
Tagetik is also in use for project control at M + W Group. Now subsidiaries have a centralized solution for managing data for all projects, worldwide. One of the key ways that users benefit compared to the old Excel-based version is the integrated workflow. This brings a considerable improvement in efficiency by eliminating the need to enter information about the projects multiple times since now users only need to adjust the project status in the system. The new system provides not only clear information about revenues and expenses - it also enables break-even analysis. Analysis and reporting are done at the individual company level as well as for the group.
PmOne and the longtime partner Alper & Schetter supported and provided management accounting expertise to the project team at M + W Group during the design and implementation of the internal reporting requirements. The support services of the consultant team was focused mainly on conceptual work, the initial design of the application, and establishing the initial reports. This kept costs for services provided low, enabling the project to be within the original budget for the internal and external resources. The results indicate that the targeted coaching strategy worked: the implementation as well as the project management was carried out largely by M + W Group team members. The company has embraced and internalized the basic know-how needed to develop and use the system. "Here we are on the right track - it runs on less and less help and is more and more autonomous," says the project manager. "This has also made one of the basic management requirements are met - that the business users should be able to operate autonomously and to adapt the solution themselves."
The next step for the project team is extending the system. In the upcoming Phase 2, an important goal is to also integrate Treasury management in Tagetik.
Case Study
The case study you can download as a PDF document (german-speaking):
