Vision phase

Developing a high-level strategy for integration and performance

KPMG deployed a highly experienced team of senior finance professionals from the U.S. and Europe. The team’s industry experience ran deep in food as well as other sectors, helping ensure a multidimensional perspective on key financial operations issues. We assessed our client’s requirements and integration concerns and developed a nuanced understanding of the two separate financial operations functions.

Two key opportunities emerged early on:

• Shift the business away from time-consuming efforts associated with manipulating data offline and direct efforts to analyzing data online in real time to drive meaningful insights
• Promote a proactive approach to monitoring market trends by analyzing on-demand data and circulating timely reports

Combining our finance and industry experience with a deep dive into the client’s situation helped us envision a high-level integration strategy that would leave financial operations not only unified—but also stronger and more agile.

Validation phase

Collaborating with our client to envision a future state

After gaining a clear picture of our client’s current state, we set to work defining a future one. This involved collaboration in several forms:

• Meeting with stakeholders across the enterprise to better understand how financial operations served various functions and to identify opportunities for strengthening its role
• Conducting sessions with company leadership to understand the broader business objectives that required financial operations support
• Helping our client identify opportunities to streamline operational processes, accelerate the development of key insights, and provide more accurate predictions
• Working directly with the client’s supply chain finance team to evaluate and harmonize the array of methodologies and business requirements that were in place at both companies prior to the acquisition
• Reviewing current-state Enterprise Capital, Plant, and Procurement reporting to identify differences across key processes

We used the insights we gained to provide a holistic perspective on enterprise-wide operations as well as to define the key performance indicators (KPIs) that would help guide how we designed data models, streamlined processes and reporting procedures, and defined roles and responsibilities. Along the way, we also uncovered a number of opportunities to optimize the legacy close process.

Construction phase

Putting the structures in place to support a single, efficient financial operations function

Using a practical, results-driven approach, KPMG created and implemented needed structures, policies, and processes to help ensure a smooth, successful financial operations integration.

• Developed a structured, streamlined approach to managing key integration activities, governance, and status tracking and reporting
• Implemented a communications strategy that improved integration visibility and transparency, and reduced the number of change requests submitted to the integration project management office
• Established standard, formal roles and responsibilities across financial operations
• Defined business requirements, dependencies, and information availability during the close cycle
• Redesigned the forecast and monthly close process
• Developed a single set of standard operating processes for use across the integrated finance function
• Integrated and centralized processes to enhance cross-functional collaboration
• Developed and prioritized 50+ recommendations for accelerating the close cycle
• Supported development of an enhanced data model that fit the new organizational structure, improved overall visibility, and helped drive adoption of new financial processes aligned to future-state objectives
• Supported development of a management reporting application that consolidated enterprise spend reporting and implemented a new, centralized Oracle selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expense application
• Implemented recommendations that helped align enterprise reporting and optimize the monthly “rolling forecast” process
• Documented supply chain finance reporting methodologies and business requirements
• Provided future-state recommendations for more accurate enterprise-wide supply chain reporting and monthly rolling forecasts

Delivery phase

Driving socialization and adoption across the globe

Integration would not have been successful without the support of teams in the U.S. and throughout Europe. To help increase understanding and adoption of new roles and responsibilities as well as processes and tools, KPMG developed a robust change-management training initiative and documentation. We also created a detailed communication strategy that kept all employees informed of what the changes where, when they were coming, and what needed to be accomplished.  

Evolution phase

Continued support of ongoing transformation

KPMG teams in the U.S. and Europe worked together to monitor the success of the new integrated finance function, addressing cross-border issues, helping ensure that regional silos had been fully decommissioned, and continuously supporting more standardized, unified, and efficient ways of working.

As a result of the successful integration, KPMG was invited to present at the client’s global conference and to lead a “Future of Finance” workshop with the global CFO and global finance team. This led to the launch of a broader, strategic, integrated business services program with the goal of digitally transforming global operations.