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Helping a natural gas company harness the power of ESG data

Creating a data and reporting infrastructure able to support affordable energy, reduced emissions, and a stronger local community.

Client

A US-based natural gas company

Sector

Energy and chemicals

Primary goal

To transform data management and ESG reporting capabilities

Technology

Microsoft Azure

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When an acquisition doubles your revenue in your largest market, there are some big numbers at play—especially when you’re a $48 billion CPG company. And the bigger the numbers, the bigger the impact of every strategic and tactical decision you make. You can’t afford to have your visibility clouded and your decision-making hampered by having two disparate financial operations functions each with its own systems, software, and people. So, when a global CPG company found itself in this situation, it called on KPMG to drive fast, smooth, cost-efficient integration of financial operations.

Key outcomes

1

Increased engagement 

and global alignment between cross-functional teams

2

Greater visibility

 into consolidated spend driving meaningful insights and more proactive decisions

3

Days shaved off

the monthly close cycle

4

More accurate

revenue and sales forecasting

A natural gas company knew that its data management and reporting capabilities could not support the levels of insight, transparency, and accountability it was pursuing. In addition, regulatory reporting had become a complicated, time-consuming process with increased risk. The company engaged KPMG to define, develop, and deploy infrastructure on the Microsoft Azure platform to improve reporting capabilities, deliver more accurate and timely regulatory reports, analyze the impact of equipment emissions to inform field operations, and build stakeholder confidence in the company as a trusted provider of affordable energy and steward of the local community.

KEY OUTCOMES

Making a measurable difference

  • Reduction in ESG regulatory reporting timelines
  • Daily updates to operational and emissions data
  • Greater transparency for increased stakeholder trust

Client transformation journey

Click on each part of the journey to learn more about our client’s transformation.

Client transformation journey

Before

Poor visibility threatened business objectives.

Acquiring a large organic food and beverage business helped a global CPG company expand its operations and nearly double its revenue in the U.S. However, as with most mergers, the integration posed some challenges. Two disparate IT environments with different accounting and reporting models, separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and multiple business intelligence (BI) tools required extensive manual intervention and offline data manipulation, preventing uniform reporting and analysis. Data was trapped in silos. Visibility was insufficient. A new CFO and the finance and accounting teams lacked the insight to support effective forecasting and both strategic and tactical decision-making. In a sector as competitive and fast-changing as food products, this company needed to increase visibility quickly.

After

Unified financial operations support global success.

While this CPG company’s business is spread across two continents (and originates from a number of acquired companies), its financial operations are now centralized and unified. A cloud-based platform extracts and loads data from numerous global sources, then configures and stores it in a central location. Accounting staff across multiple back offices work within a single governance structure and with a single set of streamlined processes, enabling effective reporting and supporting a swift, accurate close. Across the enterprise, visibility is excellent, and insights are at the ready, because analysts can perform real-time calculations and drill down swiftly to the meaning behind the numbers. Unified financial operations helps this $48 billion player predict accurately, plan effectively, and act swiftly—all crucial in a sector where windows of opportunity close as suddenly as they open.

Future

A strong foundation that can keep pace with continued growth.

There will be more acquisition targets in the company’s future. And with a cloud-based platform, governance framework, and standardized processes in place, integrating financial operations will be a swift, sure process. A successful integration inspired the CFO and global finance team to consider other areas for transformation. From evolving multiple layers of the target operating model within Finance, to jump-starting transformation across other functional areas, a powerful ripple effect began and continues across the enterprise. Having the right tools and processes to support a grander vision driven by meaningful insights will continue to empower positive change.

Before

Poor visibility threatened business objectives.

Acquiring a large organic food and beverage business helped a global CPG company expand its operations and nearly double its revenue in the U.S. However, as with most mergers, the integration posed some challenges. Two disparate IT environments with different accounting and reporting models, separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and multiple business intelligence (BI) tools required extensive manual intervention and offline data manipulation, preventing uniform reporting and analysis. Data was trapped in silos. Visibility was insufficient. A new CFO and the finance and accounting teams lacked the insight to support effective forecasting and both strategic and tactical decision-making. In a sector as competitive and fast-changing as food products, this company needed to increase visibility quickly.

After

Unified financial operations support global success.

While this CPG company’s business is spread across two continents (and originates from a number of acquired companies), its financial operations are now centralized and unified. A cloud-based platform extracts and loads data from numerous global sources, then configures and stores it in a central location. Accounting staff across multiple back offices work within a single governance structure and with a single set of streamlined processes, enabling effective reporting and supporting a swift, accurate close. Across the enterprise, visibility is excellent, and insights are at the ready, because analysts can perform real-time calculations and drill down swiftly to the meaning behind the numbers. Unified financial operations helps this $48 billion player predict accurately, plan effectively, and act swiftly—all crucial in a sector where windows of opportunity close as suddenly as they open.

Future

A strong foundation that can keep pace with continued growth.

There will be more acquisition targets in the company’s future. And with a cloud-based platform, governance framework, and standardized processes in place, integrating financial operations will be a swift, sure process. A successful integration inspired the CFO and global finance team to consider other areas for transformation. From evolving multiple layers of the target operating model within Finance, to jump-starting transformation across other functional areas, a powerful ripple effect began and continues across the enterprise. Having the right tools and processes to support a grander vision driven by meaningful insights will continue to empower positive change.

Client transformation journey

  • Before

    Poor visibility threatened business objectives.

    Acquiring a large organic food and beverage business helped a global CPG company expand its operations and nearly double its revenue in the U.S. However, as with most mergers, the integration posed some challenges. Two disparate IT environments with different accounting and reporting models, separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and multiple business intelligence (BI) tools required extensive manual intervention and offline data manipulation, preventing uniform reporting and analysis. Data was trapped in silos. Visibility was insufficient. A new CFO and the finance and accounting teams lacked the insight to support effective forecasting and both strategic and tactical decision-making. In a sector as competitive and fast-changing as food products, this company needed to increase visibility quickly.The preconfigured assets and technology accelerators delivered by KPMG Powered Enterprise let ambitious leadership teams take advantage of embedded leading practices to speed up the decision-making process while instilling confidence.

  • After

    Unified financial operations support global success.

    While this CPG company’s business is spread across two continents (and originates from a number of acquired companies), its financial operations are now centralized and unified. A cloud-based platform extracts and loads data from numerous global sources, then configures and stores it in a central location. Accounting staff across multiple back offices work within a single governance structure and with a single set of streamlined processes, enabling effective reporting and supporting a swift, accurate close. Across the enterprise, visibility is excellent, and insights are at the ready, because analysts can perform real-time calculations and drill down swiftly to the meaning behind the numbers. Unified financial operations helps this $48 billion player predict accurately, plan effectively, and act swiftly—all crucial in a sector where windows of opportunity close as suddenly as they open.

  • Future

    A strong foundation that can keep pace with continued growth.

    There will be more acquisition targets in the company’s future. And with a cloud-based platform, governance framework, and standardized processes in place, integrating financial operations will be a swift, sure process. A successful integration inspired the CFO and global finance team to consider other areas for transformation. From evolving multiple layers of the target operating model within Finance, to jump-starting transformation across other functional areas, a powerful ripple effect began and continues across the enterprise. Having the right tools and processes to support a grander vision driven by meaningful insights will continue to empower positive change.

Once the engagement was complete, our client was able to produce repeatable and controlled monthly estimates of their emissions footprint at the federal, state, and local levels.

Steven Arnold

Partner, Advisory Financial Services Data and ESG Leader

KPMG assembled a cross-functional team whose experience ran both broad and deep.

A leading natural gas company engaged KPMG to assess and improve its air and water quality data collection and management, and to review the processes and technology infrastructure. To support goals and improve regulatory reporting capabilities, we brought together a cross-functional team of professionals from financial services data, commercial energy, solutions, and climate technology.

Our high-level goals were to help our client modernize its capabilities in ways that would allow it to automate, generate insights, and align reporting capabilities to leading standards. To provide the kind of infrastructure necessary to support such capabilities, we teamed up with Microsoft. 

Starting with the right strategy

KPMG worked closely with the company to develop a strategy based on leadership and user needs, the knowledge that accurate ESG insights are based on data gathered both upstream and down, the company’s ESG regulatory reporting requirements as well as its ambitious ESG goals, and the challenges being created by its current data and analytics capabilities.

Defining and developing an effective implementation

Once we had a clear strategy, we helped our client envision and design an ESG data management and reporting platform on Microsoft Azure that would increase insights, transparency, stakeholder trust, and data-driven decision-making.

Functionality and capabilities included:

  • Near-real-time views into emissions data at both location-specific and equipment-specific levels
  • Automated processes to ingest, validate, and integrate activity and asset data from financial and operational systems
  • Over 200 controls and validations to help ensure cross-system data accuracy/data model integrity
  • PowerBI dashboards featuring operational and calculated emissions data that is refreshed and updated on a daily basis
  • Dynamic and comprehensive views of Scope I emissions data.

Since this implementation, KPMG has developed accelerators specifically for the energy sector using Microsoft Azure microservices including PowerApps, and Data Factory to:

  • Investigate the key drivers of emissions at the asset level
  • Model impact of planned strategic reductions
  • Identify key predictors of leaks and classify wells/pads based on likelihood of leaks
  • Confirm impact of field operations and contractor changes (e.g., process improvements and asset upgrades).

Leveraging the power of Microsoft Azure

KPMG, in collaboration with the client, used Microsoft Azure’s services and infrastructure to design a versatile and scalable solution capable of supporting data management, automation, and analytics in a cost-effective manner. Azure’s flexibility enabled a solution design that integrated with other cloud-based platforms used by the client.

Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Power Apps, and Data Factory are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

Keep up with new opportunities and changing requirements.

Our team of knowledgeable and experienced sustainability professionals understands the complexity of the ESG landscape, from aligning ESG initiatives to business goals in ways that improve performance to navigating regulatory reporting and keeping up with changing requirements. Let our team help you stay on top of ESG issues that are relevant to your business. 

Learn more about ESG

Meet the team that made all the difference for a natural gas company with ambitious ESG goals

Let’s talk about what a modernized ESG data management and reporting platform could mean for the future of your business.

Image of Steven Arnold
Steven Arnold
ESG Financial Services Leader, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Todd Semanco
Todd Semanco
Partner, Advisory, FS Regulatory & Compliance Risk, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Pravin Chandran
Pravin Chandran
ESG Data & Technology Leader, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Bryce Wagner
Bryce Wagner
Advisory Managing Director, C&O Financial Services, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Mark Ozaki
Mark Ozaki
Director Advisory, Climate, Data & Tech, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Steven Arnold
Steven Arnold
ESG Financial Services Leader, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Todd Semanco
Todd Semanco
Partner, Advisory, FS Regulatory & Compliance Risk, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Pravin Chandran
Pravin Chandran
ESG Data & Technology Leader, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Bryce Wagner
Bryce Wagner
Advisory Managing Director, C&O Financial Services, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Mark Ozaki
Mark Ozaki
Director Advisory, Climate, Data & Tech, KPMG US
Read bio

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