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Thinking ahead for even faster global growth

A KPMG Ignition session makes the difference as Brown & Brown insurance accelerates HR, finance, and IT transformation

Client

Brown & Brown, Inc.

Industry

Insurance

Primary goal

Help HR, finance, and IT teams maximize Workday’s EPM platform to support rapid growth

test

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

Already one of the world’s top insurance brokers, Brown & Brown, Inc. (Brown & Brown) isn’t slowing down. The Daytona Beach, Florida company is rapidly gaining size and scale through a combination of organic growth and a long history of acquisitions. This fast-track approach has also added complexity, especially when it comes to finance and human resources (HR) systems. In late 2022, senior leaders wanted fresh thinking on how to get more value from the Workday Cloud Platform. A two-day KPMG Ignition session explored new ideas for optimizing Workday to support international expansion, and offered insights on using new technologies and processes to improve information technology (IT) performance. 

Key Outcomes

Making a measurable difference

  • Alignment on key goals across multiple functions in HR, finance, and IT
  • A practical “now, near, next” transformation roadmap
  • Ready to launch Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) and Workday Financial Management solutions outside the US

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.

The team from KPMG provides a great level of insight, dialogue, and collaboration to get us to the next level in what we’re trying to do as an organization. We look to KPMG as one of our trusted partners. You understand our business, you understand our culture, and you understand our people.

R. Andrew Watts

Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer, Brown & Brown, Inc.

How KPMG Ignition helps leaders learn, plan, and prioritize

1. Background and preparation phase

From tax guidance to Workday support

Our history with Brown & Brown gave KPMG an in-depth understanding of the company’s processes, technology, and business objectives. In addition to providing many years of tax advice, in 2021 we helped the company address problems in its initial US implementation of Workday’s Financial Management and HCM solutions.

In late 2022, the Ignition team met with Brown & Brown’s finance and tax teams to discuss challenges and options for improving their Workday Foreign Exchange (FX) and multiledger capabilities. Like the two-day remote workshop that would follow, these Ignition sessions used guided discussions, ideation exercises, and prioritization activities to identify pain points and potential solutions according to their expected business impact. The results included recommendations for easy to achieve “quick wins” as well as more strategic long-term initiatives.

2. Workday vision and strategy workshop phase

Using an off-site session to jump start new thinking

The centerpiece of our engagement with Brown & Brown was a two-day workshop held at the KPMG Lakehouse innovation center in Florida. While the focus was again on making better use of Workday, we broadened this session’s scope to include HR and IT as well as finance and tax. Leaders and staff from all four departments attended. Conducting the workshop outside the client’s offices created an opportunity for participants to break away from their everyday routines, avoid distractions, and take time to think creatively and talk openly.

The Lakehouse session’s goals for each function included:

  • Human Resources: Helping HR leaders prepare for the global rollout of Workday’s HCM solution. While HCM was already in use in the US, expanding its reach to include new and future employees worldwide would be critical.
  • Finance: Defining the prerequisites for a similar global implementation of Workday Financial Management.
  • Information Technology: Providing IT leaders with insights on using automation to simplify internal processes and improve the customer experience, and aligning on next steps to evaluate tools, platforms, and possible IT organization changes.

Throughout the workshop, the Ignition team facilitators directed design thinking exercises and use case ideation to show how Workday could make employees more productive, data more valuable, and customers better served. We ended by helping the HR, finance, and IT teams prioritize and coordinate future activity by outlining a roadmap of immediate, near-term, and long-term initiatives, department support and shared feedback received from his peers and leadership.

3. Conclusions and planning phase

An 18-month transformation plan for HR, finance, and IT

We followed up the Ignition workshop by delivering a debrief package summarizing key themes, conclusions, and recommendations by function:

Human Resources

  • Based on our use case review, the team planned an immediate test of Workday Prism Analytics business intelligence tool to analyze and compare historical HR data from payroll provider ADP with company revenue data.
  • After learning more about Workday People Experience function, the HR team prioritized one use case with an immediate impact during the global Workday HCM rollout: Workday Help for easier access to job-related questions and other HR information. Less-critical use cases were deferred for later evaluation.
  • The team agreed on next steps for exploring the Workday Learning and Workday Performance Enablement modules as HR considers replacing its current learning management system.
  • After reviewing Workday VNDLY Extended Workforce Management functionality, the team committed to a demonstration ahead of the global HCM launch.

Finance

  • Based on findings from prior sessions covering multicurrency and intercompany transactions, consolidations, and reporting, the finance team prioritized Workday initiatives to be adopted before the global Workday Financial Management launch.
  • The team also studied how the company could expand the use of Workday Adaptive Planning Office Connect capabilities to streamline certain reconciliations and other controls.
  • Finally, after reviewing likely interdependencies and the value of a full-platform rollout, the teams agreed to coordinate the simultaneous global launch of Workday HCM and Workday Financial Management solutions in mid-2023.

Information Technology

  • The corporate IT team and KPMG technologists discussed robotic process automation technology, low-code/no-code software development, and conversational systems, with a focus on the governance processes and organization models needed to deploy these technologies.
  • We then identified a handful of use cases for further evaluation, including packaged reporting options for customers and setting claim reserves.
  • The team agreed on the need for further study of the conversational systems landscape and large language models as an option for customer support and other services. There was also interest in consulting internal users to find other use cases for automation.

Our follow-up deliverables also included a more detailed “now, near, and next” road map that arranged these HR, finance, and IT initiatives over an 18-month timeline. Those considered essential for the upcoming HCM/Finance launch were scheduled for the first half of 2023, with further additions or refinements to follow through late 2023 and 2024.

As an established, trusted advisor for financial, technical, and strategic advice, KPMG will continue to support Brown & Brown as it expands the reach and capabilities of the Workday platform, evaluates other technologies, and prepares for further growth. 

Transformation means more than just technology

KPMG Ignition helps clients envision creative, boundary-pushing solutions for business transformation—even when it means rethinking established practices and existing technologies. Learn how we use innovative design thinking and ideation methods to explore the art of the possible at KPMG Ignition.

Learn more

Meet the team that made the difference for Brown & Brown

Let’s talk about how we can help you think more boldly, embrace change, and apply technology for transformation.

Image of Vim Mehta
Vim Mehta
Tax Managing Director, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Karl Melo
Karl Melo
Dir, Ignition Market Leader Insights Center, KPMG US
Image of Vim Mehta
Vim Mehta
Tax Managing Director, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Karl Melo
Karl Melo
Dir, Ignition Market Leader Insights Center, KPMG US

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Some or all of the services described herein may not be permissible for KPMG audit clients and their affiliates or related entities.

The information contained herein is of a general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Although we endeavor to provide accurate and timely information, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate as of the date it is received or that it will continue to be accurate in the future. No one should act upon such information without appropriate professional advice after a thorough examination of the particular situation. KPMG LLP does not provide legal services.

The information contained herein is not intended to be “written advice concerning one or more Federal tax matters” subject to the requirements of section 10.37(a)(2) of Treasury Department Circular 230.

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