Deli Home manufactures building materials and is known for brands such as CanDo, Bruynzeel, Lundia, Skantrae and Weekamp. The international company has a substantial growth ambition, so it ran into the limitations of its outdated Performance Management solution. The migration to OneStream provides time savings, ease of use and confidence.
It was high time to make the switch, explains Jack Heijnen, Group Reporting Manager at Deli Home, about the migration from the legacy system to OneStream. "The previous system had been in use for a long time and was outdated."
Also, internal application knowledge had been diluted over the years. "We only had 20-30% knowledge about the application in-house, which meant that outside of simple use of the package, we couldn't do much ourselves. For almost all other questions, we had to be supported by consultants, even for simple changes such as adding a new entity," Jack continues.
Growth requires migration from legacy system to new Performance Management solution
Moreover, the international company has a substantial international growth ambition. Founded in 1869 in Indonesia, the company has grown over the past 150 years to become the market leader in the Benelux and is striving for an even broader international reach.
The sale of Deli Home to a new investment party supports this strategic objective. Jack: "The international focus of the new investment party accelerates our growth ambition." With 30 companies, some with multiple entities and different workflows, this ambition requires a well-functioning Performance Management system.
"We wanted to finish reporting on the past sooner so we could look to the future."
Fewer workarounds and more analysis time
In addition, the limitations of the legacy system had created many workarounds in Excel. Reducing these workarounds was a major goal in the migration. "We wanted to eliminate Excel practices and make the tool leading," says Jack.
A second important goal was more room for analysis. Says Jack, "One of our key objectives was to go from ropey cut & paste to more time for analysis. It was taking a lot of work for us to prepare the reports. We wanted to finish reporting on the past faster so we could look to the future."
These goals led us to choose the platform solution OneStream. "With OneStream, we can report on history as quickly as possible on the one hand, and work on the future on the other. That supports the business."
Tight deadline for legacy system migration project
The migration project had an ambitious deadline. "We wanted to be able to consolidate as quickly as possible. Our first target was therefore the year-end financial statements and the resulting monthly reports. That meant we had a rock-hard deadline: in December we wanted to be able to work in the new package." With a project start in mid-August, that demanded a lot from the project team. Jack: "We knew in advance that it was going to be very tight." The project team took a pragmatic project approach. "Short lines of communication and a compact team ensured that we could coordinate quickly on project days. This allowed us to proceed well," says Maaike Brouwer of Finext.
"Short lines of communication and a compact team ensured that we could coordinate quickly on project days. This allowed us to proceed well"
Key success factors when migrating from legacy system to OneStream
This project approach proved to be one of the key success factors for the smooth running of the migration. Asked about the other key success factors, Jack says: "The OneStream program combined with the knowledge and expertise of Finext's consultants. The collaboration with Finext has been good. We met the deadline and stayed tightly within budget."
Jack and his colleague's open-ended approach also helped achieve the goals. "In the requirements sessions, we didn't look at the processes within the legacy system, but at our needs at the time."
The platform lends itself well to that. "Personally, I think the flexibility of OneStream is a plus: you build it completely from scratch. Maaike and the other Finexters were able to develop almost all the requirements in the application."
"Personally, I think the flexibility of OneStream is a plus: you build it completely from scratch. Maaike and the other Finexters were able to develop almost all the requirements in the application."
Less time spent collecting numbers
Jack is also enthusiastic about the results of the new way of working. "We have now gained days for more analysis. That's real profit." In addition, the Deli Home team can now pick up a lot independently. Jack: "The day-to-day things we can do ourselves. With the previous system we had to call a consultant to open a period, now we can even create our reports. That's a big advantage." "Now consolidation is as good as a click of a button, and we can be confident that the numbers are correct."
Confidence in the numbers
Another big advantage is confidence in the numbers. "We now work from the source. Before, someone was tying all the spreadsheets together. Now consolidation is pretty much a click of a button, and we can be confident that the numbers are correct. With the old system, the results didn't always match the spreadsheets."
A legal structure change that had never been implemented in the old system created a difficult dilemma. "We chose to put this into the new system all at once. That was a puzzle though; we built the historical structure first and then the new legal structure," says Jack. "This choice did bring more confidence in the system, because we had enough comparables to do a good data validation on the historical figures," says Maaike.
Exploiting the OneStream platform
The next step is to implement the budget and forecast in the OneStream platform. Jack: "With that, the financial systems are full circle. After that, we may want to start linking other applications so we can get everything from one source."
Jack therefore has plenty of plans for the platform after that. "The expectation is that we will be exploiting the system much more, for example with the modules from the OneStream MarketPlace."