Giulio Maresca

Managed a complete software evaluation and assessment for the implementation of a new web-architected financial consolidation capability at one of the largest pharmaceutical companies. Assisted the client with the following primary activities:

• Requirements Gathering
• Benchmarking & Gap Analysis
• End State Definition
• Vendor Analysis, Selection & Recommendation;
• Solution Conceptual Design
• Implementation Planning

With this new capability the company was able to retired 80% of the legacy tools and application devoted to reporting.

The Management of the client, a world leader mining company, wanted to address challenges posed, facilitate strategy execution and create the infrastructure required to support growth objectives. As a result, the client identified the Close and Consolidate Books and Report Actuals  an immediate priority.  The recognized that this process had become overly complex and cumbersome especially because mergers and acquisitions had significantly changed the size and structure of the organization. In addition, the regulatory control procedures introduced by the Sarbenes-Oxley Act, needed to be supported  by a robust set of functionalities to allow full auditing of users’ interaction with the application.  Therefore, my team led the software selection and technical delivery of a complete financial reporting and statutory consolidation solution. The technical scope included the design/build/test of a packaged web-based financial consolidation application supported by Hyperion Financial Management. The application was distributed to more than 30 subsidiaries of the company and our team delivered UAT and end-user training.

Business Challenges

• Rapid grow by acquisition
• Integration of many different ERP systems
• Re-think and improve the closing process
• Streamline control activities to comply with regulatory rules
• Spreadsheet explosion for data-entry and reporting
• Too many top-side adjustments not aligned with source systems

Business Results

• HFM as the book of records that integrates un-related data sources
• Achieve “one version of the truth”
• Detailed monthly Management Report including Intercompany matching and adjustments out day 9
• Robust workflow process management that tracks every user’s activity during the closing process
• Excellent user’s interaction with the web-based interface for data submission, data validation and reporting.

Our client was undergoing a major finance transformation program including re-engineering all back-office processes and technology.  As part of this program, the client wanted to select the next generation technology to manage internal and external reporting as well as planning and budgeting processes.  The project had a large number of stakeholder organizations that needed to be involved in the selection process.  I managed a team of consultants that assisted the client with selecting the IT solution.  We prepared vendor RFP, proof of concepts and conference room pilot to facilitate the selection of the software.  The result was a comprehensive presentation of software selection process and the winning vendor.