The client
Community Impact is a digital and print publication that delivers quality business and community-based news across Texas.Â
While looking for a new ERP and reporting tool, Community Impact found a solution to their two key challenges: building a dynamic budget and reporting faster. E78 implemented Workday Adaptive Planning, and Simon’s finance team shifted from tactical to strategic.
Reporting cycles were cut down significantly. Resource bandwidths expanded for new value-adding projects. Real time scenario analyses helped leadership make key decisions, as the company redirects its attention to scalable growth.
The challenge
Along with quicker access to actionable insights around their financials, Simon reached out to E78 for support with:
- Consolidating CI’s budgeting & forecasting processes and moving out of Excel hell.
- Automating the FP&A process to eliminate version control issues stemming from Excel.
- Establishing a direct integration between CI’s accounting system and FP&A modeling tool.
- Reducing a direct integration between CI’s accounting system and FP&A modeling tool.
- Building a direct integration between CI’s accounting system and FP&A modeling tool.
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The solution
After Community Impact’s Workday Adaptive Planning implementation, E78 helped the company:
- Operate in a Cloud-Based FP&A Tool: Moving out of Excel has consolidated 50 spreadsheets into a single cloud tool for real-time analysis – cutting out hours of tactical resource time.
- Eliminate Manual Report Pulling from Data Systems: Via direct connection to Community Impact’s accounting and CRM platforms, actuals flow automatically into Adaptive, saving his FP&A team time to focus on analysis instead of report pulling.
- Provide Custom Views to Business Leaders showing their specific financial results & KPIs: Instead of emailing individual Excel reports showcasing departmental results to each leader each month, Simon’s team built custom views in Adaptive once and granted access to the specific report that each business leader needs. Set it and forget it.
- Enhance Goal Setting Time by 50%: Simon can set quarterly goals and receive leadership feedback faster, resulting in more time to focus on strategic execution.
- Build a 5-Year Plan: Community Impact can budget and plan with confidence around their financials.
- Report Financial Packages Faster: Finance develops the monthly and quarterly financial packages 36% faster.
- Expand Strategic Contribution: Finance can focus on value-adding projects instead of data extraction, cleaning, and consolidation.
The result
E78 has helped Community Impact accelerate their vision for a more strategic finance function with the implementation of Workday Adaptive Planning. The publication company has since consolidated its financials and P&L’s into a singular budgeting and planning tool.
Simon and her team continue to utilize the platform’s real-time analysis function to enhance their operations, adjust for multiple factors and make smart, data-driven decisions.
