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Enabling Efficiency, Accuracy, and Improved Visibility of Measurable KPIs with Financial Forecasting Integration and Expenditure Process Automation

Smartsheet and SAP Integration

Optimum’s solution automated financial forecasting and expenditure processes, enhancing data accuracy, visibility, and overall efficiency for a global biopharmaceutical company.

About the Client

The client is a global biopharmaceutical company developing and marketing innovative therapies.

Business Challenges

Before partnering with Optimum, the client faced several critical challenges. They relied on Smartsheet’s core capabilities to manually track planned budgets for each pharmaceutical brand marketing team. 

However, without a method to automatically pull data from their ERP (SAP), they found it difficult to efficiently compare actual vs. planned spend. This manual process consumed excessive time and prevented the client from leveraging forecasted values to drive financial discipline throughout the year. 

Furthermore, gathering financial KPIs for leadership required extensive manual effort, increasing the risk that lessons and issues from the previous year would not be accounted for in future years. This lack of efficiency and data transparency needed to be addressed through automation to enable the client to quickly and easily pull together necessary data and leverage their findings to drive business forward.

Optimum’s Involvement

Optimum began the engagement by leading the client’s senior financial analysts and senior brand managers through a series of in-depth requirements definition and process-mapping workshops. These workshops helped to solidify their understanding of the current state and fully define and document the requirements and user stories for a robust new automated solution.

Two foundational components, Smartsheet Development with Smartsheet Control Center (SCC) and a Custom Application, were built and then fully integrated to create the complete solution. The development process, structured as a series of sprints, generated incremental additions to the system, followed by iterative development to refine the solution based on user feedback. The Core Smartsheet platform with SCC was updated to meet the specific requirements identified by the Brand Marketing Managers and Financial Analysts. Complex formulas were written to calculate, distribute, and roll up an entire year’s worth of estimated spending. Additionally, dashboards were updated to capture financial KPIs to be reported to leadership, and new graphs, charts, and insights were created to provide a deeper understanding of the marketing department’s financials.

Figure 1. Final dashboard displaying financial KPIs tracked and reviewed by leadership. (Note: Specifics have been removed to maintain client confidentiality)

A critical component of the solution was the development of an API integration as middleware to connect Smartsheet’s APIs with SAP, allowing actual spend data to be programmatically rolled up and imported into the associated Smartsheet location. This seamless integration replaced forecasted amounts within Smartsheet Core with actual spend data, ensuring data accuracy and transparency.

Figure 2. Flow of the custom application feeding information from SAP into Smartsheet with carefully defined calculations/rollups being completed via the application before being fed back into Smartsheet for general user consumption.

Project Outcomes and Benefits

The implementation of Optimum’s solution resulted in a significant transformation for the client. By automating the financial forecasting and expenditure processes, the client experienced enhanced efficiency and accuracy in their financial management. The integration of Smartsheet Control Center with SAP provided a holistic and real-time overview of the marketing department’s fiscal performance. This centralization of financial data and automation of back-end processes enabled the client to more efficiently allocate resources and gain a clearer, more transparent view of their marketing team’s finances.

The key benefits of this project were profound. The automation of data entry from SAP minimized manual effort and errors, leading to more accurate financial data. This, in turn, facilitated better resource allocation and time management. The centralized financial view improved transparency and insight, allowing for better-informed decision-making.

Specific Improvements:

  • Automated comparison of actual vs. planned spend.
  • Created dashboards to capture and report financial KPIs.
  • Developed graphs and charts for deeper financial insights.
  • Enabled real-time, accurate performance tracking for finance and marketing teams.

KPIs:

  • 60% Reduction in Manual Data Entry Time: Allowing teams to focus on strategic tasks.
  • 95% User Adoption Rate: Almost all of the financial and marketing staff adopted the new automated processes within the first month.
  • Increase in Data Accuracy
  • Enhanced Financial Visibility for Leadership

About Optimum

Optimum is an award-winning, nationally recognized IT consulting firm serving clients across multiple industries in the US and Canada. We are dedicated to helping organizations enhance efficiency, overcome business challenges, and achieve digital transformation through strategic planning, innovative technologies, and streamlined processes. 

We provide a comprehensive range of software services and solutions, including Custom Application Development, Systems Integration, Cloud and Office 365 Consulting, Smartsheet Consulting, SAP Services, Business Process Optimization and Automation, Business Intelligence (BI), Blockchain Applications, and Staff Augmentation.

Reach out today for a complimentary discovery session, and let’s explore the best solutions for your needs!

Contact us: info@optimumcs.com | 713.505.0300 | www.optimumcs.com 

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