Optimum integrates and automates financial forecasting and expenditures processes, for a global biopharmaceutical company, enabling time saving efficiency, accuracy, and improved visibility of measurable KPI’s
Business Challenge and Project Background
Prior to Optimum’s involvement, the Client used Smartsheet’s core capabilities to track planned budgets for each independently functioning pharmaceutical brand marketing team. This process was entirely manual; without a method to automatically pull in data from their ERP (SAP), they were unable to efficiently compare actual to planned spend.
Due to the excessive time spent manually pulling data to balance actual spend values with what was forecasted, the Client was not able to leverage the forecasted values and drive financial discipline throughout the year. Extensive manual effort was also required to gather financial KPIs for leadership, which carried an increased risk that lessons and issues from the previous year would not be accounted for in future years.
This decrease in productivity and data transparency needed to be addressed through automation, which would enable the Client to quickly and easily pull the necessary data together 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 to solidify their understanding of the current state and then 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 out and then fully integrated to create the complete solution. Development took place over a period of several months and was structured as a series of sprints that each generated incremental additions to the system followed by iterative development to refine the solution based on user feedback.
Figure 1. Final Dashboard displaying Financial KPIs tracked and reviewed by Leadership. (Note: Specifics have been removed to maintain client confidentiality)
Finally, the Core Smartsheet platform with SCC was updated to meet the requirements identified by the Brand Marketing Managers and the Financial Analysts who managed their funding. Complex formulas were written to appropriately calculate, distribute, and roll up an entire year’s worth of estimated spending. Dashboards were updated to capture financial KPIs to be reported to leadership. Graphs, charts, and previously inaccessible insights were created and documented to provide transparency and a deeper understanding of the marketing department’s financials.
An API integration solution was also developed as a middleware application which connects to Smartsheet’s APIs to pull values from uploaded SAP exports of actual spend data. These data points were programmatically rolled up and then imported into the associated Smartsheet location. This component was critical to seamlessly gather actual spend information and replace forecasted amounts within Smartsheet Core.
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
The outcome of this project was a scalable Smartsheet Control Center solution integrated with SAP to provide the Client with a holistic, in-depth overview of the marketing department’s fiscal performance that was not previously available.
The Client was most excited about the centralization of financial data and automation of back-end processes. The automation of data entry from SAP allows the Client to more efficiently allocate resource time and provides a more transparent view of their Marketing Team’s finances. The reports and dashboards created allow the finance and marketing departments, along with their leadership, to have a clear, accurate, and real-time view of their team’s performance.
About Optimum
Optimum is a national Software Consulting firm, and a Smartsheet Platinum Partner, helping organizations accelerate efficiency and solve business challenges. We deliver robust software solutions and amazing client experiences!
As a Platinum Certified Smartsheet Partner, our consultants define, automate, and optimize processes and implement advanced Smartsheet solutions to help clients achieve work efficiency and productivity. From development of customized templates and advanced dashboards and workflows to the full implementation and support of Smartsheet Control Center and other accelerators, our team helps clients maximize their ROI in Smartsheet and increase user adoption and productivity of their teams.
Contact us for a free discovery session to identify and discuss the best solution option for your work automation and project management needs.
More information: Smartsheet Consulting Services
Contact us: info@optimumcs.com | 713.505.0300