CPM Software Provider Aims at International Scalability With Modernized Back Office
Case Study

CPM Software Provider Aims at International Scalability With Modernized Back Office

by John Stewart
November 13, 2021

At a Glance

Benefits

  • Increase data governance through data reconciliations, contract template revisions, validation of client invoicing information and project check-ins
  • Automate manual tasks such as contract uploads, customer invoice management 
  • Standardize contract, sales commission and document invoice approval processes

Services

Client Challenge

A corporate performance management (CPM) software company headquartered in the U.S. prides itself on helping businesses conquer complexity in their finance departments. Its solutions streamline CPM processes and enable deeper financial and operational insights that support faster and more informed decision-making. As a high-growth, privately held entity with plans to continue expanding internationally, the software provider was ready to reassess its infrastructure's ability to keep up with a growing number of clients and employees. 

The company specifically sought to improve its human resources and payroll processes and establish standardized processing and formalization of controls for its revenue cycle. The focus was to implement a highly automated control infrastructure in its back offices for better day-to-day business efficiency. 

Other issues included lack of collaboration across business units and visibility into processes for executive staff, inefficient manual processes for workflow approvals, fragmented control activities, and inadequate documentation and reporting methods.

Our Solution

The software company turned to Armanino to build a high-level plan to remove the roadblocks to its international growth and help lay a foundation to scale for the future.

Armanino met with more than 20 stakeholders across multiple business units in the United States and Europe to create a strategy that addressed how the business could mitigate risk, increase operational efficiency and aim at long-term growth and scalability. The future-state plan included an assessment of the company’s lead-to-cash and hire-pay-terminate processes, with a specific look at:

  • Documenting current-state process maps and a proposed Risk and Control Matrix (RCM)
  • Conducting a pain point and gap analysis
  • Identifying automation opportunities
  • Standardizing and formalizing the current controls across all regions to mitigate potential risks
  • Working to align the executive team and staff on approval procedures
  • Identifying ways to improve internal control maturity

The Result

To address top risks, challenges and inefficiencies, Armanino recommended the following key improvements for the company’s lead-to-cash process:

  • Increase data governance through data reconciliations, contract template revisions, validation of client invoicing information and project check-ins
  • Automate manual tasks such as contract uploads, customer invoice management, payment application, onboarding and accounting processes
  • Standardize contract, sales commission and document invoice approval processes
  • Document procedures to ensure accurate data entry through a three-way currency workflow

The hire-pay-terminate process improvement recommendations included:

  • Employ robotic process automation (RPA) to review timesheets, onboard new hires, build commission import files and build payroll reports, and use workforce management and human capital management system UKG as source of truth for employee data 
  • Fully leverage ServiceNow or UKG for documenting termination details
  • Putting these recommendations in action allowed the software company to streamline processes and mitigate risk as they continue to drive global growth.

For help building a long-term roadmap for sustainable profitability and growth at your business, contact our Strategy and Transformation experts.

 

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