This article was originally published on OneStream.com by Lauren Ford
When searching for a corporate performance management (CPM) platform, what are the key differentiators that are important for your organization? Typically, choosing a highly available, high-performing, and innovative CPM software solution that will support long-term financial goals is top of mind. This is because when you invest in a leading software, you plan to rely on it for the long run. Customers should not have to worry about making organizational-changing decisions when a vendor decides to discontinue a product or force a reimplementation. However, it may just lead you to the right solution.
This was the case for John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. which had been using SAP BPC for financial reporting and sales forecasting for 14 years. With the approaching retirement of their version of BPC, JBSS was faced with a decision to find an SAP BPC replacement. Do they continue with a CPM vendor that was challenging to work with? Do they move forward with a costly rebuild and disruptive re-implementation? Or do they explore the market for a modern and innovative CPM platform that would conquer their complexities? Read on to hear their story and learn about the success they’ve seen since switching to OneStream.
Global Leader and Expert in Nuts
John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc (JBSS), processes and distributes tree nuts, peanuts, and nut products through distribution channels in the United States and around the world. JBSS is a major processor and distributor of snack and recipe nut products, offering raw and processed nuts in various styles and seasonings. The company’s nut and dried fruit-based products are sold under a variety of private brands including Fisher®, Orchard Valley Harvest®, Squirrel Brand®, Southern Style Nuts®, and Sunshine Country® brand names.
The company was founded by Gaspare Sanfilippo and John B. Sanfilippo in 1922 and is headquartered in Elgin, IL. Today, JBSS operates with around 1,200 employees across four plants including their headquarters in Illinois, peanut sheller in Georgia, pecan sheller in Texas, and walnut sheller in California.
A Need for Change After 14 Years
After using SAP BPC as their internal sales reporting system, financial reporting system, and forecasting tool for the past 14 years, JBSS was feeling stuck. While SAP BPC satisfied the company’s original needs, the legacy CPM application was not providing any innovation as JBSS continued to evolve. The finance team was jumping through hoops because SAP BPC was not capable of handling their unique reporting needs, which included information at the base level and across multiple hierarchies where data expanded. It was difficult to make top-down adjustments and too much time was spent on manual manipulation of the data.
Contacting SAP Support was challenging and in addition, SAP BPC was reaching its end of life. SAP began pushing customers to convert to SAP’s Cloud solution, which would be a substantial undertaking in effort and cost. So, why not look at the market? JBSS looked at 5 leading solutions before landing on OneStream. OneStream gave JBSS their customer list which allowed the company to hear from real customers about their experience with functionality, upgrades, and support. Doing so sealed the deal, and JBSS started its migration from SAP to OneStream.
Implementing an Intelligent Finance Platform
JBSS worked with both OneStream Consulting Services and OneStream implementation partner, Black Diamond Advisory on the implementation. JBSS looked to replace their sales and finance cubes in SAP by moving GL reporting, forecasting and financial planning, balance sheet comparisons, income statement comparisons, and more into OneStream. JBSS also took advantage of OneStream’s Analytic Blend technology to handle larger data sets in the sales cube. JBSS is now live with OneStream for budgeting and forecasting, planning, sales forecasting, and financial reporting. OneStream was deployed in the cloud which allows JBSS to benefit from high availability, performance, and stability.
Conquering Complexity with OneStream
With OneStream’s unified CPM software, JBSS is now able to get the latest costs, volumes, and expenses that help reforecast the annual budget and provide executives visibility to change or shift data as needed. Thanks to automated calculations, Corporate Finance is no longer responsible for centrally managing templates and pushing them out to the users for updates. The Financial Planning team has gone from maintaining 30 Excel templates to 1 master template in OneStream. The users now have the power to download templates themselves, make changes and upload them back into the system.
JBSS has also shortened the forecasting process from 2 weeks to 2 days. The Sales team can forecast quantities like the number of pounds shipped, price per pound, etc. with all revenues and costs driven off those quantities. Once the rates are loaded, everything is calculated automatically in OneStream. No more manual manipulation.
Learn More
When faced with the challenge of a platform reaching its end of life, it’s important to know the potential paths forward including alternative options. The story of JBSS’s SAP BPC replacement is just one example of how complex organizations around the world are leading at speed by repacing legacy CPM applications and spreadsheets with a modern CPM software. OneStream is the proven alternative for SAP BPC customers by enabling customers to extend and future-proof their CPM platform investment. To learn more, check out the JBSS case study and contact us today if you’re ready to make the move from outdated CPM applications to an intelligent finance platform.
