Avantor’s finance and analytics transformation

What was the challenge?

“Avantor wanted to organize into core business segments as part of our business transformation. These business segments bring more clarity to external reporting, and more efficiency into our internal management reporting, without disrupting existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. To do so, we needed to reorganize our products and offerings into new operating segments. We also wanted to establish a master data management solution along with the SAP S4 Central Finance platform that would allow for consolidation, planning and reporting at both summarized and detailed levels.”

Describe the solution delivered by the PwC community of solvers.

“PwC delivered a thorough solution that provided Avantor with the tools and capabilities to effectively manage our financial consolidation, planning, reporting and analysis processes. PwC implemented CFIN and MDG functionalities, which involved integrating legal entities and financial master data from our existing general ledger systems across the two main SAP ERPs on a real-time basis and integrating non-SAP systems into a universal CFIN repository, enabling reporting on our new operating segments. Central Finance replicates financial transactions from the source systems and allows errors to be monitored as they occur.

From there, we established group reporting for financial consolidation and implemented SAC Reporting with ERP Data Warehouse’s (EDW) HANA Sidecar. The solution provides real-time visibility in one system with transparency down to the transactional level."

How does the solution blend the strengths of technology and people?

“To align company-wide financial and analytical reporting, PwC worked with us to help eliminate multiple reports scattered across data sources and establish custom reports from HANA Sidecar, plus standard reports and Fiori Apps. These streamlined reports have enabled us to help improve communication and reduce manual work. We’ve standardized business processes, improved transparency, brought clarity to decision-making and increased user-friendliness.”

Where or how did innovation and unexpected ways of thinking come into play?

“PwC’s Phase 0 approach during design enabled a faster implementation by one to two months. The approach, informed by PwC’s knowledge of SAP industry practices and industry trends, allowed both us and PwC to gain a deep understanding of program challenges and define parameters. Through collaborative decision-making, key design choices were made to help expedite the project’s design and build phases. We’re already experiencing the benefits of improved analytics and financial reporting sourced from consistent master data and transaction data at a detailed level for in-depth business trend analysis.”