adaptive insights enterprise customer success
TRANSCRIPT
NucleusResearch.com
Phone: +1 617.720.2000
Nucleus Research Inc.
100 State Street
Boston, MA 02109
THE BOTTOM LINE
Gentiva deployed Adaptive Insights’ Adaptive Planning solution to replace a number of
solutions that made the budget process cumbersome, frustrated users, and were time-
consuming. Nucleus found that Adaptive enabled the company to support its growth and
complex business model while increasing staff productivity.
ROI: 751%
Payback: 1.3 months
Average annual benefit: $914,871
THE COMPANY
Gentiva Health Services, Inc., publically traded and headquartered in Atlanta, GA, is the
nation’s largest provider of home health and hospice services based on revenue, delivering
innovative, high quality care to patients across the United States. Gentiva is a single
source for skilled nursing; physical, occupational, speech and neurorehabilitation services,
hospice services, social work, nutrition, disease management education, help with daily
living activities, and other therapies and services. Gentiva has been in the home
healthcare business since 1971 and in the subsequent years acquired several companies,
creating the largest US healthcare provider of home health and hospice services based on
revenue.
THE CHALLENGE
Like many organizations that are built through acquisitions, Gentiva had several tools
being used for budget planning and reporting. It had 400 locations across the country,
and the process of budgeting was a long and arduous one. End users were frustrated with
the length of time it took to complete their budgets, rollups had a variety of rules that had
to be incorporated which added to the complexity, and there was a high level of
dissatisfaction overall with the entire process.
ROI CASE STUDY
ADAPTIVE INSIGHTS GENTIVA
Document O237
November 2014
ANALYST:
Nina
SANDY
Page 2 © 2014 Nucleus Research, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.
Nucleus Research is the leading provider of value-focused technology research and advice.
NucleusResearch.com
November 2014 Document O237
THE STRATEGY
Gentiva began its due diligence in 2012, and evaluated a number of solutions including
Adaptive Planning and Oracle. One of its acquisitions had been using Adaptive, and the
success of that implementation helped drive the decision. The company ultimately
selected Adaptive Insights for a number of reasons including:
Gentiva found that Adaptive had been proven in one division already, and had
provided the usability and flexibility it was looking for.
Adaptive’s cloud delivery model would enable Gentiva to reduce significant capital
investment and long implementation time, and would also give the company the
flexibility to grow by adding new offices and users with no additional IT investment.
The ease of use of Adaptive reduced training requirements, improved engagement,
and made deployment much simpler.
Adaptive’s pricing could be bundled into the operational budget.
Gentiva began its implementation of Adaptive Planning in 2012 and began its phased-in
deployment with its Home Health division. The deployment took only three months, and
was very successful. Over the next year, the other divisions came on board in quick
succession. This upcoming budget year will be the first with the entire company using
Adaptive for its budgeting process, and it is already proving successful. Everyone in the
organization is now using Adaptive for budget planning – providing a holistic view of the
entire organization that was never available before. Users are reporting significant time
savings, and the process has reduced workloads by more than two months for the finance
team.
Cost : BenefitRatio 1 : 11.7
Types of Benefits
Direct 46% 54% Indirect
Page 3 © 2014 Nucleus Research, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.
Nucleus Research is the leading provider of value-focused technology research and advice.
NucleusResearch.com
November 2014 Document O237
KEY BENEFIT AREAS
Deploying Adaptive Planning has enabled Gentiva to improve visibility, increase
engagement of its budget managers, and reduce the complexity of its budget process.
Key benefits of the project include:
Increased budget manager productivity. With the previous implementations, the
budget managers found the process frustrating and time consuming. There were
several rollup rules that complicated things and the interface was difficult. As the
frustration levels increased, they looked to the regional financial team to take on
much of the ownership of the budget process. Now with Adaptive, the engagement
level of the branch managers has greatly increased and they’ve taken ownership of
the process, significantly reducing the time allocation of the regional team. As a
result, there has been an increase in the branch managers’ productivity and visibility
into the process.
Increased Finance Director and Finance AVP productivity. Prior to having Adaptive,
much of the consolidation and validation of the budgets across the company became
the responsibility of the finance director and the Regional AVP. With the
implementation of Adaptive Planning, the level of effort has been reduced from five
months to three.
Increased visibility. Prior to Adaptive, there were several tools being used for budget
and planning purposes at Gentiva. Now, the entire company has a complete
understanding and view of the entire process, as well as a consistent view across the
organization.
Reduced and eliminated software and consulting costs. With the elimination of its
previous solutions, Gentiva was able to reduce the cost of software, as well as the
need for consulting to support those systems. It was able to reallocate staff that
supported the systems to other business initiatives with Gentiva.
Cumulative Net Benefit
809,679
1,748,653
2,744,614
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Page 4 © 2014 Nucleus Research, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.
Nucleus Research is the leading provider of value-focused technology research and advice.
NucleusResearch.com
November 2014 Document O237
“Adaptive Planning has allowed us to increase engagement, and significantly reduce the
time spent on the budget process. It is simpler, people are more involved, and it takes a lot
less time.”
- Kevin Bradshaw, Finance Director, Gentiva
KEY COST AREAS
Costs of the project include software license subscription fees, personnel time to
implement, employee training and consulting.
BEST PRACTICES
As one of Gentiva’s divisions already had Adaptive Planning implemented, the finance
team was able to leverage those previous experiences. As Adaptive was to be the
corporate standard for all of Gentiva, the finance team developed a full project plan, and
ensured the CFO had all the information and was behind the initiative. The team also
developed a layout of the model and the calculations they wanted to see, to make sure
the implementation team was up to speed at the beginning.
Another best practice recommended by the team is to ensure the definition of an
organizational structure in the beginning. This is critical to the success of a planning and
budget model, and while is easy to do at the start, does present challenges when trying to
implement those levels of changes while the budget process is in motion. As well, it is
important to define naming conventions and metrics early on, so there is consensus and
consistency throughout.
Total Net Cash Flows
1,389,000
1,611,577
0
255,963
-127,564
937,243 938,974995,962
Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Page 5 © 2014 Nucleus Research, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.
Nucleus Research is the leading provider of value-focused technology research and advice.
NucleusResearch.com
November 2014 Document O237
CALCULATING THE ROI
Nucleus quantified the initial and ongoing costs of software license subscription fees,
personnel time to implement and support the application, employee training time, and
consulting over a 3-year period to calculate Gentiva’s total investment in Adaptive
Planning.
Direct benefits quantified included the elimination of Oracle Hyperion license fees,
consulting costs, and re-allocation of staff to other projects. Indirect benefits quantified
included the increased productivity in the finance team, IT, and of the budget managers
driven by the elimination of the previous solution, and the deployment of Adaptive
Planning, and were calculated based on the average annual fully loaded cost of the
employees.
Not quantified were the additional efficiencies and savings Gentiva will gain from Adaptive
Planning as it expands its use of the application.
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
Adaptive Planning
Annual ROI: 751%
Payback period: 0.1 years
ANNUAL BENEFITS Pre-start Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Direct 0 463,000 463,000 463,000
Indirect 0 536,038 537,769 537,769
Total per period 0 999,038 1,000,769 1,000,769
CAPITALIZED ASSETS Pre-start Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Software 0 0 0 0
Hardware 0 0 0 0
Project consulting and personnel 0 0 0 0
Total per period 0 0 0 0
DEPRECIATION SCHEDULE Pre-start Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Software 0 0 0 0
Hardware 0 0 0 0
Project consulting and personnel 0 0 0 0
Total per period 0 0 0 0
EXPENSED COSTS Pre-start Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Software 56,988 56,988 56,988 0
Hardware 0 0 0 0
Consulting 36,345 0 0 0
Personnel 29,423 0 0 0
Training 4,808 4,808 4,808 4,808
Other 0 0 0 0
Total per period 127,564 61,796 61,796 4,808
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS Results Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Net cash flow before taxes -127,564 937,243 938,974 995,962
Net cash flow after taxes -70,160 515,484 516,435 547,779
Annual ROI - direct and indirect benefits 735% 735% 751%
Annual ROI - direct benefits only 315% 315% 329%
Net Present Value (NPV) -70,160 411,600 862,675 1,309,826
Payback period 0.1 years
Average Annual Cost of Ownership 127,564 189,359 125,578 85,321
3-Year IRR 734% 734%
FINANCIAL ASSUMPTIONS
All government taxes 45%
Cost of capital 7.0%
Page 6© 2014 Nucleus Research, Inc. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited.
All calculations are based on Nucleus Research's independent analysis of the expected costs and benefits associated with the solution.
NucleusResearch.com
By the Numbers Gentiva's Adaptive Planning project
THE PROJECT
THE RESULTS
Improved regional directors productivityReduced AVP and Finance director timeReduced technology and outsourcing costs
Cost : Benefit
Ratio
- Kevin Bradshaw, Finance Director, GentivaNucleusResearch.com
Copyright 2014 Nucleus Research Inc.
Nucleus Research Report o237 - Adaptive Insights ROI Case Study - Gentiva
“Adaptive Planning has allowed us to increase engagement, and significantly reduce the time spent on
the budget process. It is simpler, people are involved, and it takes a lot less time.”
3
Annual Return
on Investmentm
on
ths
Gentiva deployed Adaptive Insights’ Adaptive Planning
solution to replace a number of solutions that made the
budget process cumbersome, frustrated users, and were
time-consuming. Nucleus found that Adaptive Planning
enabled the company to support its growth and
increasingly complex business model while increasing
staff productivity.
Mo
nth
s
Total time for the company to
deploy Adaptive Planning
Number of users:
1.3
914,871Average annual benefit
751%
01:11.7
The total time to value, or
payback period, for the project
500
Corporate Headquarters
3350 W. Bayshore Road, Suite 200
Palo Alto, CA 94303
T: +1 800 303 6346
F: +1 650 528 7501
UK / Ireland Headquarters
88 Wood Street London,
EC2V 7RS, UK
T: +44 0 208 528 1767
Australia Headquarters
Level 1, 7 Clunies Ross Court
Eight Mile Plains, QLD 4113, Australia
T: +61 7 3118 5013
F: +61 7 3041 6020
adaptiveinsights.com
adaptiveinsights.co.uk
Customer Success Story
An Improved, Collaborative Approach to FP&AToday the fi nance team uses the comprehensive historical data view in Adaptive to
produce more well-informed fi nancial forecasts and more detailed ‘what-if’ scenarios.
And in addition to measuring performance by market, they also model core planning
drivers in Adaptive for personnel, members, and premiums. Then Renaud’s team can drill
into fi nancial performance by department and individual transaction to learn what’s
driving those numbers. These and other benefi ts have combined to convert a top-down
FP&A approach into an improved bottom-up strategy; one that starts with deeper
performance visibility, and leads to greater fi nancial accountability across the business.
“There’s a lot more information sharing between departments than before,” continued
Renaud. “People are adding more performance details that help us in fi nance to produce
reports and forecasts that better support long-term, organizational strategy. Our CEO
is so happy with our improved monthly forecasts that he even held up a report in a meeting
and talked about how great it was.”
Real-Time Updates Lead to Data-Driven DecisionsUsing those added performance details, fi nance is more accurately allocating operating
expenses and creating individual forecasts for revenue and health coverage claims.
Adaptive then automatically updates those forecasts according to changes in business
drivers so that company leaders are constantly making decisions using the most
current fi nancial analytics.
“We can create a ‘what-if’ scenario in the middle of a leadership meeting, make any changes
to actuals on the fl y, and Adaptive automatically updates and rolls those changes up to the
corporate level. That automation frees up more time to uncover and share more valuable
insight into fi nancial performance with the entire company. We’re a much more predictive,
data-driven organization today as a result of Adaptive.”
“Adaptive helps us more
clearly see our costs per
market, and more easily
forecast the impact of
any major changes or
key decisions, like the
consequences of exiting
a particular market.”
— Sarah Renaud, Team Leader of Budgets
“It took us weeks to do
[benchmarking and
reporting] when we
used Excel exclusively.
Now it’s done instantly
within Adaptive.”
— Sarah Renaud, Team Leader of Budgets
Customer Success Story
Nationally-Recognized Health Insurer Gains Healthy Dose of Financial Visibility
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island uses improved insights via Adaptive Suite to lead more informed decision-making
“We’re a much more predictive, data-driven organization today as a result of Adaptive.”
– Sarah Renaud, Team Leader of Budgets
For Sarah Renaud, detailed and e� cient performance analysis is essential to keeping pace
with the fast-moving healthcare industry. And in order to produce high quality analysis that
helps drive better business decisions, Renaud uses Adaptive Planning, part of the Adaptive
Suite, to take quick action according to changes in fi nancial performance factors.
Renaud is the Team Leader of Budgets for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island,
a 1,000-employee healthcare company and a licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Association. As recently as 2012, the fi nance team exclusively used Excel spreadsheets
for all FP&A processes. But having far exceeded Excel’s limitations by mid-2012, they
implemented Adaptive Planning to better support the business’ needs.
Improved Analysis within Individual Markets“We measure our success by market segment performance, so new regulations, fl uctuating
premiums, and other factors regularly impact our main business drivers,” said Renaud,
explaining the need to upgrade to a modern fi nance tool. “Adaptive helps us more clearly
see our costs per market, and more easily forecast the impact of any major changes or
key decisions, like the consequences of exiting a particular market.”
E� ective fi nancial reallocation, driven by factors like time or enrollment, is central to a
company that measures overall success by individual market performance. One example
of such a market is Medicare, which the fi nance team benchmarks against competitors’
fi nancial performance in the same fi eld. Those benchmarks turn into detailed fi nance reports
in Adaptive that heavily infl uence future strategy within that market.
“Putting cube sheets on top of allocations is an important part benchmarking for us,” said
Renaud, detailing her team’s benchmarking and reporting process. “It took us weeks to do
this when we used Excel exclusively. Now it’s done instantly within Adaptive.”
Copyright ©2014 Adaptive Insights. All rights reserved. All products and services referenced herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. CS_BCBS_102214
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode IslandHealthcareProvidence, RI
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of
Rhode Island (BCBSRI) is the
state’s leading health insurer
and covers more than
550,000 members. BCBSRI’s
mission is to improve its
members’ health and peace
of mind by facilitating their
access to a� ordable, high-
quality healthcare. BCBSRI
is an independent licensee
of the Blue Cross and Blue
Shield Association.
Customer Success Story
Specsavers Achieves Enterprise View of Corporate Performance to Lead Business Initiatives
Specsavers deploys Adaptive Planning for faster, more reliable planning and reporting to guide business decisions and company growth opportunities
“Adaptive Planning o� ers Specsavers visibility into all of our key performance metrics all through a single pane of glass. We can rest assured that this information is both accurate and up-to-date, which is vital when we’re planning and making predictions.”
– Matt Buckley, Group Planning & Reporting Lead for Finance
Moving away from data silosUsing spreadsheets to manage its budgeting and business planning, Specsavers faced a
lack of collaboration across management teams in more than one hundred cost centers.
Consolidating data into a single overall budget was not only time-consuming, it was
often prone to human error. With the company’s plans to expand, such problems were
only set to get worse.
“We were living in a world of Excel silos,” said Matt Buckley, group planning and reporting
lead for fi nance at Specsavers. “Budgeting and planning had become a version control
nightmare among numerous stakeholders and contributors, and inaccuracies increasingly
threatened to throw business goals o� course. We were in desperate need of a single
version of the truth on which we could base current and future budgeting decisions.“
Leaping to the cloud“Adaptive Planning alleviated any fears in our leap to the cloud,” continued Buckley. “It was
quick to deploy and has the look and feel of Excel, but the power and analytical capabilities
of a much more sophisticated solution. It’s helping us produce error free, standardized
versions of our budgets, forecasts, and fi nancial reporting that helps us make decisions
with confi dence in the data.”
Copyright ©2014 Adaptive Insights. All rights reserved. All products and services referenced herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. CS_Specsavers_121914
SpecsaversRetailUK
Specsavers is a partnership
of almost 2,000 locally-run
businesses throughout the
UK, Ireland, the Netherlands,
Sweden, Norway, Finland,
Denmark, Spain, Australia and
New Zealand, all committed
to delivering high quality,
a� ordable optical and hearing
care in the communities they
serve. With over 28 million
customers, one in three people
who wear glasses in the UK buy
them from Specsavers.
Corporate Headquarters
3350 W. Bayshore Road, Suite 200
Palo Alto, CA 94303
T: +1 800 303 6346
F: +1 650 528 7501
UK / Ireland Headquarters
88 Wood Street London,
EC2V 7RS, UK
T: +44 0 208 528 1767
Australia Headquarters
Level 1, 7 Clunies Ross Court
Eight Mile Plains, QLD 4113, Australia
T: +61 7 3118 5013
F: +61 7 3041 6020
adaptiveinsights.com
adaptiveinsights.co.uk
Customer Success Story
An empowered fi nance team making an impact on business decisionsAdaptive Planning has allowed Specsavers to allocate budget far more simply and
e� ciently; reducing any unnecessary costs and minimizing the hours spent correlating
data from di� erent cost centers. Planning has been accelerated by 50 percent, thanks
to automated aggregation and pre-population of planning sheets with data from the
company’s general ledger and ERP systems.
Today, Specsavers generates monthly tailored reports and models complex ‘what-if’
scenarios within Adaptive Planning for decisions on hiring and making new investments in
the business. Specsavers can easily understand the fi nancial impact of potential new FTE’s
and can quickly fl ow through the impact of varying retail performances to the bottom line.
With Adaptive, Specsavers has automated its variance analysis and monthly retailing KPI
reporting. “By holding our retail data and KPI’s within a robust application instead of across
multiple spreadsheets, we have easy access to one version of the truth that has become
the go to database for reporting this information,” Buckley explained. Furthermore, the
detailed reporting means that Specsavers has a reliable audit trail.
Self-service fi nancial reporting has been quickly utilized by the most senior decision makers
within Specsavers. All of the executives have simultaneous and instant access to the very
latest fi nancial information and forecasts, giving them better visibility of what’s happening
across the organization to make quicker, more strategic business decisions.
“Adaptive Planning o� ers Specsavers visibility into all of our key performance metrics all
through a single pane of glass. We can rest assured that this information is both accurate
and up-to-date, which is vital when we’re planning and making predictions,” continued
Buckley. “Anyone who has spent time and e� ort trawling through Excel spreadsheets,
never quite achieving the perfect fi nal picture, would greet the ease and insight a� orded
by Adaptive Planning with open arms. It has allowed us to drive discussions based on
a single view of the entire business, giving us the historic picture that allows us to look
forward based on real trends, proving that the entire business can now benefi t from a more
collaborative, better informed and empowered fi nance team.”
“Adaptive has o� ered us
a scalable solution to our
budgeting and reporting
requirements. More than
ever before the company
is now all on the same
fi nancial page.”
— Matt Buckley, Group Planning & Reporting Lead for Finance
“It has allowed us to drive
discussions based on a
single view of the entire
business, giving us the
historic picture that allows
us to look forward based
on real trends.”
— Matt Buckley, Group Planning & Reporting Lead for Finance
Customer Success Story
Cort improves forecasting and enhances visibility into financial operation
IntroductionCORT Business Services (CORT), a Berkshire Hathaway Company, is the leading provider of rental relocation services in the United States. With more than 2200 employees across 42 states, CORT has served more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 as its customers. They have also established a global network of business partners that provide solutions in close to 70 countries around the world. CORT generates $350 million in annual revenue from multiple lines of business. The company is structured across seven departments, including Real Estate, Human Resources, Finance, National Accounts, Housewares, Relocation Services, and Marketing & Merchandizing. In addition, they have a subsidiary in the UK.
The ChallengeAt CORT, all 50 operating districts maintain their own budget, which required the finance team to reconcile a large number of separately maintained spreadsheets. Each of these spreadsheets then had to be rolled up to the regional and corporate level at the end of the budget cycle. It took a tremendous amount of time to consolidate the information, review the formulas, and ensure there were no errors in the spreadsheets. Version control was difficult and it was sometimes unclear which version was the last one submitted and approved
“Because we were Excel-based it was incredibly time consuming,” recalls Deborah Lansford, CFO, CORT. “Our controller would update the Excel-based schedules, send them out, and hope that nobody made changes to the assumptions or formulas. But mistakes inevitably occurred. As a result, we had to start the budget cycle very early in the year so that we could finish collecting budget inputs by August, consolidate the information and review over several months, and ultimately finalize the budget by the end of the year. The result was an out-of-date budget that was no longer relevant or accurate.”
The SolutionIn order to improve their budgeting, forecasting and reporting processes, the finance group sought to invest in a business performance management solution that In order to improve their budgeting, forecasting and reporting processes, the
finance group sought to invest in a business performance management solution that would allow it to substantially speed up its processes and deliver more accurate and immediate information.
Copyright ©2014 Adaptive Insights. All rights reserved. All products and services referenced herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. CS_012114
CORT Business ServicesRetail–Rental Relocation ServicesFairfax, Virginia
Challenges• Cumbersome 6 month
budget process
• Separately maintained spreadsheets across 50 operating districts
• Required a tremendous amount of time to roll up and consolidate the data
• Lack of version control
Why Adaptive Insights• Enabled standardization of
assumptions within pre-built budget templates
• Eliminated dependency on IT resources to implement
• Offered an affordable solution to their budgeting challenges
• Provided robust forecasting and reporting
Results• Cut the budget process in half
• Rolled out to 400 contributors across the organization
• Reduced time spent forecasting by 80%
• Enabled upload of forecast into ERP system for improved reporting
Corporate Headquarters
3350 W. Bayshore Road, Suite 200
Palo Alto, CA 94303
T: +1 800 303 6346
F: +1 650 528 7501
UK / Ireland Headquarters
88 Wood Street London,
EC2V 7RS, UK
T: +44 0 208 528 1767
Australia Headquarters
Level 1, 7 Clunies Ross Court
Eight Mile Plains, QLD 4113, Australia
T: +61 7 3118 5013
F: +61 7 3041 6020
adaptiveinsights.com
adaptiveinsights.co.uk
Customer Success Story
“We wanted to make a change, but did not want something difficult to learn. Everything we evaluated was too big, too time consuming, too expensive, and simply too much for a company of our size,” recalls Lansford.
After evaluating multiple vendors, Adaptive Insights stood out for its ability to quickly train users, leverage a familiar Excel look and feel, and eliminate version control issues and formula errors. Adaptive Planning, part of the Adaptive Suite, did not require a big monetary investment, required no IT support, and enabled seamless roll-up of data from the district and division levels to the overall company plan.
“Adaptive Planning was the only solution that made sense. It offers a huge leap forward in terms of functionality, without turning everyone’s world upside down,” confirms Lansford. “A great selling point of Adaptive was that no internal IT resources were required to get the budgeting project done. Our IT resources are better spent on other company objectives.”
The ResultsCORT worked with a local partner based in Virginia to implement Adaptive Planning and build their model. CORT conducted their first budget using Adaptive by granting access to the application to more than 400 contributors. The process took less than 3 months, cutting the duration of the process by more than half. In addition, they have standardized the process by having common assumptions and standard formulas in the model, thereby eliminating errors in the budget.
“With Adaptive Planning, we can push the budgeting process out toward the end of the year and still be confident in finishing it on time. What’s more, we get better visibility into the financial picture of the operation and a more accurate budget,” says Lansford. “We got exactly what we were looking for to make our budgeting process a lot less painful– and it didn’t cost a fortune.”
Now, because the finance team has the ability to update plans much more quickly and easily, they also use Adaptive Planning as a monthly forecasting tool. Forecasting is now a simple one-day review process, which is far more efficient and effective than the prior process. The application’s multi-dimensional cube sheet functionality enables quick “at a glance” views of key assumptions such as number of units rented at a given dollar value across centers. In addition, Adaptive Planning has enabled consistent upload of the forecast into their ERP system for improved reporting and analysis.
“For anyone still dependent on Excel spreadsheets for corporate budgeting, Adaptive Planning is the easy and smart transition to a modern web-based application,” confirms Lansford.
“With Adaptive Planning, we
can push the budgeting
process out toward the
end of the year and still
be confident in finishing
it on time. What’s more,
we get better visibility into
the financial picture of
the operation and a more
accurate budget. We got
exactly what we were
looking for to make our
budgeting process a lot
less painful—and it didn’t
cost a fortune”
Deborah Lansford CFO
“For anyone still dependent
on Excel spreadsheets
for corporate budgeting,
Adaptive Planning is the
easy and smart transition
to a modern web-based
application.”
Deborah Lansford CFO
Customer Success Story
Boston Scientific retools budgeting and planning for less invasive process
“With Adaptive, we achieved a better budget process at a fraction of the cost compared to the millions of dollars and years of investment spent maintaining the on-premise Hyperion solution.”
– Mark Powers, Sr. Finance Manager
IntroductionBoston Scientific is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices
that are used in a broad range of interventional medical specialties. Boston Scientific was
founded in 1969 on the premise that less-invasive medicine could improve patient care.
Today Boston Scientific is a leading innovator of medical devices and technologies that
improve patient lives employing 24,000 people worldwide.
The ChallengeThe St. Paul, Minnesota manufacturing plant of Boston Scientific employees 250 people
in its operation. The existing budgeting and planning process was based on a highly
customized Hyperion platform. Most of the budgeting was done based on business rules
and calculation assumptions, which the IT organization maintained. In addition, the finance
team would collect data within Excel and request updates to Hyperion through the IT team.
System updates could take up to two hours to run a new business rule.
“It became challenging maintaining the budget in Hyperion,” recalls Mark Powers, Sr.
Finance Manager, Boston Scientific. “Each time a business condition changed or a product
was added or removed, we had to rely on technical coders in the IT organization to
customize Hyperion and re-run scripts. It was incredibly frustrating for the finance and
business teams because we did not have clear visibility into what assumptions and business
drivers were in place in the Hyperion scripts. These challenges became greater as our
specific instance of Hyperion was being discontinued and IT support decreased, so we had
to find a new solution.”
Copyright ©2014 Adaptive Insights. All rights reserved. All products and services referenced herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. CS_BS_021314
Boston ScientificManufacturingSt. Paul, MN
The Boston Scientific
Corporation is a worldwide
developer, manufacturer, and
marketer of medical devices
used in a range of interventional
medical specialties.
Challenges• Reliant on IT to manage budget
system
• Lack of visibility into budget model assumptions
• Slow response times when changes were made
Why Adaptive Insights• On-demand system that Finance
could manage
• Affordable solution
• Quick implementation
Results• Implemented in one month
• Rolled out to 25 users
• Improved management reporting and analysis as well as end-customer satisfaction.
• Allowed the consolidation of two additional full-time equivalents into existing team
Corporate Headquarters
3350 W. Bayshore Road, Suite 200
Palo Alto, CA 94303
T: +1 800 303 6346
F: +1 650 528 7501
UK / Ireland Headquarters
88 Wood Street London,
EC2V 7RS, UK
T: +44 0 208 528 1767
Australia Headquarters
Level 1, 7 Clunies Ross Court
Eight Mile Plains, QLD 4113, Australia
T: +61 7 3118 5013
F: +61 7 3041 6020
adaptiveinsights.com
adaptiveinsights.co.uk
Customer Success Story
The SolutionThe finance team wanted to find a solution that would allow them to own and operate
their existing budget, as well as a tool that could conduct scenario modeling much faster
than their existing platform. After attending a seminar on budgeting and forecasting best
practices, they decided to try replicating their existing budget model, currently housed in
Hyperion, in Adaptive Planning, part of the Adaptive Suite.
Boston Scientific implemented Adaptive Planning in the midst of their annual budget
process and rolled out to 25 users. The implementation period was one month long and
they saved a tremendous amount of time collecting budget data from contributors.
“After implementing Adaptive and rolling it out to our customers, the feedback was
universally positive,” said Powers. “Our users found it very easy to use and intuitive. They
loved it!”
The ResultsWith Adaptive Planning, the Boston Scientific site has significantly streamlined their budget
process. The six week budget cycle time remains the same, but they have reduced the time
spent across the team by 80 hours and enabled the finance team to absorb the work of
two other finance analysts.
“Now we spend less time dealing with system problems and IT delays and more time
understanding how the model is structured and how it impacts the business,” explains
Powers. “With 25 participants in the budget process, the level of access to information,
transparency and collaboration has increased substantially. It builds confidence between
stakeholders and the finance team.”
Boston Scientific is now conducting management reporting by importing data from SAP
into Adaptive. In addition, they conduct what-if analysis on employee productivity, sales
volume, and house long-range five year plans in Adaptive.
“Adaptive worked great for us during our 2012 budgeting process. IÕd say it even exceeded
our expectations. When the Hyperion system used by our broader company experienced
unexpected downtime during the budget cycle, we were able to continue our budget
process in Adaptive,” confirms Powers. “With Adaptive Planning, we achieved a better
budget process at a fraction of the cost compared to the millions of dollars and years of
investment spent maintaining the on-premise Hyperion solution.”
“With 25 participants
in the budget process,
the level of access to
information, transparency
and collaboration has
increased substantially. It
builds confidence between
stakeholders and the
finance team.”
Mark PowersSr. Finance Manager
“After implementing
Adaptive and rolling it out
to our customers, the
feedback was universally
positive. Our users found
it very easy to use and
intuitive. They loved it!”
Mark PowersSr. Finance Manager