Avante was running Hyperion Enterprise using a centralized model – meaning site locations would send Excel files to be transformed in a format to load into Hyperion. The manual processes associated with this model made it difficult to close the books quickly and required at least a day’s work by a single employee to upload the data correctly.

Further, employees at site locations didn’t have visibility into their data after they sent it to corporate. When errors were found in the data, site employees lacked the ability to trace the data to the source of error. This often created conflict between the corporate office and site locations. Site employees also didn’t have sufficient views into cash flow as the end-users were not completing roll-forward schedules that provide the detail needed to automate the cash flow. As a result, they couldn’t get the detail they needed to perform better analysis.

Combined, the limitations of software and process made it difficult to consider potential companies for acquisitions. Since all analysis was being done in Excel, analyzing potential acquisitions was a long, slow process. There was no single, trusted source of information that allowed Avante’s stakeholders to analyze information.

Knowing that Hyperion Enterprise was no longer supported and that they required new functionality to support their business growth strategy, Avante selected OneStream. They planned to replicate 3 years of historical data (plus a couple of versions of the current year’s budget) to migrate to the new system. They brought in data from Hyperion for their main entities and used Excel templates to load their current acquisitions as well as the Bank Budget.

Avante selected Archetype to be their implementation partner and support them through this transition. Their goals were to:

• Increase visibility for site locations by using OneStream to access their data, which would allow them to perform greater analysis.

• Decrease the time for the close cycle and remove the multiple day manual processes of collecting Excel spreadsheets and configuring them into Hyperion.

• Enhance accountability among end users and allow them to upload their own data and sign-off on it throughout the close process.

• Provide end users with more time to analyze the results and be proactive addressing significant variances with the business and automate reporting as much as possible.

• Promote consistency throughout the organization and increase trust between corporate and site locations.

Avante also wanted to provide a tool to improve analytics across the organization and asked Archetype to help design the OneStream application to collect additional detail from each of the site locations so they can analyze product line detail and department information.

Archetype delivered the project on-time and under-budget providing Avante with added value beyond the implementation. The Finance team gained significant efficiencies in the close process by making the change to OneStream. Most importantly, the company has one version of the truth which reduces confusion across the enterprise and improves trust in the data. Additionally, leadership had improved capabilities for analyzing companies for acquisition.

Key benefits delivered:

• Moved away from a centralized, manual process to a decentralized process where the sites have taken ownership of loading and signing-off of their data within OneStream.

• Able to close the books within 2-3 days allowing more time for analysis and interpretation.

• Better transparency into cash flow as the end-users are completing roll-forward schedules that provide the detail needed to automate the cash flow.

• Archetype helped Avante capture additional detail on product line and departments, so they may run Income Statements at different levels of detail.

• Improved intercompany eliminations as investments of Equity eliminations were taking place only in Excel and not in Hyperion. In OneStream, Avante is collecting this detail in the application and the system automatically performs the eliminations.

• Archetype helped to develop standard P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow reports in OneStream and then each user can use the Excel Add-in to develop ad-hoc reports for further analysis.

• Site locations can compare against prior year and budget, drill into revenues and costs by product line, and see intercompany differences with other sites.