Berkeley helped Unilever redefine its approach to management reporting, extending existing SAP tools to deliver a simpler and faster European financial close and management reporting timetable.
Where were they?
Unilever’s European management reporting system (‘Abacus’) was reaching the end of its support life. There was also a strong business desire to speed up the monthly management reporting cycle.
The Eurolayer project was launched to look at the best way to replace the Abacus system and in so doing, reduce complexity, speed up the financial close process, and improve the quality of management information across all 28 countries involved.
Rather than implement a replacement system, the decision was taken to extend the existing, SAP-based global management reporting tools to also fulfill the European regional reporting requirements.
However, the complexity of integrating the global reporting solution directly with all the European country-level systems was recognised from the outset.
How did Berkeley help?
Initially Berkeley was asked to lead the project scoping phase, evaluating the options for Abacus replacement and defining the project plans and business case to secure funding.
Berkeley was then asked to take on overall management of the project. The plan was designed in two major phases, with delivery of intrusive changes to the global reporting solution fast-tracked and stabilised well in advance of the critical Year End period, and a second phase to automate the transfer of source data from local country systems.
Having secured strong Corporate and European support, funding was approved and Berkeley led the delivery involving 50 Unilever and vendor team members across multiple locations in Europe and Asia. A Berkeley partner also sat on the steering committee for the duration of the project.
Where are they now?
12 months after its initiation, Eurolayer was implemented in full to all European users on time and on budget.
The business described the go live as “seamless”. All key success factors in meeting closing deadlines and system performance were achieved.
Eurolayer was credited with directly contributing to a faster European financial close and management reporting timetable.
The project won Unilever’s annual IT Award for Corporate / Global, and Unilever went on to consider opportunities for its wider application across the group.
“We were really pleased with the contribution of Berkeley throughout the project. We relied on the consultants’ thoroughness in planning, good preparation, integrity in advice for decision-making, and overall project management. This was particularly important because we were working with a team of Unilever people from different management groups, as well as several different providers across numerous international locations. The team delivered the project on time, within budget and it was one of the smoothest ‘go-lives’ of any project in recent times. A job well done by Berkeley and indeed everyone involved.”
Richard Sciver, VP Information Management, Unilever