Avebe – Financial consolidation in the cloud

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To increase business agility, you need to make high-quality decisions based on timely performance information. But how to reconcile your figures fast, with subsidiaries all around the world? Avebe transformed its agility by switching to a cloud-based solution integrated with SAP ERP for rapid, automated financial consolidation. Users can now view up-to-date performance data anytime, anywhere, for better decision-making, while cutting the time and cost of reporting.

Demand for insight
To retain its position as the world’s leading producer of potato starch, it is vital for Avebe to respond quickly to market trends. This involves staying on top of its financial performance so that the cooperative can make fast decisions about its business strategies. However, Avebe’s structure, consisting of 25 subsidiaries worldwide, made financial consolidation a complex and time-consuming process. Fred Oostland, Finance Director Group at Avebe, elaborates, “Previously, we relied on spreadsheets for our financial consolidation process, which took more than 25 working days and required many separate intermediate consolidations. It was a labor-intensive and costly process that distracted from more useful tasks — including analysis of the reports. With many people working on different spreadsheets simultaneously, it was inevitable that some errors were made. As a result, we had to spend valuable time checking and re-checking our results to make sure that they were completely accurate.”

Move to the cloud
To make it possible to deliver reports with greater speed and accuracy, Avebe set out to streamline its financial consolidation in the cloud. As part of a major transformation it implemented SAP ERP solutions and automated its financial consolidation processes with IBM software. Today data from almost all Avebe subsidiaries goes directly from its SAP applications to IBM Cognos Controller for consolidation. The solution automatically reconciles the figures and produces group-level reports on financial performance. Originally, Avebe relied on an external IT cloud provider to host the server running the consolidation software. Recently, the company moved to the IBM cloud. “Previously, our users could only access the solution remotely if they had a laptop connection that met specific security requirements. With IBM Cognos Controller on Cloud, the built-in security made it possible to log in any time, from anywhere,” Oostland explains.

“Our cloud-based financial consolidation software boosts productivity.”
Fred Oostland
Finance Director Group, Avebe

From 25 to 5 days
By automating its financial consolidation processes in the cloud, Avebe is boosting efficiency and accuracy. “We have cut the time spent on financial consolidation by 80 percent ‒ from 25 working days to just 5”, Oostland comments . “The actual consolidation itself takes less than 4 hours. What’s more, we can be confident that the figures are reliable ‒ one look at the results is enough to reveal any errors in the initial formulas. This means that we spend less time gathering data and checking figures, helping the finance team work much more efficiently.”

Moreover, greater visibility of financial performance offers Avebe the insight needed to build more effective strategies. Oostland explains: “Being able to present reliable figures to group management in only 5 days has increased the speed and quality of decision-making — enabling us to become more agile and responsive to market trends.”

Yearly cost savings of up to 30 percent
By transitioning from the external provider to the IBM cloud, Avebe achieved significant cost savings. Oostland says: “We estimate that using the cloud-based version of the financial consolidation software saves us 25 percent to 30 percent per year, as it eliminates software subscription, support and hosting provider costs — while delivering the same impressive user experience”. Additionally, working in the cloud offers Avebe far more flexibility and convenience. Oostland: “Our cloud solution boosts productivity: it allows employees to work on the go, while our IT team doesn’t have to spend any time on system management or maintenance ‒ all we need is a reliable internet connection”. He concludes, “With a fast, accurate financial consolidation solution in place, Avebe can make rapid, informed decisions and respond quickly to market trends. Moving to the cloud is the cherry on top, as it offers us greater flexibility and significant savings.”

“Moving to the cloud offers us greater flexibility and significant savings.”
Fred Oostland
Finance Director Group, Avebe

Avebe is a cooperative of starch-potato growers. It is the global market leader in potato starch and protein, from which it manufactures products for use in food, animal feed, paper, construction, textiles and adhesives. With 1,350 employees and about 2,500 farmer members, the cooperative has production sites in the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden.