Olympus Europa SE & Co. KG
Olympus Europa SE & Co. KG had previously used extensive, interconnected Excel spreadsheets for the financial planning of its individual country subsidiaries. Due to the increasing complexity of the planning requirements set by the parent company, these spreadsheets had become virtually unmanageable. Using the flexible Board software, we therefore developed a comprehensive system for P&L, balance sheet, and capital expenditure planning. Today, the new planning system ensures a significantly higher level of detail and automation.
The Olympus Company
Olympus is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of high-tech opto-digital products. As the headquarters for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, Olympus Europe has a total of more than 31,653 employees worldwide, spread across 31 companies in 8 sub-regions.
Until now, the company had been using extensive, interconnected Excel spreadsheets for the financial planning of its individual subsidiaries. Due to the increasing complexity of the planning requirements set by the parent company, these spreadsheets had become virtually unmanageable. Working together, we then developed a comprehensive system for income statement, balance sheet, and capital expenditure planning using the flexible Board software. Today, the new planning system ensures a significantly higher level of detail and automation.
The facts at a glance:
✓ Higher level of detail and automation
✓ Greater transparency and clarity in planning
✓ Holistic, forward-looking, and data-driven control process
✓ All-in-one dashboard
The challenge of the project
Financial planning within a global corporation is a complex challenge. At Olympus, for example, the individual country subsidiaries must prepare income statements and balance sheets several times a year. These are reviewed by regional controllers—such as those for the German-speaking region—and consolidated by the regional subsidiary, in this case Olympus Europe.
However, the parent company’s growing demands on the planning process resulted in a significant burden when it came to version control, and it was difficult to accommodate last-minute changes and top-down directives. In addition, changes often came in after the deadline, meaning that during the planning phase—which lasted several weeks—several employees at headquarters had to spend a large portion of their time preparing and consolidating the plans. “In addition to this high level of manual effort and the resulting susceptibility to errors due to complexity, there was another problem: As the Excel files grew larger over time—up to several hundred MB—they became nearly impossible to edit,” said Matthias Ola, Head of Corporate Controlling at Olympus Europa SE & Co. KG.
“In addition, it became difficult to maintain an overview because there were 30 to 50 managers per country alone. For example, if headquarters set a target of a 5 percent increase in revenue, the regional subsidiaries had to implement the necessary changes at the lowest level to ensure that this figure was achieved overall.”
The implementation of the project and the transformation within the company
Accordingly, Olympus Europe was looking for a solution to systematically support the planning process. The new planning tool was intended not only to support financial planning but also to be usable in other departments. “In a competitive bidding process, the comprehensive solution from celver AG, based on Board’s flexible software platform, came out on top,” explains Daniel Zillmann, project manager. “The business department, central controlling, and IT conducted the POC together and reached a unanimous decision. Above all, celver’s extensive project experience and comprehensive planning and process expertise, as well as the ability to customize functions individually, flexibly, and independently, were decisive factors in the selection.”
Following detailed specification and process modeling, a comprehensive system for income statement, balance sheet, and capital expenditure planning was implemented. This was quickly followed by the introduction of a Board-based solution for marketing planning. The benefits of the solution became apparent immediately after the financial planning system was installed. As a result, approximately 100 division controllers are now able to carry out planning significantly more efficiently. Colleagues at the European headquarters continue to support this process by automatically initializing the relevant actual figures and a suggested value for the forecast. “In the past, initialization required a significant amount of manual effort, which was prone to copying errors. The new initialization process eliminates this source of error,” explains Thorben Sychla, Board Administrator.
“Our colleagues in the various countries can now also adjust these figures from the top down. This means, for example, that they can change the revenue figure for the entire country, and the supply chain costs are then calculated automatically.” Another important point is the status indication. Since European controllers previously did not know whether the file stored on the drive was an interim version or the final list, celver created a dedicated workflow process for the Board platform. This allows the entire plan to be locked at a specific point in time, so that no subsequent changes are possible. This ensures adherence to deadlines.
“The new integrated solution from celver and Board has led to greater automation and a higher level of detail in the planning process at Olympus Europe,” explains Matthias Ola. “Many steps are now automated, so there is no longer any need to manually consolidate data. If adjustments to the process are necessary or if specific customization requests come from the business units, we can implement them largely on our own and quickly.” Import solutions for legacy systems are also used in this process. For example, personnel cost planning data generated by the HR department is imported via a CSV file.
In addition to automatic currency conversion, general expenses—such as IT costs—can now be allocated to individual departments. Since a large portion of the balance sheet is calculated automatically, the states can now generate a comprehensive balance sheet plan in just a few steps based on the income statement. Furthermore, only capital expenditures need to be entered. The resulting depreciation is calculated, and all figures are incorporated into the income statement and balance sheet.
“Until now, when colleagues responsible for specific countries, regions, and continents wanted to discuss data together, they had to send out excerpts from the Excel file,” adds Matthias Ola. “Now they can view the detailed data in Board simultaneously, making collaboration easier and ensuring that everyone involved has the same planning status across all dimensions.” Automatic calculations, a higher level of detail, and the flexibility of the Board platform: thanks to these advantages, Olympus has decided to further expand the system and use it for supply chain and sales planning in the future as well.
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