Offline Functionality Simplifies Data Entry for 500 Users Worldwide

PROPHIX Software is a leader in delivering performance management solutions including budgeting, planning, forecasting, reporting, consolidation, personnel planning and other advanced financial functions. PROPHIX streamlines business processes, and Kemira Chemicals, a global chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Finland, proves the application’s capabilities. With approximately 10,000 employees in 1700 cost centers, Kemira operates in the following businesses: Water Treatment Chemicals, Pulp & Paper Chemicals, and Oil & Mining Chemicals. The company’s technical infrastructure consisted of Hyperion Financial Manager for corporate reporting and Excel spreadsheets for budget data entry. A sudden decision to halt a current SAP project left Kemira seeking a budgeting system to implement quickly. Being a global company operating in 40 countries and 8 currencies, Kemira needed an easy-to-use system that handled multiple currencies, complex allocations, and data consolidation.

PROPHIX Performance Management fulfilled Kemira’s requirements and also offered a capability that would simplify their processes. PROPHIX’s offline data entry functions allowed the ability to send templates via e-mail, track the status, and automatically load template data when completed. “Because we needed to collect budget data in a standard format from over 500 users located throughout the world, the offline functionality was a major tool for us,” says Jeff Fasy, former CFO at Kemira. “Because of its offline capabilities, PROPHIX was implemented to collect, analyze, and report Cost Center, Intercompany, Profit & Loss, and Balance Sheet data.”

With PROPHIX, Kemira gained the ability to automate currency conversion, perform ad hoc reporting, and simplify report distribution. Kemira’s currency conversion process consists of converting to EUROs and USDs from various cost centers. By using templates, entering budget data is straightforward regardless of currency because exchange rates are kept separately, which can be changed easily during the budget cycle. “Additionally, we were able to quickly develop ad hoc reports to view expenses by legal entity. This helped us determine our course of action when budgeted expenses were higher than expected,” says Jeff. Consolidated data was then easily distributed. The report binder functionality was used to effectively distribute groups of reports to each country controller. Sending set groups of reports via e-mail ensured that stakeholders received information on time.

Kemira has gained more time for analysis because PROPHIX eliminated the need to manually load data, perform consolidations, and export final numbers to Hyperion Financial Manager. Ultimately, creating budgets in PROPHIX has integrated data across their Line of Business Systems, easing the collaboration across the global organization.

For more information on how PROPHIX can help your organization move beyond spreadsheets with real time access to information within weeks, please reach out to Kimberly Owens at 704-987-9989 or kowens@broadpoint.net. PROPHIX offers a significant return on investment and a low total cost of ownership.