Douglas Volz Consulting

Case Study:

Leading Pharma Manufacturer

Global Pharmaceutical Manufacturer - Cost Accounting Challenges

This provider of cancer therapies struggled with millions of dollars of differences in almost all the inventory accounts.  With complex profit in inventory tracking and elimination to further complicate the accounting close.  For the first nine months after Go Live, the CFO, US and Swiss Senior Directors and Cost Accounting Departments expressed deep concerns over their ability to reconcile and verify that the inventory balances and profit margins were financially sound.  And their audit firm KPMG was no longer willing to overlook the impact this was having on the inventory balances and month-end results.

Couldn't be Done With Oracle's Reports

"But it couldn’t be done with Oracle’s out-of-the-box reports given that we have over 150 inventory organizations, with more than 16 ledgers and operating units.  The system we use in finance to extract information from Oracle is called Business Objects.  No one had created a universe for the inventory or the costing group, and no one seemed to want to create one."

“Our own IT people were just saying, ‘Use what’s in the system.’ We couldn’t run reports ourselves. Every time we needed a report, we had to ask. KPMG was worried about the accounts."

Solution

Douglas Volz Consulting quickly repaired broken Oracle Application setups, created an efficient solution to track, report and record global profit in inventory and devised a reporting solution to meet their current and future cost accounting requirements.

“My company hired Doug to design the reports so we could run them ourselves. We appreciated his extreme knowledge of Oracle, his knowledge of user-friendly reports, and his willingness to help us night or day." 

"To solve these challenges Doug created more than 80 customized reports that we could run by ourselves.  Although Doug is a consultant, his objective was really to get us to stand on our own two feet.  His SQL reports allowed us to run the reports ourselves through Business Objects.  From tracking and managing profit in inventory, reconciling the G/L to global perpetual inventory, to providing transactional, cost and price reporting for our global operations." 

 “He also drew up a user manual. There must be a thousand step-by-step procedures of how to run reports and how to use Oracle. Going forward, if he’s not around, there’s his user manual."

The Process

“It’s not always easy working with us. We’re in Europe, and there’s a time difference with New Jersey (US headquarters).  Sometimes you need to talk it over with someone, and you don’t want to exchange emails to wait until the next morning to get their response.  It could take days."

 “It was great being able to call Doug up and talk on the phone or videoconference. We loved that he was available.  Every time we had a request, Doug had a solution.  Always.  He was very quick at finding them.  It never took days."

 “Although Doug is a consultant—and usually they want to stay on as long as they can—his objective seemed to be to get us to stand on our own, to help us learn the system and how it works, to get us those reports we needed.  He kept on going, and never needed reminders.  He knew the steps to follow—he’s very independent and reliable."

-- Senior Manager Finance, Switzerland

Collaboration and team work with Douglas Volz Consulting

Results

“We’ve come a long way. Closes go rather smoothly now, and all the accounts are reconciled.  For the quarterly reviews, KPMG seems at ease when we give them the reports ... We’re able to keep to the calendar and close in a timely manner. "

“Now we can figure out the costs inside and out, from every perspective. And we’re able to run the reports ourselves."

 “Will we always be able to stand and run on our own two feet—even as our company grows and devises new ways of doing transactions every month? Thanks to the tools Doug has given us, reports are no longer a problem. Now it’s more of an internal communication issue."

 “Part of our objective is to not call Doug.  So far, we’re doing fine.”

-- Senior Manager Finance, Switzerland

Timeframe:
     Initial solution and discovery:  10 days
     Total solution timeline:  2.5 years

 

 

Copyright 2012

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