Findus: Business Intelligence, Reporting and Data Project

Accenture helped Findus to develop a business intelligence strategy that would allow it to leverage its data for more effective decision-making.

The project was integrated with a planned rollout of an enterprise system, and will position the group to achieve high performance over the longer term.

Findus Group is a major European food business with operations in the United Kingdom, the Nordic countries, France and with a growing presence in Central and Eastern Europe. The company has more than 6,000 employees across 21 facilities, and in 2008 generated turnover in excess of £1.1 billion (approximately US$1.7 billion). The Group was acquired by private equity firm Lion Capital in July 2008, and has ambitious plans to grow through optimizing current markets, acquisitions and organic growth.

Leading companies are increasingly receptive to the importance of the data generated by their systems as a way to improve decision-making and generate better results. In line with this thinking and ahead of a planned enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation, Findus wanted to ensure that the overall design of core finance data objects was optimal. At the same time, it needed a short-, medium- and long-term road map for business intelligence in the context of the implementation.

Findus chose to work with Accenture based on our pragmatic, robust, and field-tested Financial Data Management methodology, and our prior experience working with data as a valuable corporate asset.

Accenture divided the project into two work streams and worked against a tight timeline as both projects had to be completed before the ERP implementation began.

• Finance Data Structures work stream: Accenture designed a high-level data model that was designed to meet both the client’s reporting requirements and the wider financial and management reporting vision.

• Business Intelligence work stream: Accenture identified focus areas, and then developed a road map to implement four initiatives prior to the ERP implementation.

The use of the tried-and-tested Financial Data Management methodology, Management Reporting Diagnostic tool and previous client experience helped ensure Accenture met the client needs within the compressed timeline. Accenture also trained key IT users to support ongoing sustainability of the project.

With Accenture’s help, Findus has the structure in place to improve the usefulness and quality of its information, and thus its decisions, as it progresses toward high performance. It now has a clearer view of the finance data structures it needs, plus how to capture key finance data. A clear road map for its business intelligence capabilities during and post the ERP implementation now also exists.

Accenture’s close collaboration with the client was decisive in aligning the project with Findus’s overall business strategy and transferring the skills necessary to make the project sustainable over the long term. Accenture’s tried-and-tested methodologies and frameworks also played an important part in helping the teams complete the project within the compressed time frame.