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Case Study on Financial Technology Integration by Think Numbers

CASE STUDIES

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IMPLEMENT A NEW DATAMART TO HANDLE BACK OFFICE FOR A SCALING ONLINE INSURANCE BROKER

Growing pains for a scaling FinTech business outgrowing its existing back-end finance systems platform, overwhelmed with data errors.

Challenges

  • An online Fintech business’s customer base was growing at double digits

  • Home-grown Australian business built from the ground up with finance system built in-house

  • Back office finance system wasn’t invested to scale with the business’s growth

  • Complex transactional use cases due to inconsistent treatment of insurers

  • Constant daily struggle with data integrity – short cuts were developed to patch errors

  • Introduction of monthly payment option made the number of errors balloon on daily basis

Solution

  • Spent a period of time diagnosing the main problem, gathering data and interviewing the key SMEs

  • Decided to re-build the finance system with key triggers built around key business processes and accounting definitions

  • Planned out a number of Sprints to build out a MVP Finance System

  • Mobilised a team of SQL developers, BA’s, QA and Product Owner

  • Broke out the project based on key business processes and lines of business

  • Delivery of a new database


Added Value

  • The number of errors previously experienced has disappeared through good data governance & well documented transactional triggers

  • The project was designed and led with a finance lens as opposed to a pure IT focused solution

  • The business matured its approach using agile methodology over time

  • The business learned about its financial exposures and inconsistencies

  • The business is now able to scale with confidence the data mart will handle all types of scenarios

Standing Meeting

SELECTION OF KEY FINANCE SYSTEMS POST MERGER FOR LARGE TELCO

Indecision and lack of strategic direction post merger of two Telco’s finance systems

Challenges

  • Two large Telco’s merged into one group

  • Various different systems and business processes existed

  • Misalignment of business process and practices existed

  • New group was motivated to realise its merger synergies

  • Key ERP systems for both organisations were at end of life and on-premise

Solution

  • Diagnosis and inventory of the various systems was conducted

  • Detailed business requirements were gathered and agreed upon

  • Roadmap of systems and approach was mapped out

  • SI partners and other vendors were invited to propose a solution and RFP process was undertaken

  • Global commercial contracts were reviewed for any favourable software deals

  • Oracle Cloud ERP was selected and design workshops were undertaken

Added Value

  • Decision making was facilitated by a methodical approach across stakeholder groups within both organisations

  • Stakeholders were provided with adequate opportunity for consultation and raising any concerns

  • SI Partners and Software Vendors were given adequate opportunity to explain product features, challenges and fit

  • Key business risks were identified through the process and an action plan to address

  • Newly formed group has a clear direction and pathway to cloud with a blueprint to execute the implementation

Conversation Between Colleagues

LARGE FACILITIES MAINTENANCE PROVIDER RELIANCE ON SPREADSHEETS

Lack of focus and investment in certain functional platforms left a newly formed JV struggling to consolidate results and was drowning in spreadsheets

Challenges

  • No single view of people metrics with three different approaches for a workforce of 6,000+ employees and contractors

  • People data maintained manually on dozens of excel workbooks

  • Inconsistent definitions between business units

  • Many sources of truth

  • Significant time to produce reports and a consolidated view

Solution

  • Initial diagnosis and deep dive on various people related metrics and definitions

  • Designed and Built a people data cube to maintain headcount, leave, diversity & other people sensitive data for HR teams

  • Re-defining of key HR terms, definitions and key business metrics on people data

  • Alignment across various HR teams

  • Designed dashboard reporting and rolled this out for board reporting and cost centre managers

Added Value

  • One source of the truth for reporting on people

  • Highlighting gaps on contracts in areas of diversity, leave, absenteeism and paygrades

  • Ability to make more strategic decisions

  • Assurance of an accurate dataset for purposes of planning and reporting

Conversation Between Colleagues

LARGE TELCO WANTING A BETTER ROI ON ITS EXISTING EPM PLATFORM

Previous attempts at developing its EPM platform left many incomplete models and a lot of consulting dollars spent for little result

Challenges

  • Previously had used multiple developers to build out its TM1 environment

  • Inconsistent coding standards and customisations

  • No clear strategic direction of finance systems

  • Many offline models within individual spreadsheets existed

  • Limited tools to do planning

Solution

  • Inventory of existing solutions developed and any documentation

  • Enquiry with key stakeholders around the business

  • Gathering of key models offline

  • Steering committee prioritisation

  • Development of Roadmap

  • Delivery of dozens of TM1 models to support Consumer Commercial

Added Value

  • Cutting down processing time of large calculations

  • Central source of truth for a team of 200 analysts and commercial staff

  • Reporting refreshed within seconds

  • Confidence within the business of data and financial reporting

  • Automation of many manual tasks

Modern Work Space

INVESTMENT BANK WANTS TO MODERNISE ITS ERP SYSTEM INTO THE CLOUD

End users were so engrained into ‘business as usual’ there was no bandwidth to focus on a pathway to cloud for their end of life ERP system.

Challenges

  • Previous version of Microsoft ERP was end of life with reliance on one vendor nationally for support

  • Limited features were available or never implemented making certain processes very timely and manual

  • Month end felt like a never ending cycle

  • Limited internal capabilities to run large and complex software projects

Solution

  • Problem was articulated with a clear project charter

  • Business requirements were clearly defined

  • SI partners were selected

  • Project Plan developed for D365

  • New Chart of Account developed

  • Implemented D365 and migrated data


Added Value

  • Continuing upgrades available through D365

  • Mainly ‘out of box’ features utilised to minimise any customisations

  • Integrations setup to other platforms such as for banking and expense management

  • Platform accessible via the web through any device

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