Solenis Takes the Path to Modern Finance with OneStream XF Cloud

Modernizing finance across a global organization requires a high amount of focus on unifying the data. To create the most effective financial consolidation and reporting process, you must bridge the gap between ERPs, various operational systems, and corporate performance management (CPM) software. Increasingly more organizations with fragmented ERP systems are taking the leap from fragmented spreadsheets and legacy CPM products to a unified CPM platform that supports faster, more informed decision-making. Read on to discover how a global supplier of chemical and water treatments discovered the path to modern finance with OneStream Cloud.

Trusted Sustainable Solutions
Solenis, formerly Ashland Water Technologies, is a leading manufacturer of specialty chemicals for the pulp, paper, oil and gas, chemical processing, mining, biorefining, power and municipal markets. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, the company has 41 manufacturing facilities strategically located around the globe and employs a team of approximately 5,200 professionals in 120 countries across five continents.

Growth Created Challenges
In 2014, Solenis was challenged with integrating a new $2B acquisition into their financial consolidation and reporting process. With multiple instances of SAP ERPs already in use, the global supplier was using SAP GL and Excel® spreadsheets for financial consolidation. Using a series of fragmented systems, Solenis had limited transparency between underlying SAP financial data and corresponding operational data. Having limited IT resources available only added to this problem. It was up to a newly hired finance leadership team to build a brand-new controller function with a modern and unified CPM platform.

Moving to the Cloud
Solenis needed a solution that would allow them to streamline finance processes with limited IT support. The team had a preference to move away from their on-premise SAP environment and into the cloud for a simpler update process. They put their trust in Fidato Partners, a consulting services firm, who quickly recommended OneStream Software. After a demonstration of the unified OneStream XF Cloud platform, Solenis decided to move forward without considering any other options.

A Solution Owned by Finance
With over 140 users in OneStream, monthly reporting is now fully completed within the platform and is much more detailed and accurate. A direct connection between OneStream and SAP ERPs has created a seamless data integration process at Solenis, with complete audit trails and a single version of the truth. OneStream allows Solenis to quickly and easily report results – and best of all, they no longer need to manually pull data from several SAP tables.

OneStream XF also automatically manages FX calculations across 70 global entities by collecting and translating data in multiple currencies. The OneStream solution supports multiple reporting hierarchies including legal, SBUs/product, line of sight, and geography. In addition, intercompany eliminations are more accurate than ever before across global locations. Their original intercompany out of balance was roughly $40M – which has now been reduced to around $300K.

Benefits of OneStream XF
Leveraging the OneStream XF Cloud for financial consolidations and reporting has provided several immediate benefits to Solenis – and they have since extended their investment with additional OneStream XF MarketPlace solutions. Solenis uses OneStream’s Guided Reporting for ad hoc reporting and the OneStream Excel® add-in for generating financial statements. They are also using Task Manager to easily manage workflow process across functions and the Account Reconciliations solution to replace their previous Excel-based approach.

OneStream has provided Solenis with more timely and accurate financial reporting to external stakeholders – even reducing the close process from 15 days to five! Their annual budgeting process is currently being moved into OneStream, along with a rolling forecast.

Learn More
To learn more about how Solenis has modernized finance with OneStream, we invite you to check out their Customer Success Story article. Are you ready to take the leap from spreadsheets and fragmented legacy systems to a unified CPM platform? Contact OneStream Software today!