Renewi Replaces Two Legacy Systems and Streamlines Reporting with OneStream

One of the greatest pleasures of my job is getting the chance to meet and sometimes conduct video interviews with OneStream customers. It’s always interesting to hear about their use cases for our unified platform and the value they are getting from the solution.

Recycling Waste into Energy at Renewi

At our 2019 EMEA Splash conference in Madrid I had the opportunity to conduct a video interview with John Wierecx, Reporting Manager for Benelux at Renewi.  Renewi PLC was created in 2017 by the merger of UK-based Shanks Group PLC and Netherlands-based Van Gansewinkel Groep B.V. It is a leading waste-to-product business collecting and recycling waste to energy and fuel, paper, metal, plastic, glass, woodchips compost and other products. Of the 14 million tons of waste handled per year, 89% is either recycled or used for energy recovery. Their company tag line is “Waste No More.”

As a result of the merger, Renewi was faced with the challenge of integrating two sets of reporting processes and two legacy corporate performance management (CPM) systems: Infor PM10 and Longview. With six main data sources, including Exact, JD Edwards, Metacom, Agresso, Navision, Pegasus and Excel®, Renewi was spending too much time manually managing data. The company was in urgent need of a solid tool to streamline statutory and management reporting.

“Our CPM systems and processes were not fit for the future — both were dated, cumbersome and inefficient,” said John Wiericx, Reporting Manager Benelux at Renewi. “Creating full consolidated group numbers was a very manual process, and we had limited support for budgets and forecasts and analysis.”

Recycling Legacy Reporting Processes into OneStream

After evaluating several CPM solutions, the Renewi team selected OneStream Software.  The main reasons for selecting OneStream included the accessibility of the software, built-in workflow and the many positive customer references.

The first phase of the project focused on financial consolidation, management reporting and ad hoc analysis. This included group, divisional and regional reporting with the capability for comparatives against budget and forecast. OneStream XF was set up for analysis by cost center, intercompany matching and eliminations, and direct data loads from Renewi’s six source systems.

Phase 1 went live on time and within budget. Phase 2 focused on developing statutory and external reporting processes. Next phases are under consideration. “We are looking at opportunities to expand the use of OneStream, like for preparation of forecasts with driver-based budgeting, IFRS 16, and Account Reconciliation, if there is an organizational fit,” said Wiericx.

Streamlining Reporting and Improving Visibility

With OneStream, Renewi has enabled greater efficiencies across their finance organization. They’ve enhanced business insights with group and divisional reporting from one single source. And visibility of the close cycle has dramatically improved through entity workflows and submission statuses. “The entire close cycle is visible, enabling the head office to step in and ensure the bottlenecks that happened before OneStream no longer delay the close,” said Wiericx. “The user feedback has been very positive. We now have a single truth on the state of the business.”

With respect to systems landscape, OneStream has provided a much simpler, more streamlined integration approach. OneStream XF easily integrates with all data sources to streamline the upload process while automating cashflow and FX entries. Group-wide intercompany eliminations are automatically occurring in OneStream through a collaborative intercompany matching environment.

“Before with the two legacy systems, we were busy for four days doing the entire group consolidation. Now with OneStream, technically, we can do it in one or two days,” Wiericx continued. “Another big timesaver is intercompany reconciliation. It’s all in one database, and all entities have visibility of counter parties, balances and numbers. The OneStream platform really helped us reduce the amount of time spent on consolidation and get better control of the numbers.”

Learn More

It’s so satisfying to hear customers stories like Renewi’s.  The ability for OneStream to replace multiple legacy systems, streamline processes and improve visibility into both processes and data is a theme we hear over and over.  If you would like to learn more about the success of OneStream at Renewi, check out the 4-minute video testimonial, or read the full case study.  And contact OneStream if you are ready to recycle your legacy CPM systems into a modern, unified platform.