Difficulties
The main reason FeraDyne jumped on board for an FP&A solution was to have budget control, budget restrictions and version controls. They were keen to have a platform that allowed them to have a collaborative base where they could see changes, track changes, and have an active touchpoint with particular individuals and department heads alike.
We realized what it can do for us in many ways with different systems that we use that have all come together in this one Datarails environment. It’s saving a lot of us time and frustration and allows us to dynamically look at our business and strengths.
Lynn Hopper, Senior Financial Analyst, FeraDyne
Solution
The Datarails platform allowed FeraDyne to have a livestream version that provided updates where different department heads were within the budget process, if they’ve had all of their expenses pulled together, if they’ve had all their expenditures planned out for the year, and really just have a sound board that allowed everybody to come together as opposed to having a bunch of individual meetings with people to go over information and then make updates- only to find out that they’re all working off of an old version and then have to update what was done. Instead, with Datarails everyone works with the latest version of the data which is constantly updated and reuploaded.
Now we’re all on the same page and we didn’t lose a day to a week for responses.
Lynn Hopper, Senior Financial Analyst, FeraDyne
Outcome
Previously, many weeks were spent consolidating data from all the departments together into one Excel spreadsheet. With Datarails, that process that once took many weeks to conduct was greatly simplified- now they create a template and push it to department heads, and in this way make each one responsible for submitting updated financials. Time is now better spent looking at and analyzing the budget as opposed to putting it together. Being able to have the ability to filter data in a dynamic way whether it be by department, cost center, or account within the GL, it all allows FeraDyne to quickly make decisions and move forward.
Last but not least, the Datarails Insights feature is where everything comes together for FeraDyne. To be able to have these visuals that you can break up however you want allows everything to beautifully come together visually, and the ability to drill down into numbers saves FeraDyne lots of time.