As a holding company, Maritz is used to silos. Each company operates independently, with its own mission, KPIs, and goals. However, those same silos kept the corporate finance team from truly understanding the overall health of the business or being able to effectively plan. Blame the old system. “Our planning system received the worst ratings from users. They were ready for a change,” says Erin Riesmeyer, financial analysis director at Maritz. “They were tired of the inflexibility of our existing tool. They felt they were way too bogged down with entering and reviewing data, and they didn’t have enough time to analyze that data.”
With Workday Adaptive Planning, the finance team was able to integrate 11 separate systems to have a unified, real-time view into their business for the first time in the organization’s history. “I’m very proud of the success we’ve found with Workday Adaptive Planning,” says Riesmeyer. “Our CFO said it was one of the most successful and streamlined implementations that we’ve had at Maritz in recent history, and that’s just phenomenal to hear.”
Workday Adaptive Planning has been a big win for us. We’re doing more with fewer people. I used to spend a day every month updating our benefits forecast. In Workday Adaptive Planning, it’s done automatically.
Financial Analysis Director
Challenges.
Outdated system. Struggled with a highly customized legacy system that required almost entirely manual maintenance, operation, and running of batch jobs.
Cumbersome processes. Stifled collaboration due to siloed, nonstandard processes across its multiple business units.
- Limited forecasting. Experienced a limited ability to forecast factors like capital expenses and monthly rent charges due to the flat, inflexible model.
Results.
Consistent data. Centralized the company’s previously siloed data from multiple business units into one location for consistent and accurate insights, less administration, and better collaboration.
Faster reporting. Incorporated 11 separate integrations to automatically import data from the ERP, CRM, and other systems to make planning and reporting faster and easier.
- Flexible modeling. Provided the flexibility to build separate yet standardized revenue models for each business unit, in addition to standard models for workforce, facility rent charges and operating expenses.