COWI

COWI

ABOUT COWI

COWI is an engineering and architecture consultancy, co-creating sustainable and beautiful solutions that improve the quality of life for people and society.


Primarily located in Scandinavia, the UK, North America and India, we are currently 6,900 people, who offer our expertise in engineering, architecture, energy and environment. 

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CHALLENGES 
  • Excel-driven FP&A process 
  • Old and outdated system design and technology 
  • Many manual processes 
  • Heavy to do analysis 
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OUTCOME 
  • "One set of numbers" 
  • Fully automated data updating process  
  • Workflow supported FP&A process 
  • Better data quality validation 
  • Real-time insights in FP&A reports 
  • Consolidated budget in one system 

Elements in solution

Classical P&L, Balance & Cashflow

Cost

Allocation Model 

Financial Consolidation Module 

Financial Reporting & Analysis 

Budget & Forecasting 

Organizational elements in solution

Business Units / Line Management at department level 

Back Office / Business Support 

65 Users in EPM Tool Jedox 

Global Setup 

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

The Solution setup is based on Accobats BI + EPM (Business Intelligence & Enterprise Performance Management) Framework ensuring “one set of numbers” where the EPM setup becomes an “integrated” part of the Data Platform. The Data Platform gives access to Actuals, Budget and Forecasting data including Financial Consolidated data. This means one and only one access to data for reporting & analysis purposes for whole of COWI. Actuals are moved to the EPM setup and Budget, Forecasting and Financial Consolidation Data is moved back to the Data Platform to ensure on source for reporting and analysis only. 

Microsoft Power BI Premium as Reporting & Analysis Tool for both “Financial Reporting & Analysis” instead of Excel. Excel can still be used as an Ad Hoc Analysis Tool on top of PowerBI. 

Jedox for Financial Planning (Budgeting and Forecasting) and Financial Consolidation. Prepared for AI based Prediction – which is a standard module in Jedox. 

Microsoft Azure Synapse as Data Platform with SQL server for relational data and Azure Data Factory as Integration tool. Automatic Integration for now is done to source system like ERP system and HR.


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Read more about COWIs challenges and the solution here:

One set of numbers 
The financial unit implemented "One set of numbers" as a strategy to support the general business strategy in COWI. The manual processes and the lack of transparency between the two systems were two of the challenges before the implementation of the new solution. With the new digital strategy it was possible to become fully standardized and automated.

Manual data washing 
To reach their finance ambition COWI recognized that they needed a system upgrade to align their financial profit and loss and financial organizational structure. Previously they ran on two different setups, so there was a lot of manual work to be done to transfer data between the two systems.  

Because of the different structures it was difficult to translate numbers shown in one system to another. A big challenge was also simply to get everything aligned, so that they could reach "one set of numbers". 

When automation and standardization is key
With the new solution, COWI has automated interfaces between the systems and gone are the many manual processes. Because they do not have a complex middle layer of preparing and converting data, all the financial parts are now aligned and identical. 

Joined systems 

The Business units had an Excel-based setup for budgeting and forecasting. Performance in the old systems was not optimal and the design was outdated with very detailed demands for budgeting and forecasting. They used different tools that needed to be manually updated. This all made analysis very heavy and time-consuming and the occurrence of mistakes were more prominent. Excel could not manage the whole organization in one sheet, so today they only use Excel as an add-on to Power BI and for ad hoc analysis. Hence why they needed a joined budget and forecast tool as well as the reporting part integrated. 


A better workflow

Prior to the implementation, the team could not work in the same Excel-based tool at the same time, which made it difficult to coordinate the workflow, and the coordination had to go through email, which made the process very time-consuming. With the new solution it is possible to see who has started and finalized their forecast and budget in each department. Before they had to upload the forecast in the SAP BPC, so there was no joined flow. Now everybody in Business can see the output in Jedox and/or Power BI. 


Quality improved outcome 

The outcome of the project has improved the quality, the setup, and reduced the quantity and frequency of mistakes. The overall process is smoother, making the figures more correct and the validation of the data quality easier and faster. Before the Business unit would discuss the correctness or validation of the data instead of business issues. 

Photo Credit: Lars Just for COWI, Nicky Bonne for COWI (HQ photo)

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