Welcome to the final chapter of our insightful series on machine learning for financial...
An effective close process is crucial for ensuring accuracy, compliance, and timely reporting. The pain points of this process become apparent
That is where OneStream, a leading platform renowned for its unified financial platform, comes into play. We’ll walk you through what makes OneStream an ideal choice for your close management processes, and the considerations to consider when preparing for an application migration.
1. Why OneStream for Close Management?
OneStream is an excellent choice for your close management processes. Unlike other applications that require multiple disparate tools for data reconciliation, OneStream offers a single, unified platform that streamlines the entire close process, from data loads to end-user reporting. This integration eliminates data silos, reduces the risk of errors, and ensures consistency across financial reports.
Additionally, OneStream's advanced automation capabilities significantly reduce manual efforts, enabling finance teams to close books faster and more accurately.
The platform's real-time data validation and robust reconciliation features provide a clear look into discrepancies, should they exist, allowing for swift resolution and ensuring the integrity of financial data.
OneStream's scalability makes it the ideal choice for businesses with future acquisition plans. The unified platform adapts effortlessly to accommodate increased transaction volumes, additional entities, and evolving reporting requirements. Its flexible architecture supports multi-currency and multi-GAAP reporting, making it suitable for use domestically and abroad.
If this isn’t enough, OneStream offers significant cost and time advantages over competitors. Our clients have realized benefits of over $80,000 per quarter in end-user licensing costs, and thousands of hours of reconciliation time saved in a team of several hundred end users after their rollout of OneStream was completed.
Additionally, the scalability and flexibility of OneStream can support long-term business growth, further enhancing the long-term ROI.
2. Assessing Current OneStream Processes and Requirements
Before any application migration, it is crucial to first understand your current processes and identify existing pain points amongst your team. Assessing your current close management processes allows you to pinpoint inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and areas prone to errors.
A thorough evaluation of your current state will also help in setting realistic expectations and measurable goals for the migration process.
We recommend mapping out current workflows, data sources, and reporting structures. With these, you can identify requirements, gaps, and redundancies that need to be addressed.
Once you have a comprehensive understanding of your current processes, you can define specific requirements and goals for the new OneStream implementation. This might include improving data accuracy, reducing close cycle times, enhancing compliance, or providing more detailed and timely financial insights.
Clearly defining these objectives will guide the configuration and customization of OneStream to meet your organization's unique needs, ensuring a smooth transition.
3. OneStream Data Migration and Integration
Data migration is a uniquely challenging component of transitioning any business intelligence application. Common challenges include data compatibility issues, differences in data structures, and the risk of data loss or corruption during the transfer. Addressing these challenges requires meticulous planning, thorough testing, and a robust validation process to confirm that all data is accurately and completely transferred.
Preparing data for migration involves several key steps to ensure a smooth transition. We recommend conducting an audit of your existing data, standardizing and cleaning the data, and creating a detailed migration plan including timelines and contingency measures. We also recommend testing and documenting the process in a controlled environment to ensure it works as intended.
Fortunately, OneStream offers built-in connectors and APIs to facilitate seamless data exchange and ensure real-time synchronization, saving time and resources on complex data validations.
4. Customization and Configuration:
Once your requirements are set out, it's time to explore the custom configuration options that OneStream's flexibility allows for. Customizing the platform involves tailoring its features to align with your organization’s unique processes, reporting requirements, and strategic goals.
The customization process should involve collaboration between the implementation consultants, the finance team, and the IT team to ensure the configurations accurately reflect business requirements and support optimal performance.
Start by mapping out your organization’s key financial processes and defining the workflows needed to support them. Design intuitive dashboards that provide real-time visibility into critical financial metrics and trends. Custom reports should be configured to deliver actionable insights, supporting decision-making at all levels of the organization.
OneStream’s extensible platform enables the development of custom applications and solutions to address specific business challenges. By leveraging this flexibility, organizations can ensure that OneStream continues to meet their evolving needs.
5. Training and Change Management:
While migration is one step of the plan, a robust training for end users will ensure organization-wide buy in and long term success. This training should cover all aspects of the platform, from basic functionalities to advanced features.
This will empower end users to perform their roles efficiently and confidently, maximizing the benefits of the OneStream implementation.
For a more in-depth guide to migrating your close management processes to OneStream, including detailed strategies and real-world examples from our client implementations, download our white paper today.
Read this white paper to get deeper knowledge and critical tools needed to achieve a successful application migration.
Bottom Line
Migrating to OneStream requires careful planning to ensure success. It's important to focus on understanding your current processes, ensuring data integrity, customizing the platform, and managing change effectively.
By addressing these key considerations, organizations can achieve a smooth transition and realize the greatest possible benefit from their new OneStream application.
