Thinking ahead for even faster global growth
A KPMG Ignition session makes the difference as Brown & Brown insurance accelerates HR, finance, and IT transformation
Thinking ahead for even faster global growth
A KPMG Ignition session makes the difference as Brown & Brown insurance accelerates HR, finance, and IT transformation
Client
Brown & Brown, Inc.
Industry
Insurance
Primary goal
Help HR, finance, and IT teams maximize Workday’s EPM platform to support rapid growth
When an acquisition doubles your revenue in your largest market, there are some big numbers at play—especially when you’re a $48 billion CPG company. And the bigger the numbers, the bigger the impact of every strategic and tactical decision you make. You can’t afford to have your visibility clouded and your decision-making hampered by having two disparate financial operations functions each with its own systems, software, and people. So, when a global CPG company found itself in this situation, it called on KPMG to drive fast, smooth, cost-efficient integration of financial operations.
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and global alignment between cross-functional teams
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into consolidated spend driving meaningful insights and more proactive decisions
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the monthly close cycle
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revenue and sales forecasting
Already one of the world’s top insurance brokers, Brown & Brown, Inc. (Brown & Brown) isn’t slowing down. The Daytona Beach, Florida company is rapidly gaining size and scale through a combination of organic growth and a long history of acquisitions. This fast-track approach has also added complexity, especially when it comes to finance and human resources (HR) systems. In late 2022, senior leaders wanted fresh thinking on how to get more value from the Workday Cloud Platform. A two-day KPMG Ignition session explored new ideas for optimizing Workday to support international expansion, and offered insights on using new technologies and processes to improve information technology (IT) performance.
Client transformation journey
Acquiring a large organic food and beverage business helped a global CPG company expand its operations and nearly double its revenue in the U.S. However, as with most mergers, the integration posed some challenges. Two disparate IT environments with different accounting and reporting models, separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and multiple business intelligence (BI) tools required extensive manual intervention and offline data manipulation, preventing uniform reporting and analysis. Data was trapped in silos. Visibility was insufficient. A new CFO and the finance and accounting teams lacked the insight to support effective forecasting and both strategic and tactical decision-making. In a sector as competitive and fast-changing as food products, this company needed to increase visibility quickly.
Acquiring a large organic food and beverage business helped a global CPG company expand its operations and nearly double its revenue in the U.S. However, as with most mergers, the integration posed some challenges. Two disparate IT environments with different accounting and reporting models, separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and multiple business intelligence (BI) tools required extensive manual intervention and offline data manipulation, preventing uniform reporting and analysis. Data was trapped in silos. Visibility was insufficient. A new CFO and the finance and accounting teams lacked the insight to support effective forecasting and both strategic and tactical decision-making. In a sector as competitive and fast-changing as food products, this company needed to increase visibility quickly.
While this CPG company’s business is spread across two continents (and originates from a number of acquired companies), its financial operations are now centralized and unified. A cloud-based platform extracts and loads data from numerous global sources, then configures and stores it in a central location. Accounting staff across multiple back offices work within a single governance structure and with a single set of streamlined processes, enabling effective reporting and supporting a swift, accurate close. Across the enterprise, visibility is excellent, and insights are at the ready, because analysts can perform real-time calculations and drill down swiftly to the meaning behind the numbers. Unified financial operations helps this $48 billion player predict accurately, plan effectively, and act swiftly—all crucial in a sector where windows of opportunity close as suddenly as they open.
While this CPG company’s business is spread across two continents (and originates from a number of acquired companies), its financial operations are now centralized and unified. A cloud-based platform extracts and loads data from numerous global sources, then configures and stores it in a central location. Accounting staff across multiple back offices work within a single governance structure and with a single set of streamlined processes, enabling effective reporting and supporting a swift, accurate close. Across the enterprise, visibility is excellent, and insights are at the ready, because analysts can perform real-time calculations and drill down swiftly to the meaning behind the numbers. Unified financial operations helps this $48 billion player predict accurately, plan effectively, and act swiftly—all crucial in a sector where windows of opportunity close as suddenly as they open.
There will be more acquisition targets in the company’s future. And with a cloud-based platform, governance framework, and standardized processes in place, integrating financial operations will be a swift, sure process. A successful integration inspired the CFO and global finance team to consider other areas for transformation. From evolving multiple layers of the target operating model within Finance, to jump-starting transformation across other functional areas, a powerful ripple effect began and continues across the enterprise. Having the right tools and processes to support a grander vision driven by meaningful insights will continue to empower positive change.
There will be more acquisition targets in the company’s future. And with a cloud-based platform, governance framework, and standardized processes in place, integrating financial operations will be a swift, sure process. A successful integration inspired the CFO and global finance team to consider other areas for transformation. From evolving multiple layers of the target operating model within Finance, to jump-starting transformation across other functional areas, a powerful ripple effect began and continues across the enterprise. Having the right tools and processes to support a grander vision driven by meaningful insights will continue to empower positive change.
Acquiring a large organic food and beverage business helped a global CPG company expand its operations and nearly double its revenue in the U.S. However, as with most mergers, the integration posed some challenges. Two disparate IT environments with different accounting and reporting models, separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and multiple business intelligence (BI) tools required extensive manual intervention and offline data manipulation, preventing uniform reporting and analysis. Data was trapped in silos. Visibility was insufficient. A new CFO and the finance and accounting teams lacked the insight to support effective forecasting and both strategic and tactical decision-making. In a sector as competitive and fast-changing as food products, this company needed to increase visibility quickly.
While this CPG company’s business is spread across two continents (and originates from a number of acquired companies), its financial operations are now centralized and unified. A cloud-based platform extracts and loads data from numerous global sources, then configures and stores it in a central location. Accounting staff across multiple back offices work within a single governance structure and with a single set of streamlined processes, enabling effective reporting and supporting a swift, accurate close. Across the enterprise, visibility is excellent, and insights are at the ready, because analysts can perform real-time calculations and drill down swiftly to the meaning behind the numbers. Unified financial operations helps this $48 billion player predict accurately, plan effectively, and act swiftly—all crucial in a sector where windows of opportunity close as suddenly as they open.
There will be more acquisition targets in the company’s future. And with a cloud-based platform, governance framework, and standardized processes in place, integrating financial operations will be a swift, sure process. A successful integration inspired the CFO and global finance team to consider other areas for transformation. From evolving multiple layers of the target operating model within Finance, to jump-starting transformation across other functional areas, a powerful ripple effect began and continues across the enterprise. Having the right tools and processes to support a grander vision driven by meaningful insights will continue to empower positive change.
Poor visibility threatened business objectives.
Acquiring a large organic food and beverage business helped a global CPG company expand its operations and nearly double its revenue in the U.S. However, as with most mergers, the integration posed some challenges. Two disparate IT environments with different accounting and reporting models, separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and multiple business intelligence (BI) tools required extensive manual intervention and offline data manipulation, preventing uniform reporting and analysis. Data was trapped in silos. Visibility was insufficient. A new CFO and the finance and accounting teams lacked the insight to support effective forecasting and both strategic and tactical decision-making. In a sector as competitive and fast-changing as food products, this company needed to increase visibility quickly.The preconfigured assets and technology accelerators delivered by KPMG Powered Enterprise let ambitious leadership teams take advantage of embedded leading practices to speed up the decision-making process while instilling confidence.
Unified financial operations support global success.
While this CPG company’s business is spread across two continents (and originates from a number of acquired companies), its financial operations are now centralized and unified. A cloud-based platform extracts and loads data from numerous global sources, then configures and stores it in a central location. Accounting staff across multiple back offices work within a single governance structure and with a single set of streamlined processes, enabling effective reporting and supporting a swift, accurate close. Across the enterprise, visibility is excellent, and insights are at the ready, because analysts can perform real-time calculations and drill down swiftly to the meaning behind the numbers. Unified financial operations helps this $48 billion player predict accurately, plan effectively, and act swiftly—all crucial in a sector where windows of opportunity close as suddenly as they open.
A strong foundation that can keep pace with continued growth.
There will be more acquisition targets in the company’s future. And with a cloud-based platform, governance framework, and standardized processes in place, integrating financial operations will be a swift, sure process. A successful integration inspired the CFO and global finance team to consider other areas for transformation. From evolving multiple layers of the target operating model within Finance, to jump-starting transformation across other functional areas, a powerful ripple effect began and continues across the enterprise. Having the right tools and processes to support a grander vision driven by meaningful insights will continue to empower positive change.
The team from KPMG provides a great level of insight, dialogue, and collaboration to get us to the next level in what we’re trying to do as an organization. We look to KPMG as one of our trusted partners. You understand our business, you understand our culture, and you understand our people.
R. Andrew Watts
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer, Brown & Brown, Inc.
From tax guidance to Workday support
Our history with Brown & Brown gave KPMG an in-depth understanding of the company’s processes, technology, and business objectives. In addition to providing many years of tax advice, in 2021 we helped the company address problems in its initial US implementation of Workday’s Financial Management and HCM solutions.
In late 2022, the Ignition team met with Brown & Brown’s finance and tax teams to discuss challenges and options for improving their Workday Foreign Exchange (FX) and multiledger capabilities. Like the two-day remote workshop that would follow, these Ignition sessions used guided discussions, ideation exercises, and prioritization activities to identify pain points and potential solutions according to their expected business impact. The results included recommendations for easy to achieve “quick wins” as well as more strategic long-term initiatives.
Using an off-site session to jump start new thinking
The centerpiece of our engagement with Brown & Brown was a two-day workshop held at the KPMG Lakehouse innovation center in Florida. While the focus was again on making better use of Workday, we broadened this session’s scope to include HR and IT as well as finance and tax. Leaders and staff from all four departments attended. Conducting the workshop outside the client’s offices created an opportunity for participants to break away from their everyday routines, avoid distractions, and take time to think creatively and talk openly.
The Lakehouse session’s goals for each function included:
Throughout the workshop, the Ignition team facilitators directed design thinking exercises and use case ideation to show how Workday could make employees more productive, data more valuable, and customers better served. We ended by helping the HR, finance, and IT teams prioritize and coordinate future activity by outlining a roadmap of immediate, near-term, and long-term initiatives, department support and shared feedback received from his peers and leadership.
An 18-month transformation plan for HR, finance, and IT
We followed up the Ignition workshop by delivering a debrief package summarizing key themes, conclusions, and recommendations by function:
Our follow-up deliverables also included a more detailed “now, near, and next” road map that arranged these HR, finance, and IT initiatives over an 18-month timeline. Those considered essential for the upcoming HCM/Finance launch were scheduled for the first half of 2023, with further additions or refinements to follow through late 2023 and 2024.
As an established, trusted advisor for financial, technical, and strategic advice, KPMG will continue to support Brown & Brown as it expands the reach and capabilities of the Workday platform, evaluates other technologies, and prepares for further growth.
KPMG Ignition helps clients envision creative, boundary-pushing solutions for business transformation—even when it means rethinking established practices and existing technologies. Learn how we use innovative design thinking and ideation methods to explore the art of the possible at KPMG Ignition.
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