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Transforming procurement through cloud migration

Leveraging powerful alliances, test planning, processes, and data management for a food distributor

Client

A major food distributor

Industry

Consumer and retail

Primary goal

Migrate all US facilities to a single cloud-based procurement platform

Platforms

Coupa, SnapLogic, SAP

test

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.

Key outcomes

1

Increased engagement 

and global alignment between cross-functional teams

2

Greater visibility

 into consolidated spend driving meaningful insights and more proactive decisions

3

Days shaved off

the monthly close cycle

4

More accurate

revenue and sales forecasting

With a host of well-known retail brands and hundreds of processing facilities and supplier locations across the United States, our client is a leading distributor and processor of beef, chicken, and pork products, as well as the largest purchaser of feed corn in the industry. Yet for all its scale, until recently, the company was still managing billions in annual procurement using legacy software and disparate systems. Developing a seamless, connected process for procurement and spend management would require a transformation enabled by Coupa’s cloud-based sourcing solution, a modernized data integration solution, as well as guidance from a trusted integrator. As an established Coupa Global Elite Partner, KPMG was chosen to execute this complex, large-scale implementation.

KEY OUTCOMES

Making a measurable difference

  • $1 billion in spend enabled
  • 500-plus locations and more than 7,500 users served
  • One central location for all sourcing events

Client transformation journey

Click on each part of the journey to learn more about our client’s transformation.

Client transformation journey

Before

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.

After

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.

Future

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.

Before

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.

After

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.

Future

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.

Client transformation journey

  • Before

    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.

  • After

    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.

  • Future

    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.

We have a long history of working successfully with Coupa, which made the client more confident in our ability to adapt the platform to meet their needs and objectives. And as a Coupa integrator, we don’t just come and help stand up a new system. We develop a core model of what good looks like for each specific company, we help them design the processes and capabilities, and then we quickly convert that into a real-world implementation.

Arvin Ravisekar

Advisory Managing Director, KPMG Lighthouse

KPMG helps design, configure, and test Coupa to enable a successful launch

1. Design and construction phase: Using our Coupa experience and software integration skills to reshape procurement

The client had already selected Coupa as the platform for transforming its S2P process when KPMG was engaged. Their next step was to seek experienced support in configuring and integrating Coupa to address key business goals and move toward a new operating model. We assembled a team that combined data analytics knowledge and software integration skills from the KPMG Lighthouse Center of Excellence with procurement leaders and Coupa platform specialists. Key design and construction tasks included:

  • Designing the Coupa modules to align with the client’s business needs and requirements, including sourcing, purchase to order (P2O), contract lifecycle management, supplier onboarding, and reporting and analytics
  • Defining and incorporating business rules, approval chains, catalogs, and other controls related to the procurement process to prevent unauthorized spend
  • Integrating Coupa with existing systems and functions. This required SnapLogic's integration platform to enable shared processes, automate controls, and connect data between Coupa, SAP software, and other legacy systems used to manage ingredients, payments, supplier contracts, user provisioning, and other processes. A robust set of integration shared services was built and leveraged to increase reliability, enable user self-service, and support production operations.

2. Testing and validation phase: Bringing demonstrated test processes to the fore

Leveraging our extensive Coupa experience, the KPMG team brought a prebuilt suite of test processes and assets that significantly expedited testing of the new system. Working closely with the client, most tests were conducted collaboratively, offering a sneak preview of Coupa's functionality and providing valuable insights into user acceptance levels prior to formal user acceptance testing (UAT). We also applied industry best practices to prioritize and schedule key process tests. Other testing and validation actions included:

  • Designing and executing approximately 1,000 Systems Integration Testing (SIT) test cases covering an integration architecture that streamlined the client’s master data accessibility and validated that, where required, Coupa procurement data remained synchronized with SAP at all times
  • Executing three rounds of SIT to incrementally test integrations and end-to-end business processes as they were developed
  • Working with the development and business teams during the unit testing phase to identify configuration-related defects early in the implementation cycle
  • Employing artificial intelligence (AI) to test data migration of approximately 70,000 contracts to Coupa
  • Retesting and resolving more than 226 defects across all three cycles of SIT
  • Coordinating with the client to plan and execute more than 25 UAT sessions, which included product demonstrations, training classes, and the development of quick reference guides (QRGs), training videos, and other supporting materials.

3. Delivery phase: From local launches to full deployment

After conducting pilot deployments at several cost centers and plants, the new Coupa procurement platform went live at the client’s headquarters and more than 500 other US locations. Thanks to our in-depth planning, design, and testing work, there were no significant postlaunch issues. Key benefits include:

  • More than $1 billion in spend enabled to 7,500 users across US sites
  • Cost savings enabled by reduction in unapproved spend, noncompliant behavior, and implementing streamlined processes
  • A central location for all sourcing events within Coupa’s sourcing module to drive event compliance and history
  • A controlled contracting system that allows a tie between contract and purchasing activities to manage and monitor compliance
  • Reduced manual processes required by the client’s category management team by enabling suppliers to manage their own catalogs and pricing updates
  • New analytics capabilities allowing better insight into how and where orders are placed, what suppliers are used, and the amount of anomalies or unapproved orders
  • Automated processes, controls, and reliable data to support procurement management and decision making. 

4. Evolution phase: Looking ahead to new regions and future needs

Based on the successful US Coupa rollout, the client is expected to deploy the system to its locations in more than 30 other countries in the future. At home, meanwhile, the client can potentially benefit from our guidance on how to test, maintain, and expand the system to add functionality and meet future needs. This includes redefined test management processes for the client’s central procurement testing team and a roadmap for implementing additional Coupa modules and functions.

Make procurement a strategic priority

In a global marketplace, forward-looking businesses are looking for new ways to reduce costs, minimize supply chain risk, and exercise increased control over organizational spend. Together with Coupa, KPMG can help you use cloud technologies and automation to transform sourcing and procurement to add strategic value, increase process efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve free cash flow. 

Learn more

Meet the team that made the difference for a leading food distributor

Let’s talk about how to improve procurement today and prepare for future changes.

Image of Annie McMillan
Annie McMillan
Principal, Advisory, Procurement & Outsourcing Adv, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Arvin Ravisekar
Arvin Ravisekar
Advisory Managing Director Lighthouse, KPMG LLP
Read bio
Image of Brian LaHiff
Brian LaHiff
Principal, Advisory, Digital Lighthouse, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Srilakshmi Peesapati
Srilakshmi Peesapati
Advisory Manager, Lighthouse, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Annie McMillan
Annie McMillan
Principal, Advisory, Procurement & Outsourcing Adv, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Arvin Ravisekar
Arvin Ravisekar
Advisory Managing Director Lighthouse, KPMG LLP
Read bio
Image of Brian LaHiff
Brian LaHiff
Principal, Advisory, Digital Lighthouse, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Srilakshmi Peesapati
Srilakshmi Peesapati
Advisory Manager, Lighthouse, KPMG US
Read bio

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