Case Studies > AFL Streamlines Financial Operations with OneStream Cloud

AFL Streamlines Financial Operations with OneStream Cloud

Company Size

1,000+

Region

America
Asia
Europe
Pacific

Country

Australia
Canada
Japan
Mexico
United States

Product

OneStream Cloud
Microsoft Azure
Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM)
Blackline

Tech Stack

Cloud Computing
Financial Consolidation Software
ERP Systems

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Customer Satisfaction
Digital Expertise
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms

Applicable Industries

Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
System Integration
Training

About The Customer

Founded in 1984, AFL is an international manufacturer providing end-to-end solutions to the energy, service provider, enterprise, and industrial markets as well as several emerging markets. The company’s products are in use in over 130 countries and include fiber optic cable and hardware, transmission and substation accessories, outside plant equipment, connectivity, test and inspection equipment, fusion splicers, and training. AFL also offers a wide variety of services supporting data center, enterprise, wireless, and outside plant applications. Headquartered in Spartanburg, SC, AFL has operations in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fujikura Ltd. of Japan.

The Challenge

AFL was using Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) for consolidation and reporting, and found the system too costly to manage, maintain and upgrade. Excessive downtime and lost data triggered the evaluation of alternative solutions. AFL was also using Excel® spreadsheets and email for budgeting, planning and forecasting which bogged down the planning processes.

The Solution

AFL evaluated several solutions and selected OneStream for financial consolidation, budgeting, forecasting, account reconciliations, data collections, and cash flow reporting. After the initial implementation, AFL decided to move from on-premise deployment to the OneStream Cloud leveraging Microsoft® Azure®. OneStream Cloud has relieved AFL’s IT department from worrying about backups and system maintenance, and also made access to the system much easier for users at remote sites. The system has also given business users the ability to run reports as soon as data was loaded and they no longer had to wait on corporate for consolidations to view results and reports. OneStream was able to easily handle AFL’s complex consolidation and reporting requirements, which include consolidating 54 companies for US reporting and reporting to their Japanese parent company across 12 business segments. The application loads data in 13 currencies from 12 ERP systems with many intercompany eliminations and some partially owned subsidiaries. Despite this complexity, AFL was able to maintain their fast, two-day close schedule.

Operational Impact

OneStream Cloud has relieved AFL’s IT department from worrying about backups and system maintenance, and also made access to the system much easier for users at remote sites.
The system has also given business users the ability to run reports as soon as data was loaded and they no longer had to wait on corporate for consolidations to view results and reports.
Finance staff at the business unit level now load and validate their own data, improving data quality and freeing up corporate Finance staff for focusing more time on analysis.
Using OneStream, AFL moved its annual budgeting and monthly forecasting process out of Excel® and into the same platform as its financial consolidation and reporting process.
Leveraging the Account Reconciliations MarketPlace Solution, AFL extended its OneStream investment, replacing Blackline and allowing line of business users to start their account reconciliations soon after their trial balance data is loaded.

Quantitative Benefit

75% improvement in the speed of account reconciliations.
Annual savings of roughly $100K per year.
Overall consolidation performance was approximately eight times faster (one–four min. vs. 20 min.).