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West Bend Mutual Insurance Streamlines Financial Close with OneStream
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Finance & Insurance
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Quality Assurance
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- System Integration
- Training
The Challenge
West Bend Mutual Insurance (WBMI) previously used Microsoft Excel® spreadsheets as a data collection and reporting tool for their month-end close process. Allocations were performed in a different software tool that had size processing constraints. Inconsistencies in data collection via Excel® spreadsheets created a labor-intensive and error-prone close process. Further, the transparency by operations to financial detail was limited. A key motivation for system implementation was the lack of transparency and performance consistency of their multi-tier allocation process of expenses to profit center, product and state reporting. The company required a unified and streamlined solution for all their financial close, internal and external reporting, including allocations and analysis. One that is easily maintained, with the ability to report profit center, product, and state level results with consistency and accuracy. The company also required a strong internal control process over financial reporting and account reconciliations.
About The Customer
West Bend Mutual Insurance (WBMI) was founded in 1894 after a fire destroyed a number of businesses in West Bend, Wisconsin. Afterward, area business owners banded together to form a mutual insurance company to provide broad insurance coverage at reasonable rates. WBMI has been insuring homes, autos, and businesses in the Midwest — and beyond — ever since. West Bend is ranked in the top 75 property/casualty insurance companies in the country, was recognized as a Best Places to Work by Business Insurance, Top Workplace by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 40 Best Workplaces in Finance and Insurance by Fortune Magazine as well as numerous other awards. WBMI places a high value on their core values of excellence, integrity, and responsibility. These values have enabled WBMI to provide valuable insurance coverages and services to their policyholders for the past 125 years.
The Solution
WBMI selected OneStream to streamline their financial close process, provide transparency and deliver ad-hoc reporting for operational users. The unified application would contain monthly actuals and budget data to provide timely and efficient financial reporting. The team also decided to implement the OneStream Cloud solution, since this would reduce their IT support requirements. WBMI chose a phased approach for the implementation of OneStream leading with financial close, including allocations, reporting, annual budgeting, and account reconciliations. They went live in February of 2019. In the subsequent phase of the project WBMI are implementing OneStream for planning and several OneStream MarketPlaceTM solutions. WBMI has implemented OneStream to deliver multiple solutions to meet all their financial reporting and future planning requirements in one application. This includes: Direct Connect to the general ledger (EAS) to pull periodic data and aggregation for YTD data loads Workflow profiles based upon the delegation of responsibilities across the business Cube views to report consolidated balance sheet, income statement and cash flow and additional views for both external and internal reporting Task Manager to organize and stream-line the monthly close process Allocations business rules to provide a very detailed allocation process of expenses spread to product level, expense categories, profit centers, and states Confirmation rules to validate data loads, financial statement completeness and allocation accuracy.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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