Case Study Baxters - GK | Oracle EPM Specialists

Design and build expertise to drive faster results

“With GK we were able to meet our key goals for line of business reporting accuracy and efficiency. Baxters and GK team collaboration led to a rapid solution that is integral to our new, improved business as usual.”

Ally Sawers

Director of FP&A and Corporate Development,

The Challenge

Engaged to deliver an Oracle Narrative Reporting (NR) Book of Reports, GK built 38 reports and graphs that can be sent to decision makers emails automatically using a schedule.

GK was asked to work with Baxters to build a ‘line of business’ reporting application using their expertise and Oracle best practice and aligned to their existing reporting application. This new application is the source for the NR reports and as the core business application this foundational work had to be right.

Working closely with the Baxters team was identified as a key requirement both for requirements definition and solution testing. Key to this collaboration was the knowledge transfer necessary for the Baxters team to be able to “own” the solution going forwards both in operation and maintenance. Using GK and Oracle best practice has delivered a best-in-class solution.

Key capabilities of the new design include:

Hybrid Essbase Database - using this new Oracle technology allowed us to make all the dimensions dynamic allowing the app to aggregate in real time.
New Line of Business dimension - merging customer and product allowed reporting based on how Baxters runs their business
Consistent Metadata - following GK's metadata conventions in line with Oracle best practice gives a clear and scalable structure with clear separation between input and calculated members
Consolidated Cashflow - GK revamped the cashflow using advanced rule design giving Baxters a self-balancing cashflow that is calculated in 6 seconds and including an inbuilt reconciliation of cash change
Currency Translation - GK configured the Oracle 'Out of the Box' translation functionality for the cashflow which can be easily extended to any accounts that need translation and including the correct FX calculations.

Project Outcome

The new application was successfully transitioned to the Baxters EPM team through continuous knowledge transfer and joint development allowing GK to roll off successfully at the end of the project.

The Narrative Reporting package as delivered spanned 38 reports and charts including these key features:

Standard format to keep the look and feel consistent
Ability to replicate child reports using a hierarchy (i.e.: Reports for the top 10 Lines of Business generated dynamically based on a report template)
Use of hierarchies to allow completeness and dynamic suppression of rows within reports
Waterfall charts to automatically chart the movement from Budget to Actual numbers
Minimize use of formulas in reports – Using KPI's within the LoB reporting application
YTD and Trailing 12-month reports created
Dynamic Titles

Collated report book including:

Global POV to run all reports with the same parameters
Variables to allow the book to be scheduled and run automatically
Emailing functionality to deliver the book to users
One report created that generates multiple reports in the book using the Local POV settings.

Design and build expertise to drive faster results

The Challenge

Project Outcome

Collated report book including:

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