Fiat delivers forecasting 10x faster with unified solution

Fiat Germany provides tailored sales and automotive services through its motor villages, managing direct sales, business customers and partners, and maintenance and repair. Central financial controlling relied on legacy reporting and Excel to report and plan quarterly forecasts for the European headquarters. The Head of Controlling at Fiat soon discovered flaws in the legacy system. Plan data took a detour through static Excel sheets before being uploaded. Updates of crucial forecast information required excessive manual work, increasing the risk of human error. The system could not model the complex calculation logic for the corporate planning and the profit and loss (P&L).

The Head of Controlling explains: “The solution generated substantial excess expenditure for our dealerships, who were consolidating their data under considerable time pressure. Night shifts for the quarterly forecasts had become the rule rather than the exception.” Fiat also saw the potential to optimize its planning. Dispersed plan data meant Excel hell, with data in 30 different spreadsheets, each one needing adjustment and manual consolidation for every minor change.

Fiat was losing time gathering and reconciling data, and couldn’t support fact-based decision-making. The data cycle between HQ and the planners in Fiat subsidiaries tied up valuable resources, with expenditure rising monthly in an effort to complete planning in time. “During the multilevel planning process, errors in the complex Excel sheets were inevitable, and amending them consumed even more precious time.”

To respond with more agility to HQ’s evolving forecast requirements, and to facilitate and accelerate data consolidation and preparation for all 15 subsidiaries, Fiat needed a modern reporting solution with advanced planning functionality, involving minimal administration, with business users able to adjust reports and planning logic quickly and independently. Jedox’s proof-of-concept workshop convinced Fiat with the intuitive Excel-like user interface, ensuring employees would take to the solution with ease. Automated connection to Fiat’s IT infrastructure and the powerful analytical engine enabled real-time reporting: “We understood that our planning and reporting had to become agile to keep up with modern business processes, and Jedox turned out to be the perfect management tool for this purpose.”

Jedox’s self-service approach and rapid knowledge transfer ensured fast implementation and immediate results. Fiat and Jedox defined the project requirements and completed complex project requirements as a team. It was important for business users at Fiat to be empowered to manage their solution independently. Hands-on practical training from the Jedox Academy enabled Fiat’s controlling to own its solution, minimizing external consulting costs. Implementation needed just a few staff and virtually zero IT support, with Controlling able to set up all reports and user permissions itself. Jedox’s user-friendly file manager also made work easier, explains the Head of Controlling: “Jedox’s Excel-like interface makes it easy to create reports with just a few clicks. You do not need to be an IT expert in order to work with Jedox; your Excel knowledge will get you there on your own.” Following successful implementation, Controlling gets involved only when needed, without a dedicated administrator.

Enterprise planning and reporting from one source of truth

Fiat uses Jedox for streamlined top-down, bottom-up planning. Fiat now has daily visibility of actual vs. plan KPIs on budgeting and forecasting, monthly budget actual comparisons, and weekly forecast calls with HQ. Sixty users at Fiat across diverse departments access high-quality data in one consistent environment. Central managers enter plan data for sales, staff, and administration independently, and write back instantly to the unified Jedox model.

“What took several hours before can now be achieved in seconds. Jedox calculates and consolidates data the moment it is entered, and my team starts on crucial evaluations immediately, unburdening the entire organization.” Actual vs. plan comparisons and planning history are available with just one click. Jedox has optimized reporting at Fiat and visualizes insights. Instead of sending spreadsheets, controllers submit their weekly forecast reports to HQ through an upstream connection with Oracle Hyperion. Reports are automatically sent to specified recipients on a weekly basis, with Jedox providing daily real-time data.

“With Jedox not only our planning but also the analysis of the data and complex queries are 10 times faster than before.”

Head of Controlling at Fiat

Jedox user acceptance has made life considerably easier for the Controlling team, with Fiat‘s planning team also impressed: “Feedback is positive throughout, because Jedox is easy to handle and use through its intuitiveness.” Fiat will add more dashboards and visualizations, and increase mobile use on tablets and smartphones. Fiat’s successful German implementation has piqued interest across Europe, with plans to roll Jedox out to Austria and Switzerland. “The efficiency increase in planning alone is very impressive! Our daily work has been made significantly easier,” he concludes.