ManpowerGroup saves hours on fixing reports

ManpowerGroup’s legacy system was no longer keeping up with the organization and changing economy. Instead of its previous semi-annual reports, ManpowerGroup’s corporate headquarters wanted to switch to monthly reports so that information was more up to date. The team needed a solution that was able to evaluate data and create forecasts ad-hoc, quickly and flexibly. Eva-Maria Kummer, former Finance Director, shared: “The old system was simply unable to cope. We also wanted to compare different budget scenarios so we could recommend the best model to management, but our system supported only one budget and forecast option at a time. We realized that we needed to look for a new system, one that would be able to react to real-time changes in our business environment.”

Data quality and efficiency were also significant factors. In the old system, individual branch offices emailed headquarters manually collated Excel sheets, which were then fed into corporate headquarters’ software – the inevitable human and computer errors took hours of work to fix. And the resulting forecasts and data were not even detailed enough to support the desired target/actual comparisons on the level of the individual client.

The ManpowerGroup chose Jedox after a long and detailed selection process. “After thorough testing, we discovered that Jedox fulfilled all of our requirements in terms of forecasts, budgeting, and reporting. We were especially pleased with how easy the software was to use and how quickly data can be processed and analyzed,” said Kummer.

“Jedox is easy to handle and wonderfully intuitive, which allows us to react to management queries incredibly quickly, regardless of whether they involve current business data, forecasting values, or the development of new KPIs. With Jedox, we can customize reports for our ‘internal’ clients as needed,” Kummer continued. Partnering with German services provider it-novum, ManpowerGroup implemented Jedox across the business in just two months. “Switching to the new system took only a few weeks – we never would have expected such a quick turnaround,” said Kummer.

Jedox’s characteristic self-service approach means that ManpowerGroup personnel can access and evaluate data at any time without needing to consult external specialists. Even the creation of new KPIs can be handled with internal expertise alone: “When management wants new KPIs, we can deliver them practically at the push of a button. It gives us a considerable competitive advantage in a dynamic field such as ours,” said Kummer.

Kummer and her team use Jedox to create the annual budget, various scenarios, monthly forecasts, and ad hoc reports. ManpowerGroup has widely adopted the solution. In total, 35 employees throughout ManpowerGroup‘s headquarters and subsidiaries use Jedox to analyze data and build reports. And after initial support from it-novum, they find that creating forecasts has never been easier. Branch offices simply input their data via the intuitive web interface, and superiors can double-check and sign off on the figures. As soon as the data is confirmed, the financial team in corporate headquarters is notified and can use it to evaluate performance or plan strategy. ManpowerGroup also chose to implement a multi-step confirmation process to strengthen identification of individual branch offices and business units with the planning process. Jedox is adaptable enough to meet the differing requirements across the business. For example, key figures can be quickly structured in different views suited to sales, marketing, or accounting. Eva-Maria Kummer adds: “If ever we want to update or change one of our scenarios, it is easy to manually input aggregate data.”

“Jedox fulfilled all of our requirements … we were especially pleased with how easy the software was to use, and with how quickly data can be processed and analyzed.”

Eva-Maria Kummer, Finance Director, ManpowerGroup

Not only will ManpowerGroup continue to expand Jedox reporting throughout the organization, but it intends to give management on-the-go access to business data using Jedox. This will enable branch offices and management to have the latest data at their fingertips, helping them to make decisions with the best possible information.