Case Study: Propex
“We wanted to have a solution that was closer to finance users so that we weren’t so reliant on IT for making things happen. Through our reference calls with Tagetik, we had a good feeling that we would be able to accomplish that.” David Eady - Global Decision Support Leader, Propex Operating Company LLC
The objectives
At this point, Propex decided to make a fresh start. Its new system should be able to support consistent global processes for annual budgeting and monthly forecasting. It also wanted to implement a process for 3-5 year strategic planning and integrate comparative reporting, which was still done separately in Excel.
Finally, Propex wanted its new solution to be more in tune with finance users so that they could be less reliant on IT support. “Through our reference calls with Tagetik, we had a good feeling that we would be able to accomplish that,” Eady recalls.
The benefits
Thanks to Tagetik, Propex has been able to bring more consistency to its global planning, budgeting and forecasting. “Historically, we’ve done things pseudo-independently so we are using this as a soft hammer to create more consistent usage of our chart of accounts,” explains Eady. “This will be an evolution over time, but it is a good starting point for us.”
Tagetik has also improved governance at Propex. Since the system completely tracks and
documents all changes, the company can now maintain a complete audit trail of all business
assumptions, underlying forecasts and forward-looking statements.
Due to their success with the initial implementation, Propex is already looking to add new
functionality to its solution. The company, for example, wants to take advantage of the software’s
submission/approval options. Currently, this is just a one-step process that uses external e-mail
communication back and forth for status updates. In addition, Propex intends to add capacity
planning to take a closer look at production capability, capacities, inventory levels and import targets.
