The organization was running an aging ERP platform headed toward the end of vendor support, at the same time leadership had plans to grow through acquisition. Years of workarounds had also produced hundreds of end-user-built tools operating entirely outside IT, some of them tied directly to financial controls. Replacing the ERP wouldn't solve that on its own. Only mapping what the organization actually ran on would.
Case Study
Three hundred spreadsheets stood between the organization and its new ERP.
This insurer needed to replace an ERP that was headed out of vendor support, but the bigger obstacle was three hundred ad hoc tools and spreadsheets nobody had fully mapped. We led the business analysis, training, and change management that got the organization onto Workday, then helped retire what the old system left behind.
Engagement at-a-glance
Industry:
Financial Services and Insurance
Organization size:
~ 3,000 employees
Services:
Training & Adoption
Change Management
Enterprise System Implementation
Change Management
Enterprise System Implementation
The Challenge
The ERP looked like the problem. The real risk was everything running outside it.
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An ERP nearing the end of vendor support
The organization was running an aging ERP platform that was headed toward the end of vendor support, at the same time leadership had plans to grow through acquisition. Staying on the old platform meant losing access to the upgrades and scalability that growth would require.
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Hundreds of ad hoc tools operating outside IT
Years of workarounds had produced roughly 300 end-user-built tools and spreadsheets, including actuarial models embedded directly in financial reporting, that lived entirely outside production IT. No one had a complete map of what fed into what, or which of these tools were safe to retire.
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An internal program stretched past its capacity
The organization's internal program manager was managing a scope larger than the role could reasonably carry, and the accounting group sponsoring the ERP had never used business analysts before, so the discipline itself had to earn its place on the program.
Our Approach
We mapped what the organization actually ran on before we mapped what it needed.
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1
Joined the program already in flight as business analysts and program leaders
We came on during the design and build phase, after the organization's internal program manager needed stronger leadership to hit its dates, and after the sponsoring accounting group had never worked with business analysts before.
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2
Mapped current and future-state processes across every function touched
We built a full inventory of the organization's business processes, ranked and categorized by risk, and mapped current-state and future-state versions of each to guide what the new system needed to support.
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3
Traced and decommissioned tools tied to financial controls
We traced roughly 300 end-user-built tools and spreadsheets back to their original data sources, working with IT to determine which could be retired and which had to remain, including actuarial models later addressed through a separate transformation effort.
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4
Trained change champions early and staffed a hypercare command center
We trained a network of change champions ahead of go-live, delivered end-user training in a mixed in-person and remote format, and ran a roughly two-month hypercare command center after go-live to resolve issues and catch training or process gaps before they recurred.
Value Delivered
For the first time, accountants could see the whole process behind their own numbers.
Standardized more than 200 fragmented business processes
Processes that had developed independently across divisions now follow a mapped, common standard, closing the gap that had been driving inefficiency across the organization.
Decommissioned roughly 300 tools tied to financial risk
Ad hoc spreadsheets and workarounds that had operated outside IT governance, some of them embedded in financial controls, were identified, traced, and retired where it was safe to do so.
Built a change network that carried through two months of hypercare
Change champions trained ahead of go-live continued to support end users well past launch, helping the organization absorb the transition without leaning solely on the vendor's implementation team.
Caught testing issues early by engaging end users before UAT
Involving the people doing the work early in the business analysis surfaced issues that would otherwise have surfaced as costly surprises during user acceptance testing.
Results that reflect the work behind them.
200+
Critical business processes inventoried and reengineered as part of the transformation
300
Ad hoc, end-user-built tools identified for potential decommissioning
2 months
Length of the hypercare period The Gunter Group team staffed after go-live
Related Insights
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