IBM Business Analytics Solution – IBM Controller on Cloud and IBM Planning Analytics on Cloud

Services – Lease16 and Migration

As a global leader in clinical supply chain and pharmaceutical packaging services, Sharp is a key contract partner for life sciences companies around the world. Its 2,000 employees deliver specialised packaging and contract services for drug products from phase 1 clinical trials all the way through to commercial delivery to market.

Sharp, which is headquartered in Pennsylvania USA, has grown both organically and by acquisition over almost 70 years. Today, the group operates nine manufacturing facilities across the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and Belgium—all of which are fully compliant with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards.

Project Summary

At the end of 2021, Sharp split from its former parent UDG Healthcare, to become a standalone company. This independent status created several new obligations for Sharp around internal and external reporting such as monthly board reports, quarterly accounts, year-end financial statements, and investor calls.

With the deadline for divestment looming, Sharp had just three months to set up a new corporate finance function that could meet these requirements.

Kevin Byrne, Group Financial Controller, recalls: “As a multinational group that operates in several currencies, we needed a systematic way to get accurate numbers from all our subsidiaries on a regular basis. We had to implement new corporate finance systems and build our team at the same time—and speed was of the essence.”

Why Aramar?

Sharp’s former parent had been successfully using IBM Controller on Cloud as its group consolidation solution for several years, so the Sharp team was already familiar with the software. The team had also worked with Aramar before to implement Lease 16 – a solution for managing IFRS 16 and FRS 102 lease obligations built on IBM Planning Analytics.

“With such a short runway for the project, the fact that we already knew and trusted both Aramar and the IBM software was crucial,” explains Kevin.

Another major advantage was the fact that Aramar’s Product Specialist, Sarah Dow, was a chartered accountant as well as a technical expert in the IBM software.

“Aramar understood what we needed from a finance perspective, as well as knowing the best way to set up the system to achieve our goals,” says Kevin. “The result was a really solid plan that we were confident we could deliver within the deadline.”

What did Aramar do?

Aramar helped the Sharp team spin up new cloud environments for both IBM Controller and IBM Planning Analytics with Aramar’s Lease16 solution. Next, the team migrated the relevant data from the former parent company’s systems and built models to generate all the new reports for the Sharp’s board and external stakeholders.

“We took a pragmatic approach,” says Kevin. “For example, while the obvious move might have been to build the new board reports from scratch in Planning Analytics, Aramar found a faster way by extending the models we already had in Controller. That enabled us to deliver new capabilities very quickly in a pressurised timeframe.”

Aramar also helped to redesign aspects of the existing Controller models to better align with Sharp’s new corporate structure. “Aramar created a view that flattens our consolidation structure, so we can break down our consolidated figures by company, not just by subgroups,” says Kevin. “I hadn’t previously appreciated the value of being able to see the figures in different ways, but now I use it all the time.”

Project Outcome

After separating from UDG in late December, Sharp’s corporate finance team successfully delivered on all its reporting requirements at the end of January. “We went live on time with all the new external reports and we were immediately able to meet the much higher bar for internal reporting too,” says Kevin.

Thanks to Aramar’s Lease16 solution, the figures include all the company’s operating leases for buildings and equipment, reflecting the company’s full IFRS16 lease obligations on its balance sheet. Lease16 gives Sharp a one-stop shop for administrating its lease portfolio, a task that would be far too complex and time-consuming to manage with spreadsheets.

Moreover, because Aramar helped Sharp enrich the data that Controller and Planning Analytics integrate into the company’s chart of accounts, the systems have eliminated the need for many other spreadsheet-based reports that its corporate accountants previously created by hand.

“We have a team of three accountants at group level, and we want to be as efficient as possible,” says Kevin. “We would definitely need extra headcount if we still had to do so much of our work in spreadsheets. In addition, the risk of error is much lower by using robust consolidation systems.”

Following the success of the project, Sharp’s corporate finance team is continuing to engage with Aramar for mentoring and knowledge transfer, as well as discussing future financial planning and reporting initiatives.

“Now that we’ve met all our initial requirements, we’re considering extending our use of Planning Analytics for more flexible reporting and forecasting,” concludes Kevin. “Our support contract with Aramar is excellent because it means we always have access to their help, advice and expertise as our plans evolve.”

The post Sharp appeared first on Aramar.

IBM Business Analytics Solution – IBM Planning Analytics

Services – Consultancy

About Marshal Fleet Solutions

Founded in 1972, Marshall Fleet Solutions is the UK’s largest independent refrigeration, tail lift and commercial vehicle fleet service and support organisation. The business supports more than 2,500 vehicles and operates a diverse model covering sales, installation, maintenance, parts and fleet management.

During the pandemic, Marshall Fleet Solutions played a vital role in supporting supermarkets and logistics providers to deliver food and medical supplies. As the business has grown, it has continued to innovate, launching a renewables division focused on green diesel and solar technologies within the refrigerated vehicle market.

The Challenge

Marshall Fleet Solutions’ expanding and multifaceted business model made financial planning and analysis increasingly complex. While spreadsheets had supported budgeting and forecasting in the past, they were becoming a major constraint. The budget model alone contained more than 50 tabs with hundreds of columns in each. Even opening the file took several minutes, and making changes required copying data across multiple sheets. The effort involved meant that as soon as one quarterly forecast was completed, work on the next one had to begin almost immediately.

As the business continued to grow and diversify, the FP&A team wanted to move beyond basic budgeting and forecasting towards a more sophisticated approach to financial performance management.

The Solution

Marshall Fleet Solutions was introduced to Aramar through its parent and sister companies, which were already using IBM Business Analytics software for financial reporting. Following a demonstration of Fast Financials, Aramar’s out-of-the-box solution built on IBM Planning Analytics, Marshall quickly recognised the potential.

Aramar worked closely with Marshall Fleet Solutions to deploy Fast Financials and tailor it to align with the company’s IT security and GDPR requirements. Alongside the implementation, Aramar delivered several days of modelling training, enabling the FP&A team to become self-sufficient quickly.

The Results

Within two months, Marshall Fleet Solutions had its data loaded into IBM Planning Analytics and was using the system productively. The FP&A team began migrating more spreadsheet-based processes and calculations into Fast Financials, laying the foundations for extensive automation.

“Shifting from our manual spreadsheet-based processes to Fast Financials has been a learning process, and Aramar have given us all the support we needed,” said Bryan. “Instead of spending all our time extracting and wrangling information, we’ve been able to focus on developing and improving our workflows.”

The benefits became clear quickly. Where forecasting previously meant repeating the same manual effort every quarter, automation now means that work only needs to be done once.

“With Fast Financials, once the automations are set up, that’s the last time we’ll ever need to do it,” Bryan added.

After two months, the team confidently completed its first 9+3 forecast in the new system. Since then, Marshall Fleet Solutions has expanded its use of Planning Analytics to include new capabilities such as a gross margin cube, enabling faster and more detailed sales analysis.

The Outcome

Beyond time savings, the biggest impact has been the shift in how FP&A supports the business. IBM Planning Analytics has enabled Marshall Fleet Solutions to provide faster visibility of targets, budgets and actuals, and to move towards a rolling forecast model.

“As we move towards rolling forecasts, we’re shifting the role of FP&A from basic budgeting and forecasting to true financial performance management,” said Bryan. “We’re raising the focus from ‘where will the numbers be?’ to ‘how can we plan the business to better serve our customers?’”

Read more success stories here

The post Marshall Fleet Solutions appeared first on Aramar.

IBM Business Analytics Solution – IBM Planning Analytics

Services – Consultancy

About Pirum

Pirum is a leading fintech company specialising in post-trade automation for the securities finance and lending sector. Its platform supports more than 100 financial institutions globally, including investment banks, asset managers, pension funds, insurers and agent lenders.

The Challenge

Pirum’s financial planning and analysis processes were built around a complex, spreadsheet-based model. While this approach had supported the business in its early stages, it became increasingly difficult to manage as Pirum continued to grow. Maintaining version control, managing access, running scenarios and making changes in a transparent way all required significant manual effort. The finance team spent too much time processing numbers and not enough time supporting the wider business with insight.

Pirum needed a more robust and scalable FP&A solution that could retain the flexibility of spreadsheets while introducing control, automation and transparency.

The Solution

Aramar worked closely with Pirum to scope the project and design a new FP&A model using IBM Planning Analytics. To accelerate delivery, the team used Aramar’s Fast Financials approach, which pre-configures key dimensions and settings out of the box.

This reduced the amount of foundational setup required and allowed Pirum to see value quickly, while still retaining the flexibility to adapt the model as their business evolves.

The Results

By the end of the first phase, Pirum had transformed the way it manages FP&A. IBM Planning Analytics now enables Pirum to control access and versions, produce multiple budget scenarios, analyse what-if outcomes and make changes to the model in a clear, explainable way. Many previously manual processes have been automated, reducing risk and improving consistency.

As a result, Pirum’s Financial Controller is now able to spend around 30% more time supporting the business, rather than simply processing numbers. As additional user interfaces are introduced, managers will be able to access information directly, freeing up even more time for value-adding analysis and decision support.

Read more success stories here

The post Pirum appeared first on Aramar.

IBM Business Analytics Solution – IBM Cognos Controller & IBM Planning Analytics (TM1)

Services – Consultancy and Implementation

The Challenge

SCC’s shift toward cloud and managed services placed new demands on its finance function. Each operating unit was using its own spreadsheet-based tools for budgeting and forecasting, making it difficult to achieve a single, accurate view of performance across the organisation.

SCC wanted everyone working from a single version of the truth and a more efficient approach to performance management. Manual consolidation and reporting slowed the team down, with analysts spending more time manipulating data than analysing it.
The business needed a modern, multi-dimensional planning and reporting solution that could scale across its expanding EMEA operations.

The Solution

After reviewing several vendors, SCC selected IBM Controller for financial consolidation and IBM Planning Analytics for planning, forecasting and management reporting. Aramar was chosen to design and implement the solution due to our expertise with IBM Controller, IBM Planning Analytics and financial consolidation projects.

With Aramar’s guidance, SCC replaced its legacy consolidation system with IBM Controller and introduced IBM Planning Analytics to standardise budgeting and reporting. The finance team received hands-on mentoring, enabling them to build and expand their own models confidently and independently.

SCC began using Planning Analytics for management and board reporting before extending it across their EMEA operations. Additional planning and reporting models were rolled out to support local teams, including SCC France.

The Results

Replacing decentralised spreadsheets with IBM Controller and IBM Planning Analytics delivered major improvements in consistency, speed and insight.

IBM Planning Analytics now allows SCC to complete its annual budgeting process six to eight weeks faster than before. Year-end statutory reporting takes around 50 percent less time to prepare. Monthly actuals for management reporting are delivered up to 30 percent faster on average.

With automated processes and a unified planning framework across the organisation, SCC’s finance team delivers insights more quickly and reliably than ever. Analysts spend less time preparing numbers and more time understanding performance and supporting decision-making.

Working with Aramar

“Aramar provided valuable mentoring for our finance team so they could write their own reports and views.”

With Aramar’s support, SCC has continued developing additional Planning Analytics capabilities, including fixed asset analysis, multi-year planning and forecasting, rolling monthly forecasts and detailed costing models.

The Outcome

SCC’s leadership now receives richer insights earlier, with more time to review the data before key meetings. The business benefits from faster, smarter decision-making supported by real-time financial and operational insight.

IBM Controller and IBM Planning Analytics have transformed SCC’s approach to financial planning and analysis. As SCC continues to grow, their finance team is able to scale and evolve confidently with a modern, enterprise-wide planning environment.

Read more success stories here

The post Specialist Computer Centres (SCC) appeared first on Aramar.

IBM Business Analytics Solution – IBM Planning Analytics

Services – Consultancy and Training

About MRE UK

Melton Renewable Energy (MRE UK) is one of the UK’s leading independent renewable energy generators, with a portfolio totalling 165MW of installed capacity. Through its biomass business, MRE UK owns and operates the largest independent biomass-only power station portfolio in the UK. Through its landfill gas business, the group operates methane-powered generation assets across 19 landfill sites nationwide.

The Challenge

MRE UK relied on multiple spreadsheet models to support its planning and reporting processes. Each generating station, along with the landfill gas business, maintained its own model, prepared at the start of each month by financial controllers. This approach increased the risk of data loss, made it difficult to maintain historical information and introduced unnecessary manual effort into the planning process.

As the business grew, MRE UK wanted to move away from spreadsheets and automate as much of its planning as possible. The finance team needed a single, integrated platform that could support planning, budgeting, forecasting and analysis while retaining the flexibility of spreadsheets without the associated risk.

The Solution

Aramar worked with MRE UK to implement IBM Planning Analytics, delivering a centralised, automated planning and reporting solution. The implementation introduced driver-based planning for profit and loss, alongside automated cash flow and balance sheet reporting across monthly forecasts, budgets and the group’s long-term plan.

A key part of the project was MRE UK adopting Aramar’s train-and-mentor approach. Rather than relying on a single expert user, a team of five was trained to use and maintain the system. This significantly reduced operational risk and enabled the finance team to answer most technical questions internally, without the need for ongoing external support.

The Results

IBM Planning Analytics has had a significant impact on MRE UK’s financial planning and reporting capabilities. The platform is now used to produce all management accounts, budgets and forecasts, from group level down to individual generating assets.

By replacing spreadsheet models with a central, enterprise-class planning solution, MRE UK has increased the speed, consistency and reliability of its reporting. Planning cycles are faster, scenario modelling is more flexible and the finance team has far greater confidence in the numbers being presented to the business.

Read more success stories here

The post Melton Renewable Energy (MRE UK) appeared first on Aramar.

IBM Business Analytics Solution: IBM Planning Analytics

Services: Consultancy

About Caring Homes

Caring Homes Group  is a respected UK care-and-support provider operating a network of care homes across the country and serving thousands of residents.

Family-run since its founding, Caring Homes continues to grow its network while maintaining its commitment to exceptional, person-centred care.

The Challenge

Rapid expansion meant that Caring Homes had outgrown their spreadsheet-based approach to financial management. They needed a new solution for reporting, budgeting and forecasting that could keep pace with their growing business.

Their priorities were clear:

• Greater consistency and accuracy in monthly reporting

• Seamless integration with payroll systems

• The ability to spot trends and patterns in occupancy data

The Solution

Aramar implemented IBM Planning Analytics, giving Caring Homes the scalability and automation they needed to move beyond manual spreadsheets.

After installation, the Aramar team provided a structured onboarding programme combining hands-on and guided training to help the Caring Homes finance team quickly build confidence using their new system.

The Results

Caring Homes now have the flexibility and speed to deliver accurate insights across their organisation.

With IBM Planning Analytics, they can:

• Produce monthly accounts in minutes rather than hours

• Manage data across multiple business units with ease

• Drill into occupancy trends for faster, data-driven decisions

• Forecast with improved accuracy and confidence

The outcome? A deeper understanding of their business, with the ability to access rich, multi-dimensional data quickly and efficiently.

Read more success stories here

The post Caring Homes appeared first on Aramar.