Windesheim, one of the larger universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands with 20,500 students, uses SAP BPC to analyse data and to prepare reports efficiently and custom-made. There is now more time to analyze the results and start working with scenario planning.
Windesheim is one of the Netherlands’ top-3 universities of applied sciences, known for its personal approach, small classes (15-20 students) and for working closely with the business community and public institutes.
Windesheim has been using SAP Business Planning & Consolidation (BPC) for budgeting, forecasting and reporting since 2011. Therefore they made use of Excel. This took up a lot of valuable time. When working with multiple people on a file, it was always exciting to see how this came back. Were adjustments made? If so, which ones and by whom? Were all formulas still correct? Planning & Control had the need for a reliable solution for drawing up the budget, the forecast and the reports. Windesheim therefore started looking for a solution to better support the planning and control cycle.
Together with Deloitte, Windesheim started a selection process to find the right software that met Windesheim’s wishes and requirements. SAP BPC emerged as the best solution during this procedure. Deloitte then worked out the process together with Windesheim and translated it into the new solution. cpmview was asked by Deloitte to carry out the implementation with them, because cpmview has the specific knowledge and years of experience with the implementation of SAP BPC. Through the combination of financial and technical knowledge they have made the project a success.
The SAP BPC implementation process was completed in just three months. One of the advantages was that, despite three parties involved (Windesheim, Deloitte and cpmview), it was possible to work on the project with a small team. Other departments were not bothered by the implementation. Windesheim is currently working with SAP BPC 10.1 (at the start this was 7.5).
Eelko Merkus: “We were very well involved in the implementation. There was a weekly update on the progress and we were asked for our input. The right people were also involved in the testing and the findings were shared with us. That worked like a dream.”
Three main lines: budget, forecast and reporting Windesheim uses SAP BPC, among other things, to draw up student forecasts. This is important in order to be able to determine the income. The student forecasts are therefore important for drawing up the budget and multi-year forecasts. In addition, SAP BPC is also used for drawing up the forecast and for reports on the realization. Together this results in three main lines for which Windesheim uses SAP BPC: budget, forecast and reporting. The implementation of SAP BPC has resulted in an enormous increase in efficiency.
The step to scenario planning and beautiful dashboards
Windesheim wants to use SAP BPC for scenario planning; ‘whatif‘ scenarios. This makes it relatively easy to gain insight into the effect of, for example, an increase or decrease in the number of students. In addition, there is a need for more explanation of reports. Eelko Merkus: “We need to focus more on analyses and be able to identify anomalies sooner.”
