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Lesieur adopts a simplified annual budgeting and monthly closing process
Lesieur is a brand that has found its place in every kitchen in France. Marketing a wide range of vegetable oils and condiments to consumers, restaurant owners and industrialists in the food industry, this company founded in 1908 is now part of the Avril Group as the French leader in the food oil market.
Challenges
To satisfy its loyal customers while controlling costs and maximizing profitability, Lesieur needed an accurate budgeting system and fast financial closing capabilities, supported by multidimensional financial analysis. Its old financial tools were outdated and difficult to use, delaying access to information by decision makers. In turn, skilled analysts were stuck preparing low-value data. In addition, the need to manually update calculation scripts in the old system wasted valuable company time that could have been spent on more in-depth analysis.
"When I joined the company, I saw a great opportunity to deepen all the financial data we had," recalls Emmanuelle Poulain, head of management control at Lesieur. "Unfortunately, the existing tool was too slow for our ambitions. We needed a fast, flexible and efficient platform for financial planning and analysis.
Methods and Solutions
In consultation with the group's IT team, Emmanuelle Poulain looked for an alternative to the on-premise financial solution used by other companies in the Avril group. "For me, it was essential to use a cloud-based platform that we could implement quickly and without major integration projects," she recalls. "An acquaintance recommended Anaplan to me. I quickly felt comfortable with this solution and with its partner, Micropole.
Following a study demonstrating the time and efficiency gains of Anaplan, Emmanuelle Poulain was approved to work with Micropole. The solution was deployed in five months, just in time for Lesieur's annual financial close in March 2021.
"One of the key factors in our success is the strong partnership we have established with Micropole. Our contacts, who are kind and open-minded, have understood our needs and continue to support us as we develop our skills with Anaplan" explains Emmanuelle Poulain.
Benefits
At Lesieur, this new solution has allowed more employees to have access to data, which has democratized the analysis and decision-making process. This new solution, which puts information in the hands of decision-makers much more quickly, has provided the entire company with usable financial data.
- 30-40% less time spent on creating and reviewing company-wide budgets, allowing for faster translation of plans into action
- 20% less time spent on the monthly close, allowing the finance team to focus on value-added tasks
- Granular variance analysis to exploit all combinations of factors: customer, product, sales channel, etc.
- Lesieur's finance team can now create the annual budget and revise it twice a year based on updated performance figures
Emmanuelle Poulain. "Previously, we had to spend most of our time producing data. Now we can focus on analysis and enrichment by adding comments. Thanks to this solution, our finance team contributes significantly to the company's development.
A tailor-made accompaniment
"Previously, we had to spend most of our time producing data. Now we can focus on analysis and enrichment by adding comments. With this solution, our finance team is making a significant contribution to the development of the business ."