Hearst Communications transforms back office for a new era with Oracle Cloud
Summary
The diversified media and information services company standardized on Oracle Cloud to add new capabilities and enable more informed business decisions.
Business challenges
Hearst Communications is one of the largest media and information services companies, with holdings that include newspapers (such as the San Francisco Chronicle and Houston Chronicle); more than 300 magazines (including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Popular Mechanics, and Good Housekeeping); stakes in cable TV networks (such as ESPN, A&E, Lifetime); 33 TV stations; a range of marketing, healthcare, transportation, and other digital services businesses; and global financial services leader Fitch Ratings.
But diversification—Hearst now operates 360 different businesses worldwide—left the New York-based company with lots of different finance and human resources processes managed by outdated, disconnected, highly customized applications that yielded inconsistent data. That application environment made it difficult for Hearst’s finance and HR functions to rapidly adapt to business changes and deliver new digital capabilities.
Hearst needed to consolidate onto a state-of-the-art cloud financial, HR, and inventory management application platform to support the iconic media company’s strategy and growth ambitions.
One of the things that we realized early on was that this is a different type of relationship with a software company. It wasn’t just selling software to us. It was about developing a long-term relationship.
Debra Robinson
Hearst Senior Vice President and CIO, Oracle Technology and Operations
Why Hearst chose Oracle
Hearst wanted a partner with proven maturity operating in the cloud-based business model, as well as a flexible platform able to keep up with constantly changing customer, business, and regulatory demands. Hearst also needed ERP and EPM systems that are fully integrated with its HCM systems, so that it could perform consistent data analytics across its finance and HR functions. And with digital media talent at a premium, the executive team wanted a system that could promote employee engagement and help it up-skill talent.
Hearst also liked the engagement of senior Oracle product executives on its implementation steering committee, where they provided biweekly updates, answered questions, and offered advice post-go-live on how to maximize the investments. “We’re really happy with the relationship and partnership with Oracle,” says David Hovstadius, senior vice president of finance operations.
Results
Hearst’s implementation of Oracle Cloud applications allowed it to improve financial reporting and gain insights in near real time while reducing IT support costs. Meantime, it reduced more than 15 unique charts of accounts down to a single one, enabling delivery of reports to senior leaders in a matter of minutes, improving decision-making.
Oracle Cloud HCM helped new hires start contributing productively much more quickly, thanks to the automation and centralization of the employee onboarding process. Hearst reduced its number of job codes from 7,000 to 1,700.
With Oracle, Hearst also was able to simplify internal and external audit work by automating and standardizing business processes. In addition, the company reduced employee attrition by analyzing turnover data and making it easier for employees to view and apply for internal job openings.
Oracle’s financial applications helped Hearst improve planning and budgeting by replacing six discrete software tools with one.
Hearst is using the micro-learning capabilities within Oracle Cloud LMS, “putting a lot of emphasis on well-being and emotional training,” says Senior VP/CIO Debra Robinson, who also oversees HCM technology, operations, and support at Hearst. “The benefits have been endless on the HCM side.”
With Oracle Cloud applications, we don’t just look at HR analytics by themselves. We don’t just look at finance analytics on their own. It’s really: How do you merge the insights from both the finance side and the HCM side? Having an integrated platform is allowing us to do that.
David Hovstadius
Hearst Senior Vice President of Finance Operations