Thermo Fisher boosts connected planning with Oracle Cloud EPM

Video: Thermo Fisher improves planning with Oracle Cloud EPM (1:19)

Thermo Fisher Scientific is the world leader is serving science. Through design, manufacturing, and distribution of analytical instruments, life sciences products, specialty diagnostics, and lab and biopharma services, Thermo Fisher enables customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer.

The company saw significant growth over the past few years, which created several challenges for various lines of business, especially the finance team. These challenges ranged from managing diverse teams across different regions with varying KPIs, supporting a large channel business that sells products worldwide, and servicing several thousand finance and accounting users.

These challenges were exacerbated by data management issues created by multiple disparate ERP systems, spreadsheets, and emails used to execute planning and budgeting for a workforce of more than 125,000 employees. Users had to spend much of their time gathering data from multiple sources, which began to cause delays in reporting and gathering insights. With so much effort being put toward mundane data management activities, teams were limited in how much impact they could have on strategic planning processes. Without a central platform, it was also difficult for different teams to collaborate and share best practices, making connected planning across the enterprise increasingly challenging. These data and planning issues created significant inefficiencies across the organization.

Thermo Fisher's priority was to ensure employees could get the information they needed promptly to serve customers efficiently and effectively. The company needed a solution that could harmonize data from multiple ERP systems and give users the ability to view and act on that data in near real time. Additionally, finance employees wanted a solution that would help them be more agile in responding to evolving business needs.

“The one thing we look for is a long-term partner. We can count on Oracle being here with us for many years into the future.”—Kenneth Kordana, Senior Director, Financial Systems and Consolidation, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher assessed several cloud vendors to find the most effective solution to address its technology and connected planning challenges. Key factors it considered included the vendor’s long-term product vision, the scalability of the solution, and longevity in the marketplace.

Following these criteria, Thermo Fisher concluded that Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) was the comprehensive answer the company needed to address its evolving needs. Oracle’s approach to collaboration was a good cultural fit, and the cloud-based EPM suite would provide the flexibility needed to grow alongside the business.

The company also saw a lot of value in Oracle Cloud EPM’s centralized platform, which would consolidate data from different sources and free employees from time-consuming data gathering activities so they could focus on bringing more value to the organization. The modern platform and modules would also enhance Thermo Fisher’s planning capabilities, allowing the company to be more strategic and unlock new avenues for growth and innovation.

Using Oracle Cloud EPM, Thermo Fisher deployed more than 1,000 active Enterprise Planning and Budgeting users, with an expected increase to 2,000 users in the near future. The company eliminated many data management challenges and improved governance by consolidating data from its various ERP systems with a clear information flow into Oracle Cloud EPM for planning. Also, data flows seamlessly between other on-premises and cloud applications, eliminating the need for mundane data gathering tasks. This not only boosted overall productivity, but it allowed users to focus on more strategic elements of the business. In the case of planning, budgeting, and forecasting, users became trusted partners in the decision-making process, thanks to the powerful insights gathered through Oracle Cloud EPM.

The centralized platform and modern user interface of Oracle Cloud EPM also helped employees in different lines of business to work in cohesion because everyone is familiar with the layout, data, and use of the tool. With multiple departments now better aligned, teams more readily share best practices and create value for the organization by opening new avenues for discussion, collaboration, and troubleshooting. Plus, the cloud capabilities allowed the company to reduce its hardware footprint and allocate resources and funds elsewhere, while Oracle manages and updates the platform with the latest innovations behind the scenes.

The company’s finance team also benefited from the breadth and depth of the Oracle Cloud EPM suite, with modules connected on a single platform. This common data model allows for robust internal and external reporting, enabling the company to use data efficiently and accurately in near real time for connected planning activities. Thermo Fisher also enhanced its overall planning, developing plans that provide more insight into business performance and creating opportunities for growth. For example, the finance team now plans and reports on sales and cost of sales down to individual product SKUs, generating critical insights at a much more granular level than ever before.

The company can better support its 3,000 finance and accounting users, providing excellent stability and user experiences.

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