Modernizing a 25-Year-Old Cost Allocation Process

The Situation

The client needed to modernize legacy systems that had been in place for more than 25 years. Technologies and processes had to change significantly if the health network was to remain competitive. The executive team engaged a technology consulting firm to deploy Hyperion Planning, Workforce, and Profitability & Cost Management, aiming to improve productivity, cost savings, and reporting.

We were hired as a subcontractor in the early stages, leading the Hyperion Planning implementation.

The Challenge

Our initial performance drew the attention of the client's decision makers, who were dealing with another subcontractor's delayed delivery of Hyperion Workforce. Within the first two months, we were asked to take on that implementation as well.

The third component was streamlining cost allocation using HPCM. Analysts needed between three and four hours to allocate costs across three disparate legacy systems. A subject matter expert, one of the leading HPCM resources in the industry, had been hired to manage that project, but the client and consultant reached an impasse over fees before launch. We were selected to take over, learn the technology quickly, and hit critical delivery dates within budget.

Two of the three workstreams reached us because someone else could not finish them.

Our Approach

Within the targeted delivery timeline of one year, we designed and built customized Hyperion Workforce, CapEx, Planning, and Profitability and Cost Management applications covering the client's full set of business needs.

• Cost allocation was customized to run from the interim parent cost center down to individual units, revealing actual costs across the organization.
• Data was loaded from the legacy systems into Hyperion using Financial Data Management.
• Calculation logic was built to report revenue, cost, capital expenditure, and cost allocation accurately.
• More than five custom reports were created in Financial Reporting Studio.
• Users were trained across all four Hyperion applications, Financial Reporting, and SmartView.

The Results

All projects were completed on time and within the anticipated budget.

Following completion of the HPCM application, the client could allocate costs down to the penny, and task completion time fell from over three hours to 45 minutes.

"This project was transformative for our organization. The extensive system upgrades have moved us into a new era of productivity, responsiveness, and cost control. The CloudADDIE team kept it all moving forward, from requirements gathering and discovery to implementation and training. They gave us the tools we needed, but they also identified ways for us to use our systems that exceeded our expectations. Our relationship continues, and I can always call the team for direction when we have questions."

Senior Manager, Healthcare Network

Why It Mattered

Three to four hours of analyst time, every allocation cycle, spent operating three systems that should have been one. Recovering that time matters, but the more durable outcome was accuracy: allocation to the penny, from a process the finance team could explain and defend.