Resource Topic: Financial Optimization / TBM / FinOps

The Tipping Point: When Excel Just Doesn’t Cut It Anymore

Ahold Delhaize USA found itself at a crossroads. As the digital innovation hub for one of America’s largest grocery retail groups, they were pushing the boundaries of Agile practices. However, their financial management was stuck in the past, relying heavily on manual processes, siloed data, and the ubiquitous spreadsheet.

“We had absolutely no system in place to support the transition,” recalls an Ahold Delhaize USA team member. The pain points were clear:

1. A disconnect between agile execution and financial tracking
2. Time-consuming manual updates across multiple platforms
3. Lack of real-time visibility into resource allocation and utilization
4. Difficulty in demonstrating value to their more traditional parent company

Moreover, the company was determined to move away from time writing, a practice they found subjective and often inaccurate. They needed a solution that could bridge the gap between their Agile aspirations and financial realities.

Crafting a Custom Solution: More Than Just Software Implementation

Cprime consultants were brought in to craft a tailored approach to Ahold Delhaize USA’s unique challenges. The solution centered around implementing Apptio Targetprocess, but it went far beyond simple software deployment. Here’s how they tackled Ahold Delhaize USA’s complex needs:

1. Value Stream Alignment: Configured the system to allocate work directly to value streams, supporting the org’s lean budgeting structure.
2. Automated Cost Modeling: Developed a system that ingests Jira work items and allocates costs based on team assignments, running parallel to existing time tracking for a smooth transition.
3. CapEx and OpEx Automation: Implemented role-based automation for capital and operational expenditure splits, dramatically reducing manual management.
4. Two-Way Integration: Created seamless data flow between Jira and Targetprocess, supporting quarterly planning and standardizing estimation practices.
5. Custom Financial Reporting: Built custom reporting capabilities within Targetprocess to meet the client’s specific needs.
6. Capacity and Demand Management: Developed features to analyze and forecast at both team and value stream levels.

“We hit many key pain points across planning, capacity and demand for resource management, estimating and managing budgeting from a portfolio perspective, supporting their transition to lean budgeting, and then giving them a no-pressure way to potentially adopt an automated cost model,” explains Mohammed Attieh, a Cprime consultant and Senior Apptio Solutions Architect on the project.

The Ripple Effect: Transforming More Than Just Finances

The impact of this transformation extended far beyond streamlined spreadsheets. Ahold Delhaize USA experienced a seismic shift in how they approached financial management and decision-making:

1. Unprecedented Portfolio Visibility: Ahold Delhaize gained real-time insights into their entire $160 million portfolio, thanks to an automated system that updates every 15 minutes.
2. Stronger Organizational Influence: The company enhanced its ability to demonstrate the value of agile practices to its parent company, potentially shaping larger organizational strategies, through comprehensive reporting and measurable outcomes.
3. Enhanced Cross-Team Collaboration: Program managers at Ahold Delhaize now enjoy improved collaboration and alignment, leveraging new tools that facilitate priority setting and budget sharing across value streams.
4. Data-Driven Strategic Decision-Making: The company now makes more informed strategic decisions, powered by improved roll-up reporting that connects team execution directly to portfolio-level insights.
5. Agile Resource Allocation: Ahold Delhaize achieved remarkable flexibility in resource management, with the ability to make allocation changes throughout the year and see immediate portfolio-wide updates, thanks to the integrated, responsive system.

“They’re in love with the fact that they can make allocation changes throughout the year,” notes Mohammed. “Within fifteen minutes, the entire system recalculates… So tremendous reporting synergy.”

“Since implementing Targetprocess and the accompanying automation, we’re seeing vast improvements across the org in terms of time savings, greater visibility into the data, and a more strategic, data-driven approach to decision-making.” — Grant Williams, Senior Finance Director TBM

Looking Ahead: The Road to Continuous Improvement

While the transformation has been significant, Ahold Delhaize USA isn’t resting on its laurels. The organization is now poised to:

• Potentially deprecate time writing in favor of their new automated cost model
• Expand the use of the new system across more stakeholder groups
• Further mature their cost model for even more accurate financial tracking
• Standardize the use of story points across the enterprise for improved estimation

And, of course, Cprime experts will be there to guide and assist.

The Bigger Picture: Lessons for the Industry

Ahold Delhaize USA’s journey offers valuable insights for other organizations grappling with similar challenges:

• Alignment is Key: Ensuring that financial practices support rather than hinder Agile methodologies is crucial for digital innovation.
• Automation Drives Accuracy: Reducing manual processes not only saves time but also improves the accuracy and reliability of financial data.
• Visibility Enables Agility: Real-time insights into financials and resource allocation allow for more responsive and data-driven decision-making.
• Change Management Matters: Successfully implementing new systems requires careful attention to cultural shifts and user adoption.

As the digital retail landscape continues to evolve, Ahold Delhaize USA’s story can guide organizations looking to harmonize their financial management with Agile principles. It’s a testament to the power of innovative thinking, tailored solutions, and the willingness to embrace change.

Would you like to see similar results for your organization? Explore our flexible Enterprise Technology and Financial Management solutions.

McGraw Hill, a long-time leader in the fast-paced, competitive publishing industry, found themselves at a crossroads. Their financial processes, particularly in labor budgeting, were holding them back. Enter Cprime, with a mission to revolutionize how McGraw Hill managed their finances.

The Excel Labyrinth: A $145 Million Puzzle

McGraw Hill’s financial team was grappling with a complex web of Excel spreadsheets to manage their $145 million labor budget. This manual process was not just time-consuming—it was a barrier to strategic insights. Different business units were creating isolated budgets, which then had to be painstakingly consolidated. Adding to the complexity, calculations for employee benefits, merit increases, and fringe benefits were all done by hand.

The result? A budgeting process that required many hours and a lot of manual effort to maintain each quarter, and took six long weeks to finalize each year, with the budget often not published until well into the new fiscal year. This delay had a ripple effect, impacting decision-making across the organization.

Breaking Down Walls: The Quest for Financial Transparency

Beyond the budgeting challenges, McGraw Hill faced a critical issue: financial data was siloed within the finance department. Product managers, resource managers, and other key decision-makers lacked visibility into financial data that could inform their strategies. This disconnect between financial realities and product roadmaps was a significant hurdle to effective resource allocation and strategic planning.

Cprime’s Blueprint: Integrating Systems, Automating Processes

Recognizing these challenges, Cprime devised a comprehensive solution that would not only streamline McGraw Hill’s budgeting process but also democratize access to financial data across the organization. The plan centered around implementing and configuring Apptio Targetprocess and Apptio One to create a powerful labor budgeting solution that integrates seamlessly with other financial management and related tools.

Key goals of the solution included:

1. Seamless Data Flow and Time Savings: Manual data entry and consolidation became a thing of the past. Cprime achieved this by creating an end-to-end automated integration between IT Planning, TBM Studio, and Targetprocess.
2. Improved Cost Visibility and Strategic Alignment: McGraw Hill gained deeper insights into the total cost of ownership for technology investments. This was accomplished by creating a new hierarchy in Targetprocess that connected portfolio epics to business initiatives and cases.
3. Empowered Decision-Making Across Departments: Product managers and resource managers gained access to critical financial data, enabling more informed decisions. Cprime made this possible by leveraging integration capabilities to share non-sensitive financial information through Targetprocess.
4. Increased Consistency and Accountability in Business Planning: Ad-hoc PowerPoint presentations were replaced with a standardized approach to business cases. Cprime developed a comprehensive template within Targetprocess that captured both quantitative and qualitative aspects of business cases.

From Weeks to Days: The Impact of Financial Transformation

The results of this transformation were immediate and significant:

• Accelerated Budgeting: The budget finalization process was slashed by 66%—from six weeks to just two weeks—allowing for more timely financial planning.
• Empowered Decision-Making: With financial data now accessible through Targetprocess, product managers and resource managers could make more informed decisions about resource allocation and project prioritization.
• Strategic Alignment: By connecting financial data to strategy and OKRs in Targetprocess, McGraw Hill could now better align their spending with their strategic objectives.
• Improved Accountability: The new standardized business case template in Targetprocess allowed for better tracking of ROI assumptions and budget estimates, creating a historical record that enhanced accountability.

Looking Ahead: The Road to Continuous Improvement

While the initial implementation focused on labor budgeting, McGraw Hill and Cprime are exploring further enhancements. Future projects may include integrating infrastructure costs, non-labor contract management, and cloud consumption assessment into the financial management ecosystem.

The McGraw Hill case demonstrates how the right combination of technology and expertise can transform financial management from a necessary evil into a strategic asset. By breaking down data silos and automating manual processes, McGraw Hill has positioned itself to make faster, more informed decisions in an increasingly competitive market.

As the publishing industry continues to evolve, McGraw Hill’s newfound financial agility will be a key factor in maintaining its leadership position and delivering value to students and educators worldwide.

Would you like to see similar results for your organization? Your best first step would be to book a free strategy session to explore the holistic Enterprise Operating Model as it can be applied to your unique goals and constraints. 

Book your session today.

Cprime integrated systems and automated processes for Peapod Digital Labs (PDL)—now dba Ahold Delhaize USA Services—saving time and supporting better decision-making across the organization.

Cprime Solutions

• Automated reporting for 500+ teams by implementing Apptio TargetProcess with Jira integration
• Streamlined financial management through custom features for cost modeling and CapEx/OpEx splits
• Enhanced quarterly planning via two-way integration and standardized estimation
• Improved resource utilization with capacity and demand management tools at team and value stream levels

“Since implementing TargetProcess and the accompanying automation, we’re seeing vast improvements across the org in terms of time savings, greater visibility into the data, and a more strategic, data-driven approach to decision-making.” — Grant Williams, Senior Finance Director TBM

Key Outcomes

• Enabled portfolio-wide financial updates every 15 minutes, significantly reducing manual effort while supporting real-time data visibility
• Streamlined quarterly planning with automated integrations and standardized estimation
• Improved transparency and data-driven decision-making across value streams
• Positioned PDL to potentially deprecate time-writing in favor of an automated, data-driven cost allocation model

If you’d like to see the same results, explore our flexible Enterprise Technology and Financial Management solutions.