Project Summary
A leading paper and packaging manufacturer underscores its dedication to to delivering innovative and environmentally sustainable products through strategic technological investments. The company is investing in modern CapEx solutions to replace conventional spreadsheet-based budgeting and improve operational efficiency.
To achieve this, the company implemented IQX CAPEX, a Capital Expenditure Management Solution integrated with its SAP Investment Management system. This solution streamlines capital expenditure management, offering an intuitive interface that fosters seamless collaboration among all stakeholders.
This case study highlights the company’s successful utilization of IQX CAPEX to optimize their financial operations. In doing so, they demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and cutting-edge technology.
Project Summary
A leading paper and packaging manufacturer underscores its dedication to delivering innovative and environmentally sustainable products through strategic technological investments. The company is investing in modern CapEx solutions to replace conventional spreadsheet-based budgeting and improve operational efficiency.
To achieve this, the company implemented IQX CAPEX, a Capital Expenditure Management Solution integrated with its SAP Investment Management system. This solution streamlines capital expenditure management, offering an intuitive interface that fosters seamless collaboration among all stakeholders.
This case study highlights the company’s successful utilization of IQX CAPEX to optimize their financial operations. In doing so, they demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and cutting-edge technology.
Challenges
- Manual processes
- Limited real-time visibility
- Automation gaps
- Insights difficulty
- Dispersed information
- No centralized platform
Outcomes
- Streamline financial processes
- Real-time visibility
- Automate workflows
- Gain financial insights
- Centralize financial data
- Facilitate collaboration
Solution
- Implementation of IQX CAPEX for SAP Fiori with applications including Appropriation Request, Capex/Opex Request, Asset Disposal Request, WBS Child Budget Transfer.
- Integration of OneList Approvals for simplified mobile approval.
Identifying the Challenges to Integrated Investment Management
The company identified significant challenges in their financial management practices, arising from their reliance on manual methods and the absence of an integrated Investment Management system. These challenges include:
Manual Processes
Time-consuming and error-prone manual processes lead to inefficiencies in managing investments and budgets.
Lack of Real-Time Visibility
The lack of real-time visibility into budget and investment data makes it difficult to monitor financial performance, track spending, and respond to changing financial conditions promptly.
Lack of Automation
The absence of automation in workflow processes causes delays in approvals, reviews, and tracking of investment proposals and budget requests, hindering responsiveness and decision-making.
Difficulty Gaining Insights
Difficulty in gaining insights into budget performance, investment returns, and overall financial health due to the lack of robust reporting and analysis capabilities.
Dispersed Information
Information related to investments and budgets is scattered across various spreadsheets, documents, and systems, making it difficult to have a centralized and up-to-date view of financial data.
Absence of a Centralized Platform
The absence of a centralized platform for budget and investment management hinders collaboration among team members and stakeholders.
These challenges collectively prompted our client to seek a comprehensive solution for transforming their Investment Management practices.
Manual processes
Time-consuming and error-prone manual processes lead to inefficiencies in managing investments and budgets.
Lack of real-time visibility:
The lack of real-time visibility into budget and investment data makes it difficult to monitor financial performance, track spending, and respond to changing financial conditions promptly.
Lack of Automation
The absence of automation in workflow processes causes delays in approvals, reviews, and tracking of investment proposals and budget requests, hindering responsiveness and decision-making.
Difficulty gaining insights
Difficulty in gaining insights into budget performance, investment returns, and overall financial health due to the lack of robust reporting and analysis capabilities.
Dispersed information
Information related to investments and budgets is scattered across various spreadsheets, documents, and systems, making it difficult to have a centralized and up-to-date view of financial data.
Absence of a Centralized Platform
The absence of a centralized platform for budget and investment management hinders collaboration among team members and stakeholders.
A Complete Solution that Transformed CapEx Management
Our client’s journey towards optimization led to the adoption of two transformative solutions: OneList Approval and SAP Fiori Applications. These choices were not made in isolation but were driven by the need to consolidate and mobilize approval tasks across multiple systems into a singular, mobile-enabled user experience. Here, we take a detailed look at the solutions and the benefits they aim to deliver.
OneList Approval
OneList Approval is a solution that consolidates and mobilizes approval tasks across multiple systems into a single, mobile-enabled user experience. It offers the following benefits:
- Immediate notification of assigned approval tasks
- Contextual business data and supporting documentation
- More effective and timely decision-making
- Overall efficiency improvements
OneList Approval seamlessly integrates with all request apps. This offers users convenient approval capabilities across various interfaces, including:
Native Mobile Apps: OneList Approval supports mobile and offline approvals through native iOS, Android, and Windows mobile apps. This empowers users to review and approve requests on-the-go, ensuring flexibility and efficiency.
Responsive Web App: Users can access the approval functionality through a responsive web app, allowing browser-based access from desktop and mobile devices. This enables easy and convenient approvals from any web browser.
Outlook Add-In: For desktop users, OneList Approval integrates with Outlook, providing an add-in that facilitates quick and efficient approval of requests directly within the Outlook interface. This streamlines the approval process for users working on desktop computers.
Email-Based Approval: OneList Approval enables email-based approvals. Users can conveniently approve requests directly from their email, eliminating the need to navigate to a separate interface.
SAP Fiori Applications
IQX CAPEX is a digital transformation solution that uses Fiori Applications to streamline and optimize the Investment Management process. It consists of a suite of highly customizable apps that address the entire capital expenditure (CAPEX) process, from budgeting and expenditure approval to project and internal order management. IQX CAPEX leverages existing SAP infrastructure and can be supported by the existing SAP Team. The key SAP Fiori apps deployed in our client’s CapEx transformation project included:
Appropriation Request: The Appropriation Request app simplifies the process of creating, reviewing, and approving appropriation requests for each plant. With this app, users can effectively outline their proposed investments before they are implemented.
Mass Appropriation Request: The Mass Appropriation Request app allows users to create multiple appropriation requests from a single uploaded Excel file. This can save users a significant amount of time and effort, especially if they need to create a large number of appropriation requests. Once the Excel file has been uploaded, the Mass Appropriation Request app will automatically create a new appropriation request for each row in the file. Users can then review and edit the appropriation requests as needed before submitting them for approval.
Appropriation Request Analytics: The Appropriation Request Analytics app provides users with a comprehensive overview of appropriation requests, including the status of requests, total and approved amounts, and budget allocations. Users can also drill down into specific requests to view more detailed information, such as the request type, project details, and supporting documentation.
The app also includes a variety of analytical tools that can be used to identify trends and patterns in appropriation requests. For example, users can use the app to identify the most common request types, the departments that submit the most requests, and the projects that receive the most funding. The Appropriation Request Analytics app is a valuable tool for users who need to manage and track appropriation requests. It provides users with the information they need to make informed decisions about funding and resource allocation.
Annual Business Plan: The Annual Business Plan (ABP) app is a powerful tool used to streamline and optimize the annual budget planning process. It provides a centralized platform that empowers users to collate departmental budget requests, set and adjust the required annual budget, control budget allocation, and facilitate the preparation, review, and approval of the Investment Program budget for each Plant.
The ABP app also allows users to update the Investment Program budget, Planned Costs on the Investment Measure, Priority level for Approved Appropriation Requests, and flag them as Budgeted or Unbudgeted. This helps to improve the efficiency, transparency, and control of the annual budget planning process.
CapEx/Opex Request: The CapEx/Opex Request app revolutionizes the way organizations manage their capital and operational expenditures. It provides a centralized platform that empowers users to seamlessly prepare, review, and approve budgeted expenditures, allocate budgets, monitor expenditure forecasts, handle asset dispositions, and perform IRR analysis with ease.
CapEx/Opex Project Analytics: The CapEx/Opex Project Analytics app provides users with a comprehensive overview of capital expenditure (CapEx) and operational expenditure (OpEx) projects. The app includes information on the status of projects, total and approved amounts, budget allocations, and spending forecasts. Users can also drill down into specific projects to view more detailed information, such as the project scope, timeline, and risks.
The app also includes a variety of analytical tools that can be used to identify trends and patterns in CapEx and OpEx projects. For example, users can use the app to identify the most expensive projects, the projects that are most behind schedule, and the projects that are most likely to exceed budget. The CapEx/Opex Project Analytics app is a valuable tool for users who need to manage and track CapEx and OpEx projects. It provides users with the information they need to make informed decisions about resource allocation and project execution.
Asset Disposal Request: The Asset Disposal Request app streamlines and optimizes the process of disposing of fixed assets. It provides a centralized platform for users to create, review, and approve asset disposal requests.
WBS Child Budget Transfer: The WBS Child Budget Transfer app enables organizations to transfer budgets between WBS elements within a project. It provides a centralized platform for users to initiate, review, and approve budget transfer requests. The app also automates many of the manual tasks associated with budget transfer.
Appropriation Request Monitor & CapEx/Opex Request Monitor: The Request Monitor app helps organizations manage requests more efficiently. It provides a centralized platform for users to oversee, track, and manage requests, with real-time visibility into the status of their submissions, efficient communication, and essential filtering and sorting capabilities.
Achieving Success through Integrated CapEx Management
The IQX CAPEX Solution is a powerful tool that helped this organization with its financial management challenges and transform its CapEx process. With IQX CAPEX Solution, this major packaging and paper manufacturer can now:
Choose IQX for Your CAPEX Management Transformation
IQX CAPEX is an end-to-end, flexible and customizable CAPEX process solution. We are the leading SAP-based capital expenditure solution on the market, delivering an immediate ROI to finance teams around the world.