AMES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Workiva (NYSE:WK), a leading provider of solutions for enterprise productivity, announced today the findings of an independent study showing that a multinational agri-business is achieving a return on investment (ROI) of 266 percent by using the Wdesk platform to streamline its management reporting. Workiva commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct the study “The Total Economic Impact™ of Workiva Wdesk.”
The agri-business, which is a wholly owned subsidiary operating 12 separate legal entities in various regions around the world, is recognizing more than $677,000 in total benefits and cost savings over a three-year period, according to Forrester. Prior to Wdesk, the agri-business was juggling disparate P&L spreadsheets throughout its regions, leading to inconsistencies and errors when the information rolled up to the parent company.
Forrester reports that Wdesk:
- Offers a consolidated platform that improves operations and collaboration and reduces work across the company.
- Won approval from the company's IT department because of its security and cloud-based delivery, with little need for implementation and testing.
- Dramatically reduces email time lags and data errors while improving visibility and accountability.
- Is saving the company between three and four days each time they aggregate, review and compile reports.
- Increases the frequency of reporting, enabling the company to more quickly adjust to market conditions.
“Timeliness and accuracy – those are the two words I’d use to describe what Wdesk has brought,” said the company’s Director of Accounting.
Forrester reports the following total benefits and cost savings at the agri-business:
$210,000 in benefits by using Wdesk to aggregate and roll-up data from regions and business units
- Wdesk enables simultaneous collaboration across the company’s many regions as teams compile financial data into a centralized, linked and version-controlled platform.
- The team saves more than 1,600 hours by using Wdesk to streamline data collection, simplify workflow, improve accuracy and remove extraneous analysis steps.
- With Wdesk, spreadsheets are simplified and consolidated, aided by cell-level data linking and consolidated points for data entry.
- Regional finance teams are able to reduce analysis variability and have more time to focus on improving operating margins.
$175,000 in benefits by using Wdesk to reduce errors and streamline reviews at the parent company
- The agri-business reduces workload surrounding parent company reviews by using Wdesk for black-line comparisons, tracking contributors’ modifications and creating digital reports.
- Wdesk becomes a consolidated repository of verified data, which improves traceability and visibility and ultimately shortens review cycles.
- Wdesk reduces errors and eliminates the need for additional executive reviews.
- Finance managers save 16 hours per reporting event.
$292,000 in benefits by using Wdesk to consolidate and link data and compile reports
- Wdesk is used to aggregate P&L data, which provides the basis for pricing adjustments, budgeting and strategy formation.
- The team uses Wdesk to centralize files and link data, thereby eliminating repetitive work and saving the team 48 hours per reporting period.
- Wdesk improves accuracy, consistency and frequency of reports.
- Wdesk enables presentations and charts to be easily linked to final reports.
Although the research focuses solely on a subsidiary, the study concedes many unquantified benefits to the parent company, which uses Wdesk for regulatory and financial reporting and financial planning and analysis (FP&A). “As the layers of business units grow complex and the need to report to a greater number of regulatory bodies increases, the value of Wdesk increases significantly,” writes Forrester, which predicts that future mergers and acquisition activity will be easily folded into Wdesk workflows.
“There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might choose to implement Wdesk and later realize additional uses and business opportunities,” writes Forrester. The study explains how the flexibility and scalability of Wdesk enables the company to leverage data in the platform for other internal and external reports as well as continue to reap similar ROI as the regions expand.
Workiva commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the benefits of Wdesk to enterprises. In addition to interviewing the agri-business, Forrester’s research approach included conducting due diligence with Workiva stakeholders and Forrester analysts and constructing a risk-adjusted financial model to measure benefits, costs, flexibility and risks. This is the fourth in a series of studies that Workiva has commissioned with Forrester.
The full study can be found here: www.workiva.com/cpmroi
About Workiva
Workiva (NYSE:WK) delivers Wdesk, an intuitive cloud platform that modernizes how people work within thousands of organizations, including over 70 percent of the FORTUNE 500®. Wdesk helps mitigate risk, improves productivity and gives users confidence in their data-driven decisions. Workiva employs more than 1,200 people with offices in 16 cities. The company is headquartered in Ames, Iowa. For more information, visit workiva.com.
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