From number crunchers to change makers: How Skanska’s finance team drives strategic impact with Prophix One™

Prophix ImageProphix Sep 5, 2024, 8:00:00 AM

"In a phrase, I would describe Prophix as a valued partner. The software has great value, but the partnership with the people at Prophix, listening to us as customers, is huge." – Dan DeRooy, Corporate Director of Financial Reporting, Skanska USA Building.

In the ever-changing construction management landscape, financial planning and reporting can quickly become overwhelming. In 2014, Skanska USA Building, a large-scale construction management company, faced significant challenges in streamlining their processes, maintaining efficiency, and strategically analyzing their data.

Now, 10 years later, Skanska shares a peek behind the curtain on their journey with Prophix, from what sealed the deal in their decision-making process to the remarkable impact that our financial performance platform has brought to their finance team and the broader organization.

About Skanska

Skanska USA Building is a prominent player in the construction management industry. With a parent company based in Sweden, Skanska operates on a global scale, focusing on large-scale projects in the United States.

Dan DeRooy, Corporate Director of Financial Reporting, and Tom Kennedy, Financial Systems Analyst, play key roles in Skanska's financial operations. When seeking out a financial performance platform, Dan was heavily involved in the decision-making process.

Recently, we sat down with Dan and Tom to understand how the team uses Prophix and how Prophix One, a Financial Performance Platform, has elevated their finance processes.

Their story uncovers the tremendous value Prophix can provide finance teams looking to maximize efficiency and transparency in all corners of the business.

The challenges Skanska faced before Prophix

Dan DeRooy: “Before Prophix, one of the toughest things during a budget cycle was when we made significant cuts... We had to compile 250 templates and bring that [information] together...”

Tom Kennedy: "We were using 200 Excel files. We would email them out every single forecast and then get them back to compile."

DD: “In a budget cycle, the biggest hurdle is time. A deadline comes and you make general cuts rather than specific strategic decisions... It was really hitting a breaking point, and the risk of confidential information getting in the wrong hands was to a level where we had to make a change.”

What made Prophix the best fit for Skanska

DD: "We're very focused on cost. Margins are critical for us to maintain. The goal with Prophix was to implement a low-cost, high-value solution that focused on improving our automation and efficiency in specific areas.”

TK: "The first time I saw Prophix, I thought it was a cool new way to do things, with a better user interface than what we were using before. More organized and a better overall tool."

DD: "Prophix was more inviting than the other [vendors] we had seen. After evaluating a few different options, we found that Prophix had a great balance [between] value, as well as being partnered with and heard. When we made suggestions or asked questions, the [Prophix] team took it seriously and brought it back to development.”

TK: “We had a great consultant who helped us get it all working and up and running.”

DD: “In real-time, we saw things we had asked about being implemented, which was fantastic."

How Prophix has changed the way the finance team works

Overhead cost planning and financial reporting

DD: "We initially implemented Prophix for overhead cost planning, then we rolled it out for consolidated financial statement reporting. We were able to integrate information from our various systems to create executive packages, and that's allowed us to automate a variety of reports that we used to do manually and email out. Now our users can just self-service with Prophix, whether it's for overhead reports or an executive package."

Workflow-Management

TK: "The biggest capability that we use in Prophix right now is Workflow. Being able to send out templates and Detailed Planning Manager to different users is a great way to manage our budget and forecasting processes. These capabilities have streamlined the way I work by saving time. We have one budget to use through Workflow as opposed to hundreds of Excel files."

Analytics and audit readiness

DD: "We've also gone down the path of using Prophix for more analytics. When going through an audit, if we get questions about fluctuations in our financial statements, we can quickly answer those questions instead of doing big data research each time."

Tom Kennedy Quote on Prophix One

How Prophix empowers your team to be more strategic

Add direct value to the business

DD: "The biggest thing Prophix has helped us with is optimizing our time. I want my team adding direct value to the business. Putting spreadsheets together and spending all your time checking numbers doesn't provide a lot of end-value. The accountant of the past was very focused on a debit and credit life, but I want my team to be business partners, I want them to be strategic.

My team now works much more closely with their internal customers. Day in and day out, we're helping them manage their costs, analyzing what they're spending.”

TK: "We’re able to provide value to our customers. We have historical data as well as forecasting data all in one place - they can see it all at once. We're digging more into historical data and using more analytics to forecast better plans."

Career advancement and process improvement

TK: "What I love about Prophix is how they've helped me to advance my career and given me a place to work on all different things besides being bogged down in the data. With the extra time, I've been able to make improvements in our processes within our group, working with programs like Power BI to make new reports and have extra time to work on my career development.”

Dan De Rooy Quote on Prophix One

Eliminate low value activities

DD: “Our process used to take a couple of days to create reports... A request that might've taken us a couple of days is now a couple of minutes [with Prophix].

The main benefit we've had with Prophix is eliminating those low-value activities... When the team generates anything now, they’re more analytical. Instead of spending their time making sure reports are accurate and checking numbers, they’re communicating to their partners. They have time for those discussions now that we've freed it up with automation.”

TK: "How I would describe Prophix is ‘value.’ It’s created so much value within our company."

DD: “[Prophix] is such a balanced solution. It provides a lot of value; you get a lot of bang for your buck. It is very user-friendly, very accessible. It gives your finance team so many tools to be self-sufficient in analysis and report design. Plus, you can do a lot of things without having to ask for further investment."

A decade later and Dan's enthusiasm for Prophix remains strong: "After 10 years, I'm still excited about Prophix. I'm excited about what we can do that we haven't already, I'm excited to get together with my team and talk about their ideas, talk about what the business is looking for, and figure out how we can utilize Prophix to implement that."

This is just a sneak peek at the insights that Tom and Dan shared. Watch their full story below:

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Prophix and Skanska: Creating financial impact together

Dan’s story is a testament to the lasting impact that a partnership like this can have on an organization.

By automating low-value tasks, providing reliable, real-time analytics, and fostering closer collaboration, Skanska's finance team creates lasting impact by adding strategic value to their organization.

Supporting the next generation of finance leaders

The next generation of finance leaders are on your team today – it's your FP&A analyst, finance manager, controller, or accountant. And Prophix is helping empower future leaders by supporting their growth beyond the day-to-day routine tasks. From processes to strategy to technology, next-gen finance leaders, like Tom, are eager to deliver value and meet the growing expectations that they’ve set for themselves—and the organization. Catch our webinar, Strategy over spreadsheets: Building the next generation of finance leaders, to learn more about equipping future leaders with the right skills and processes to lead—and how technology can accelerate this.

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Prophix

Ehrgeizige Finance-Teams setzen auf Prophix, um den Fortschritt voranzutreiben und ihre beste Arbeit zu leisten. Mit Prophix One, einer Financial Performance-Plattform, können Finance-Teams die Geschwindigkeit und Genauigkeit ihrer Entscheidungsfindung verbessern und sich somit zukunftssicher positionieren.

 Vereinfachen Sie Ihre Prozesse, Reduzierung Sie Unsicherheiten und nutzen Sie das volle Potential Ihrer Daten. Erstklassige Funktionen für Planung, Budgetierung, Forecasting, Reporting und Konsolidierung sowie automatisierte KI-Insights unterstützen Sie dabei. Prophix ist ein privates Unternehmen, das von Hg Capital, einem führenden Investor im Bereich Software und Services, unterstützt wird. Mehr als 3.000 aktive Kunden auf der ganzen Welt vertrauen auf Prophix, um ihren Unternehmenserfolg zu steigern.

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