The future of financial modelling is evolving to eliminate the use of spreadsheets in the decision making process. AmCham Business & Finance committee organized a seminar for CFOs/Finance Controller/GMs/Owners of companies providing information about two fast growing innovative alternatives to spreadsheets. The growth of errors in spreadsheets and the danger of misleading information delivered to decision makers is causing corporations significant problems. Spreadsheets, which are a single user tool, are not scaleable in collaborative corporate decision making. This workshop gave us an opportunity to see two fast growing innovative alternatives that elegantly address spreadsheet inefficiencies. For more on GIDE Financial Modelling, check out www,mygide.uk

1. Enough of Complicated
Spreadsheets
Client Story
District & Industrial Heating
TM

2. The
Experience
Based on a true story
© 2015

3. 5 years ago...

4. We knocked on the door of
the energy division of former state owned
coal mine mammoth suggesting they use
advanced financial modelling software.

5. and we were not
welcome.

6. Opposite us were 3
people.
over 30, 40 and 50

7. We pulled out our
presentation…

8. Emphasizing how important
it is for good companies to:
1. monitor their business drivers
2. optimize their performance
3. understand where their business is today
4. foresee where it will be tomorrow

9. All this in fast changing
environment.

10. “Some 80 % of our business comes from
our mother company”
Pre-agreed pricing, pre-agreed
deliveries and purchases more or
less the same as have been for
the many years.

11. Oops!

12. And how about …
budgeting?
forecasting?
strategic planning?
capex?
management reporting?

13. Then we showed how easy and quick it is to create
models, import data from general ledger, produce
reports, or change assumptions that would trigger
the series of consequential calculations that would
alter the future cash flow outlook.

14. all this in collaboration within the team.

15. “Well, we prepare budgets, generate
management reporting, run quite
extensive capex programs…”
“but we have no real issues there…”

16. You cover P&L, Balance sheet, Cash flows,
Working capital?
Always delivered on time?
No mistakes in calculations?
Everything all right?
Like no issues what-so-ever?

17. “Well we are happy with what we have.”

18. And that was the end of
our first presentation.

19. “I spoke about GIDE with our CFO, CEO
and Chairwoman of the Board and I
think we should meet again.”
Some weeks later, I got a call from the over 30
head of the Office of Finance.
“We have some issues”

20. Our subsequent meetings revealed
what was not said during our first
presentation
but should have…

21. A few months prior to our first presentation,
company finished a big project with consulting
firm, changing the structure of their business
units.
The team was tired of listening to a bunch of
consultants who constantly kept telling them what
they should have been doing, and the team simply
had no wish to prolong such agony.

22. Consultants suggested
among other things...

23. “That company splits its 10 plant production
structure into 28 industrial business units reflecting
the nature of their business in heat, pressured air
and power supply and distribution.”
As the result...

24. New Wave of
Intragroup Supplies
Approx. € 10 million in annual intragroup
commodity supplies
Heat, pressured air, water, and power, including power
reserved capacity, power distribution services, power
(UHV, HV) power losses.

25. In an Already Complex
Commodity Mix
of approx. value of € 100 million.
Intragroup supply coupled with Coal, Gas, utility water,
waste water, rain water, third party heat, and power.

26. Painful Annual Cost
Reconciliation
Every year team went through tough reconciliation process of
commodity supply with its mother company and negotiated the
price for supply of its commodities for the following year based
on the price of coal supplied by the mother company, and heat,
gas and power purchased at the market prices.
This for each offtake points and complicated with intragroup
supplies and fixed costs originated in the respective business unit
and level of distributed overhead expenses.

27. Calculated and maintained by one
person in his spreadsheets.

28. Budgeting Proved More
Problematic Than Presented
Several stand alone spreadsheet calculations
produced in various departments along
with aggregated data from the commodity
mix and intragroup supplies were copied
into one spreadsheet, populating high level
budget data only.

29. Taking almost 2 months, this painful process
often ended in the first quarter of the year,
by which time the budget was already
prepared - simply because negotiations with
the mother company simply were dragging
on….

30. GIDE
Alternatives
vs.

31. “I personally prefer GIDE over the alternative
systems I’ve seen because in GIDE I can make
everything by myself and do not need to call
consultants any time I need to make a change”
“Provided price for GIDE is right”

32. Today, GIDE is used as
financial modelling,
budgeting and planning
tool, covering...

33. 3 companies
of which 1 company
=
50 models

34. Data Structure in GIDE
50 Models
600 Accounts
30 000 Data per period
which is an equivalent of approx.
2 million
cells in spreadsheets

35. Models In GIDE
Each business unit has its own financial
model linked to other models as
appropriate.

36. Statements In GIDE
P&L, Balance sheet, Cash flows,
CAPEX
Intragroup supplies
Summary and other statements
and
Pivotal Production
Models

37. Accounts In GIDE
Financial and operational data linked within
one holistic consolidated model.

38. Periods In GIDE
History
3-5 years Monthly
Current year
Monthly, Budget, Rolling Forecast
Following year
Monthly, Budget, Forecast
Annual
5-15 years plan
Adjustable at any time

39. Data In GIDE
Data types
Finance, Commodities, KPIs.
Currencies
Two currencies models.
Efficiencies
Commodities, Boilers.
Systems
MIS, Excel, GIDE.

40. Budgeting Process
1. Import data
2. Define indexes
3. Define efficiencies
4. Adjust values if needed

41. June
Budget
Strategic plan
Monthly forecasts
Available in 1 month

42. January
Forecast F0
Available in 2 weeks

43. Reporting Process
1. Close GL on 3rd
day
2. Data imported on 4th
day
3. Report ready on 5th
day
4. Deadline on 10th
day

44. Key Events
Change of ERP
Change from SAP to EBS; no affect
on GIDE.
Changes in GL
Complete changes in General
Ledger were made within 14 days.
Model Adjustments
Routinely small changes in models
were made in-house.
GIDE vs. MIS Alea
Comparison of systems.

45. Key Benefits
Import & Export
Export of data for other systems are
done in minutes.
Holistic Model
Financial and operational
data linked within one holistic
consolidated model.
Traceability
Find the last element of the
calculation and still see semi-results
and final result.
No IT admin needed
Users, Projects, Models and
Snapshots management.

46. The Role
TM
MIS Alea

47. Thank you for your
attention.
It would be our pleasure to give those
interested a one-to-one demonstration that
would address specific issues that you might
face in your company.

48. Please contact us for more details on
GIDE Financial Modelling
Michael Stimson
Sales Director
GIDE International Limited
TM
mstimson at mygide.uk
UK Landline: +44 203 397 9762
www.mygide.uk