Case Study — OneStream
BlueScope Steel Modernising and Streamlining Finance Operations with OneStream
45%
Faster Consolidation
27
ERPs Integrated
16,500
People Globally
1
Unified Platform
About the Client
BlueScope Steel Limited
BlueScope Steel Limited is an Australian-headquartered multinational company specialising in steel manufacturing, with origins tracing back to 1875. A global leader in metal coating and painting steel products for the building and construction industries, BlueScope provides vital components for houses, buildings, structures, vehicles and more. With approximately 16,500 people across over 160 sites in Australia, Asia, North America, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, BlueScope is focused on innovation in steel solutions for sustainability and efficiency.The Challenge
Reducing Complexity and Unlocking Finance Team Value
BlueScope’s consolidation processes were highly manual, requiring data from 27 ERPs along with additional Excel-based data collection. A review of their legacy Oracle HFM application was driven by expanding key person risks, stagnant data maturity and a need to reduce the costs of technical debt associated with their complex IT environment.Business Challenges
- Highly manual consolidation processes pulling data from 27 ERPs and Excel-based collection
- Expanding key person risks and stagnant data maturity across the finance function
- Growing technical debt and complexity in the IT environment driving up support costs
- Need for more efficient close and consolidation, planning and forecasting — particularly for a rapidly growing North American business
- New requirements for tax provisioning, OECD Pillar 2 and Country-by-Country reporting, and expanding ESG data collection
The Evaluation
A Rigorous, Evidence-Based Selection Process
BlueScope’s project team completed a comprehensive evaluation of multiple CPM and consolidation tools. The team undertook ASX peer discussions on best practice CPM use, compiled detailed user requirements with a third-party consultant and performed formal functional testing of multiple platforms to ensure they were fit-for-purpose. A formal Capital Business Case evaluation confirmed the initiative’s objectives and the benefits targeted for delivery. OneStream was selected on the strength of its platform and system design — particularly the ability to extend dimensions from Group to Business Unit levels and the value of a single multi-function platform.“We completed system landscape mapping, detailed business requirements, a data strategy, talked to ten peer businesses on structure and successes with EPMs. OneStream was selected due to platform and system design. Our implementation went very smoothly, taking approximately 12 months. The J&M team have been outstanding, and we formed a strong partnership.”
Shannon Waters — Group Risk & Finance Transformation, BlueScope
Implementation
Lift and Shift with Progressive Enhancement
J&M worked with BlueScope to implement OneStream based on BlueScope’s preferred approach — a Lift and Shift of the stable base consolidation from HFM, enabling new OneStream functionality throughout the build where it made sense to the business, and identifying opportunities to leverage additional platform capabilities in future phases. This approach helped BlueScope quickly realise the immediate benefits needed from OneStream while positioning the organisation to efficiently leverage the platform’s inherent capabilities across the CPM spectrum for additional business value moving forward. The implementation was completed in approximately 12 months, including four parallel runs with no issues at go-live.Scope
Solutions Delivered
Financial Consolidation
Full replacement of legacy HFM Close and Consolidation with the OneStream platform, integrating data from 27 ERPs across global operations.Management Reporting
Unified reporting environment delivering significant improvements in accuracy and timeliness across all business units.Planning & Forecasting
Integrated budgeting and forecasting with strong forecast flexibility, including simple setting changes for multi-year business planning.Tax — CbCR & Pillar 2
Country-by-Country Reporting and OECD Pillar 2 compliance built on the unified OneStream data model.ESG Data Collection
Materially enhanced and automated ESG reporting, including rebasing of FY18–24 historical data within OneStream.Results
Key Benefits
45% faster consolidation — Full actual month-end consolidation time cut nearly in half, with forecast seeding via dashboard reduced from 5 hours to approximately 5 minutes.
System controls and governance — Workflow, validation checks, certification processes and the ability to push workflow to site level, driving data and process ownership across business units.
Reduced IT costs — Moving to the Cloud significantly reduced internal IT, third-party support and network costs while rationalising the system architecture.
Unified platform for growth — A single environment for consolidation, planning, ESG, tax, reporting and analysis — with a clear roadmap for Account Reconciliation, ERP automation and Sensible AI.
“The OneStream platform has a lot of functionality, and it was important to spend time understanding it technically and developing a considered functionality roadmap. The similarities to HFM make transition easy and OneStream functionality can be built upon progressively — it has been a step change from the stagnant functionality of HFM.”
Shannon Waters — Group Risk & Finance Transformation, BlueScope
What’s Next
Extending the Platform
BlueScope is evaluating additional initiatives to extend their investment in OneStream. Work is under way to evaluate OneStream’s Account Reconciliations solution and the automation of ERP data integration across global operations. BlueScope is also investigating potential future implementation of capabilities such as OneStream’s Sensible AI.Implementation Partner