“One-size-fits-all” products are designed to fit multiple needs and provide users with comparable features and a similar experience. For manufacturers, they’re often less expensive to produce and easier to sell at one flat rate; however, if consumers are looking for customization, they’re not the best choice. Similarly, technology and software products are marketed as “one-size-fits-all” or usable “out-of-the-box.” Although this functionality sounds good in practice, applying such solutions to specific business needs isn’t always so easy.
The Challenge
A Greater Boston-based Clinical-stage Biotechnology company specializing in Genetic Therapies invested in Oracle EPM Cloud for enterprise planning; however, the out-of-the-box configuration framework was too restrictive and unable to support their budgeting or forecasting processes. Much time was spent going through multiple windows and copying and pasting data and to run a report would take three hours.
How Stratos Consulting Helped
As a certified Oracle Partner with over a decade of life sciences industry experience, Stratos Consulting strives to make our client’s jobs easier through technology and process improvement.
- Customized Oracle EPM Cloud Planning (Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service) to incorporate an Excel interface and web-based features while maintaining scalability for future needs
- Developed multiple custom solutions using forms and input templates, including grid input templates for updating properties loaded from ADP Streamline Payroll and for inputting allocation percentages by employee across projects
- The custom solution integrated through the SmartView plugin within Microsoft Excel to optimize strategic workforce planning by increasing visibility into how compensation aligns with employee turnover, workforce costs, revenue, and more
The Result
Stratos Consulting completed implementation in time for the Biotechnology company’s important board meeting. The custom Oracle EPM Cloud solution mitigates their need for double entry and provides the flexibility to accommodate the nuances of their workforce planning.
“It has saved us days compared to the old process and enables us to simultaneously perform both current-year and long-range workforce planning. Instead of only high-level planning, we’re able to plan by employee, giving us more visibility and providing us with more analytics on what’s going on in the business.” — Vice President of Finance
Along with the revamped solution, our Biotechnology client appreciates that Stratos Consulting professionals are solution-oriented and aim to please but don’t overpromise and underdeliver. In the words of the Vice President of Finance, “[Stratos Consulting] are more than consultants. They’re thought partners.”
Contact us today to discuss how we can customize Oracle EPM Cloud to meet your workforce planning requirements, or learn more about how Stratos Consulting combines technology and industry expertise to serve life sciences companies as they improve the lives of their patients.
