As DSG grew through acquisitions, working in Excel became harder and harder to sustain. Together with Finext, DSG chose Oracle EPM and built one environment for consolidation and planning, step by step. The result: a predictable month-end close, one model for budgeting and forecasting, and more time for analysis.
DSG (De Stiho Groep) is a Dutch building materials group based in Nieuwegein, with more than 900 employees. It brings together three brands: Stiho, Bouwmaat and Baars & Bloemhoff. Stiho is the largest, with 27 branches serving the professional construction market.
The brands grew independently for years and only truly came together around 2020. Today, Finance, IT and HR operate from a shared service organization. That calls for numbers that add up for the entire group. At the same time, each brand still manages much of its own business, and their structures differ, from the use of product groups to how they report. DSG therefore needed a group-wide view that brings these differences together, while leaving the brands room to work their own way. With that in place, the finance team spends less time reconciling numbers and has more time for analysis.
Growing faster than Excel could keep up
Monthly reports, budgets and forecasts: everything lived in Excel. With every acquisition the files grew larger and more complex, and only a handful of people still understood how they worked. In several cases totals didn't add up, and errors only surfaced after the fact.
For budgeting and forecasting, every business unit delivered its numbers in its own way. Finance then had to link each file to one consolidation workbook by hand. The process needed to become tighter and more predictable.
Choosing together, building together
Finext guided the selection. Within three months, the team gathered requirements in a few working sessions, drew up a longlist and narrowed it down to two packages for demos. Only tools that were strong in both consolidation and planning made the shortlist. It was close, and Oracle came out on top because it was stronger in planning.
Implementation followed in stages. The first stage was consolidation (Oracle FCC), which put the structure in place and gave the finance team a solid grasp of the tool. Planning (Oracle PBCS) followed in two parts. The first part covered costs and investments, so the business controllers could budget and forecast in the new tool before the budget cycle started at the end of August. The following year, DSG and Finext built the driver-based revenue model, starting with a series of sessions with the business controllers.
Co-build keeps the knowledge in-house
DSG built alongside Finext throughout the project. Because the finance team understands how the model works, they can often pinpoint where an issue sits, down to a specific business rule, before the specialists step in. Smaller adjustments they now handle themselves.
"I've never been a fan of bringing someone in to perform a trick you don't understand yourself. With co-build, you get to know the tool better and better, and you're no longer completely dependent on specialists." Bart Lugthart, Manager Finance, DSG
A close you can count on
The month-end close is now reliable and steady, without errors. Every month, DSG has its numbers ready on working day 5. The project also delivered:
- One model for budgeting and forecasting, with automatic cost allocation between business units
- Continuous group-level overview throughout the budget cycle
- Faster analysis: figures that used to be spread across eight monthly reports now come straight from the database via Smart View
- New KPIs for management with just a few adjustments in the database
- Fewer FTE needed in the finance department
Oracle for controllers, Power BI for the Branch Managers
Controllers work directly in Oracle. Branch managers only need to see their results and how those are built up, so they don’t need an EPM license. They receive their figures in Power BI and can drill down to individual journal lines, a level of detail Oracle doesn’t hold. This keeps license costs down and gives everyone the information they need in one place.
The next step
Together with Finext, DSG is now building its CO₂ footprint calculation in Oracle PBCS. Finext builds the technical side, and the finance team validates the data in detail. This data is new territory for the controllers, and validating it themselves is how they get to know it.
