Sumo Digital is one of the largest independent video game developers in the UK. Since 2003, Sumo have grown from a team of 13 people to 10 international studios.
Over the past couple of years, Sumo have been going through a period of transforming their financial processes and systems.
Sumo faced several challenges:
- A lack of automation with their Financial Planning & Consolidation
- A need to structure their data better as reports were extracted and transformed in Excel
- The lack of ability to produce dynamic reports
- An enhanced need for more efficient and accurate reporting following Sumo’s listing on AIM
- FX/Currency Conversion requirements
- A slow month end process
Enter, HAYNE Solutions
HAYNE was able to alleviate the challenges Sumo were facing with the implementation of IBM Cognos Controller & Planning Analytics. Both of these solutions have allowed Sumo to automate their financial processes for consolidation and planning.
Nicholas Meachin, Senior BI Manager at Sumo comments:
“Before the project even kicked off, Sumo were going through a period of Financial Transformation. We wanted to improve our processes and systems which led us to the decision to implement IBM”.
With HAYNE’s logical approach to the set-up of IBM Cognos Controller and IBM Planning Analytics, Sumo now has a much better way of structuring their data. With numbers directly feeding in from their GL, Sage, the financial reports Sumo now produce are much more understandable and easier to follow for non-finance stakeholders.
From the beginning of the project, HAYNE clearly understood what Sumo wanted to achieve. From initial conversations, there was a clear need to automate the financial processes to align with their business goals.
Sumo wanted to be able to drill down into specific projects at specific studio locations, which previously was highly labour intensive and time consuming. The implementation of Cognos Controller allowed these issues to be highlighted and fixed.
The way in which data is now structured allows the information to be consumed and analysed more easily.
Outcomes
Since the addition of IBM Cognos Controller and IBM Planning Analytics, Sumo now has more understandable and easy to use reports. This has been fed back by several members of the team.
Sumo is now able to translate a complex coding structure in Sage into meaningful user-friendly dimensions and hierarchies to make it possible to easily slice the data and also drill down into the detail from high level reports and dashboard
Nicholas continues:
“The team can’t believe how easily reports can now be put together. The good quality feedback means the project was a huge success and shows a return on the investment. It has also helped build for the future and help to grow other areas of the business”
Sumo now has a fit-for-purpose solution that integrates with the rest of its business processes. They can analyse the data in a way they previously couldn’t.
Nicholas Meachin finally comments:
“The support we have received from the team at HAYNE following the conclusion of the project has been great. Nilesh and the team were able to provide us with training on site to show how to get the best out of Controller”
The month end process is now seamless and is significantly easier with the use of the IBM solutions implemented by HAYNE. Sumo can now achieve a ‘single version of the truth’.
Next Steps
- Contact us to find out more about IBM Cognos Controller
- Speak to us about your current consolidation requirements