Streamlining consolidation and reporting for British Steel

British Steel was formerly the Long Steel Products division of Tata Steel Europe, and was created in 2016 following a demerger from Tata Steel Group. It is a leading European steel manufacturer with facilities across the UK and Europe, supplying premium long products around the world. As a leading vendor to many of the most demanding markets around the world including construction, automotive, mechanical and electrical engineering, metal goods, and oil & gas, British Steel aims to create value by offering a differentiated product range supported by unrivalled customer service.

British Steel required a financial consolidation and reporting application to deliver a consolidated ‘book of record’. As experts in delivering group consolidation and reporting systems, Concentric was ideally positioned to assist British Steel through this important process of selecting the most appropriate and cost effective solution to meet British Steel’s immediate and long term goals, having previously implemented the Tata Steel Europe group reporting system.

The challenge:

As a newly established company, British Steel had limited systems, so it was reliant on Tata Steel’s GRS Hyperion system to carry out consolidation and reporting under a time limited Transitional Services Agreement.

Concentric was tasked with creating a British Steel stand-alone version of Oracle HFM based on the TATA HFM application, linked with Oracle Hyperion FDMEE to accomodate the upload of SAP data. British Steel’s new system needed to cover financial and management reporting, also enabling them to examine and analyse information about business performance and to plan for change. Furthermore, this system needed to help with non-financial performance statistics, for example headcount, inventories, and sustainability metrics. In addition, this had to be implemented within an aggressive timetable with very heavy penalty clauses or withdrawal of services in the event of any slippage or overrun.

The solution:

British Steel looked at several solutions in the market before selecting Oracle HFM to meet their requirements and deliver functionality that addressed all key management and statutory reporting processes. Oracle Hyperion Financial Management provides financial consolidation and reporting that enables organisations to rapidly consolidate and report financial results, meet global regulatory requirements, reduce the cost of compliance, and deliver confidence in the numbers. Concentric was able to lead British Steel through all the stages of the project, including setting up a third-party hosting service to ensure that British Steel were self-reliant within their tight timescales.

The following reporting cycles are supported by the HFM application:

• Month end reporting
• Quarterly reporting
• Year end reporting
• Budget, forecast and reforecast

The system went live on time and to budget, and Concentric Solutions helped British Steel to begin the process of establishing their own support team with user and admin training.

Key benefits:

• Security of service
• Delivery to time and budget
• Improved performance

The aim was to achieve a solution that avoids unnecessary complexity in architecture or processes required to operate it. Since day one, the system has operated flawlessly with no heavy penalty clauses or disruption to service.

In addition, the system is much faster and more reliable than the previous service, and it has provided the platform for better reporting and increased visibility across the business.

The results:

"Concentric are a highly professional and very competent solutions provider. Project management was exactly as I would expect from such a company. The staff provided were highly competent and keen to ‘go the extra mile’ to ensure a successful implementation." - Jaime Jones, Business Project Manager, British Steel