From Spreadsheets to Strategy: McGraw Hill’s Financial Transformation Journey

McGraw Hill, a long-time leader in the fast-paced, competitive publishing industry, found themselves at a crossroads. Their financial processes, particularly in labor budgeting, were holding them back. Enter Cprime, with a mission to revolutionize how McGraw Hill managed their finances.

The Excel Labyrinth: A $145 Million Puzzle

McGraw Hill’s financial team was grappling with a complex web of Excel spreadsheets to manage their $145 million labor budget. This manual process was not just time-consuming—it was a barrier to strategic insights. Different business units were creating isolated budgets, which then had to be painstakingly consolidated. Adding to the complexity, calculations for employee benefits, merit increases, and fringe benefits were all done by hand.

The result? A budgeting process that required many hours and a lot of manual effort to maintain each quarter, and took six long weeks to finalize each year, with the budget often not published until well into the new fiscal year. This delay had a ripple effect, impacting decision-making across the organization.

Breaking Down Walls: The Quest for Financial Transparency

Beyond the budgeting challenges, McGraw Hill faced a critical issue: financial data was siloed within the finance department. Product managers, resource managers, and other key decision-makers lacked visibility into financial data that could inform their strategies. This disconnect between financial realities and product roadmaps was a significant hurdle to effective resource allocation and strategic planning.

Cprime’s Blueprint: Integrating Systems, Automating Processes

Recognizing these challenges, Cprime devised a comprehensive solution that would not only streamline McGraw Hill’s budgeting process but also democratize access to financial data across the organization. The plan centered around implementing and configuring Apptio Targetprocess and Apptio One to create a powerful labor budgeting solution that integrates seamlessly with other financial management and related tools.

Key goals of the solution included:

1. Seamless Data Flow and Time Savings: Manual data entry and consolidation became a thing of the past. Cprime achieved this by creating an end-to-end automated integration between IT Planning, TBM Studio, and Targetprocess.
2. Improved Cost Visibility and Strategic Alignment: McGraw Hill gained deeper insights into the total cost of ownership for technology investments. This was accomplished by creating a new hierarchy in Targetprocess that connected portfolio epics to business initiatives and cases.
3. Empowered Decision-Making Across Departments: Product managers and resource managers gained access to critical financial data, enabling more informed decisions. Cprime made this possible by leveraging integration capabilities to share non-sensitive financial information through Targetprocess.
4. Increased Consistency and Accountability in Business Planning: Ad-hoc PowerPoint presentations were replaced with a standardized approach to business cases. Cprime developed a comprehensive template within Targetprocess that captured both quantitative and qualitative aspects of business cases.

From Weeks to Days: The Impact of Financial Transformation

The results of this transformation were immediate and significant:

• Accelerated Budgeting: The budget finalization process was slashed by 66%—from six weeks to just two weeks—allowing for more timely financial planning.
• Empowered Decision-Making: With financial data now accessible through Targetprocess, product managers and resource managers could make more informed decisions about resource allocation and project prioritization.
• Strategic Alignment: By connecting financial data to strategy and OKRs in Targetprocess, McGraw Hill could now better align their spending with their strategic objectives.
• Improved Accountability: The new standardized business case template in Targetprocess allowed for better tracking of ROI assumptions and budget estimates, creating a historical record that enhanced accountability.

Looking Ahead: The Road to Continuous Improvement

While the initial implementation focused on labor budgeting, McGraw Hill and Cprime are exploring further enhancements. Future projects may include integrating infrastructure costs, non-labor contract management, and cloud consumption assessment into the financial management ecosystem.

The McGraw Hill case demonstrates how the right combination of technology and expertise can transform financial management from a necessary evil into a strategic asset. By breaking down data silos and automating manual processes, McGraw Hill has positioned itself to make faster, more informed decisions in an increasingly competitive market.

As the publishing industry continues to evolve, McGraw Hill’s newfound financial agility will be a key factor in maintaining its leadership position and delivering value to students and educators worldwide.

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