Consolidated data transforms planning processes worldwide at juwi

Since 1996 juwi has been developing and delivering projects in energy supply from renewable energy sources. The company operates in the solar, wind, bio-energy, hydropower, and geothermal energy sectors and in the areas of green building and solar electro-mobility. Originally a two-person operation, the juwi group has grown into a multi-award-winning company with approximately 850 employees and projects and subsidiaries on all continents, in 15+ countries.

In addition to environmental prizes and repeated recognition as a “Great Place to Work,” juwi received the Axia Award Rhine-Main from auditing and consulting company Deloitte. Peter Steiner, a Deloitte jury member, noted juwi for its “Commendable strategic orientation [that is] successfully realized by comprehensive controlling through to supportive personnel management.”

The Challenge: No real-time view across different countries and policies

Political decisions strongly influence the field of renewable energy. Each country in the world places a particular emphasis on the topic, reflected by different legislation and confines. By operating in several sectors, juwi is dependent on political developments but, at the same time, can balance out the performance of the individual sectors.

The challenge is having a clear and up-to-date view of the operating results, thus identifying, analyzing, and countering any deviations as soon as possible. In 2008 juwi started searching for a professional planning and controlling tool to systematically map this overview and establish it globally. The Excel sheets used to date had become too unclear and were insufficient to manage strategic growth sensibly. The tool needed to be operated even by users without specific IT knowledge and to write projected figures directly back into the source system. juwi compared several tools and decided on the Board toolkit, which requires no programming. Not only did Board best fulfill the requirements, but it also delivered the additional advantage of being able to administer user privileges can from any department.

The Board Solution: Fast implementation across critical business activities

Since the initial project, consisting of a group-wide consolidation of Excel-based P/L statements implemented in just a few weeks, the area of application of the planning tool has grown enormously. Today, 220 users worldwide (including managing directors, boards of management, human resources directors, and senior managers in the juwi group's 88 companies) are actively working with the platform. For juwi, Board has become the central planning and information tool. It delivers clear and effective administrative support for the considerable growth in personnel. The tool also recognizes new developments in policies and markets to allow users to undertake necessary countermeasures and make significant savings in time,

Thanks to Board's user-friendly operation, juwi's controlling department can independently develop the areas of application. To date, the following applications have been implemented:

• Integrated balance sheet planning
• Financial planning
• Project planning
• Extrapolation of personnel costs
• Worldwide position approval process as a workflow
• Management reporting for planning
• Rolling forecast
• Monthly reporting
• Cost Centre reports
• Cost Centre reporting with P/L statement
• Project reporting
• Personnel dashboard and overtime analysis

Time-consuming Excel budgeting spreadsheets and intensive planning sessions are a thing of the past at juwi. All of the worldwide planning processes have been transferred to Board. To plan the rolling forecast and the following year and longer-term extrapolations, the planner uploads the values from the previous year, adjusts them as a percentage or absolute figure, and writes the modified data back into the source system. Comments can be placed next to these changes if required. Each company carries out planning using its own country's currency (at least 14 different ones), and Board performs the conversion into Euro. juwi can then react quickly to changes in political provisions thanks to the company-wide plan overview, and relevant measures can be incorporated into the rolling plan.

In project management, juwi's core business project managers update the cash flow for each project and each month by adjusting advance payments, earnings, and expenses, which cause a range of items to be recalculated, from payment dates to the liquidity forecast. Data from the source system LiquiBase (based on SQL Server), planned values from Q4 of the previous year, and actuals can be drawn upon and used for the company's re-checking. The linking of project planning and rolling corporate planning within a single solution makes Board the tool in which the impacts of project adjustments on the company's overall situation can be understood in detail. Project planners also can create new projects which have not yet been recorded in the source system. With “Advanced Transaction Objects,” planners select the cost unit's number, project type, status, and end date. The project is automatically integrated into all planning; it is intelligently populated with values of the same kind and can be processed for all other ongoing projects.

The position approval process at juwi is also standardized and structured using Board. An overview screen provides information on all planned new positions in the approval process and shows which entity (senior manager, managing director, controlling department, or board of management) has approved a position. A budget overview compares the forecast budget per cost center and the extrapolation of already approved positions (including existing employees). To apply for planned new positions, the cost center chief enters the salary and start date and has the option of completing a job description or reason for the need for the position in the form of an Excel or Word file. Saving this file starts the approval process. The planned new position automatically appears in the “job approval” view for the subsequent higher authority, where it is confirmed or rejected at the push of a button. After the controlling department has checked that the planned new position lies within the budget, as a final step, it is then approved by the board of management, saved, and written back into the personnel source system (SAGE). During the overnight data update process, the allotted budget is integrated into all of the linked extrapolations. Thanks to this central application, the HR department always has a complete overview of all of the planned positions without the need for hardcopy forms. In a rapidly growing and environmentally oriented company such as juwi this is of primary importance, however above all it is significantly more efficient and saves more time than carrying out planning using Excel files.

Furthermore, juwi uses the finance, project, and personnel information that is available in Board from the source systems MS Dynamics AX, SAGE, and SQL LiquiBase for comprehensive reporting that is prepared in a user-friendly manner. In the “Master Forecast” view, the executive and board of management obtain an overview of all of the crucial information that was previously available only to controllers. On-demand, you can select data according to such criteria as currency, sector (wind, solar, bio, or holding), country, or company and thus refine even more precisely the already high level of informative value of the data.

For other user groups, juwi's reporting portal is in the form of individual dashboards. These dashboards adapt to the rights of the user and provide detailed information about the P/L statement, balance sheet, and cash flow figures for the current month or in the monthly overview. Multi-dimensional ad-hoc analyses right down to document level ensure the best possible degree of transparency and can, if necessary, quickly show the reasons for any outlying values. The personnel dashboard offers an overtime analysis in which colored traffic lights show how many employees have accumulated a certain percentage of overtime hours and whether this means that they have been receiving sufficient relaxation time.

The secret to the success of the continually expanding project is juwi's committed controlling department employees who, because the toolkit does not require programming, can implement sophisticated applications themselves and can provide excellent training for other users in all of juwi's companies.

The Benefits: Enhanced and integrated analysis, reporting, and planning 

By consolidating the data from very diverse departments, juwi has made the step towards a cross-divisional, integrated application for analysis, reporting, and planning. In the areas of finance, projects, and personnel, all of the information is tailored to user groups and available for detailed control or user-friendly and efficient planning.

In the field of corporate planning within Board, juwi has a comprehensive overview of all of its companies and sectors and quickly recognizes any plan variance for individual companies. This allows juwi to balance any foreseeable plan variance in a sector as early as possible through suitable countermeasures and by compensating with more strongly performing sectors. In this way, juwi can weather even staff shortages and political uncertainties without having to worry about the feasibility of the company.

All of the applications are interwoven and facilitate the work, as the adapted data automatically flows onto all of the associated extrapolations and reports. At the same time, Board's ability to write data back into the source systems guarantees a database that is always up-to-date. Company management enjoys a transparent overview of the overall development of its companies, while the controlling department appreciates the ability to autonomously realize or further develop applications. In doing so it uses Board's flexibility not only to implement global corporate planning in various currencies in a clearly structured manner but also to establish the position approval process as an international standard in the form of a paperless workflow.