Australia’s Largest Museum Group Modernises Finance Planning Solution on Time and on Budget

Solution Overview

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Client

Located in Sydney is Australia’s largest museum group which sits at the intersection of the arts, design, science and technology, and plays a critical role in engaging communities with contemporary ideas and issues. It is custodian to more than half a million objects of national and international significance and is considered one of the finest and most diverse collections in Australia.

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Location

New South Wales, Australia

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Industry

Entertainment

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Solution

Workday

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Results

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System Automation

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Data Driven Decision Making

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Solution Integration

The Client

Located in Sydney is Australia’s largest museum group which sits at the intersection of the arts, design, science and technology, and plays a critical role in engaging communities with contemporary ideas and issues. It is custodian to more than half a million objects of national and international significance and is considered one of the finest and most diverse collections in Australia.

It was looking to modernise the finance function in preparation for the NSW Government SAP PaTH program (Process and Technology Harmonisation) and the launch of the new purpose-built museum.

The Challenge

The museum group is one of the NSW Government departments moving to the single SAP PaTH solution. In addition, the opening of a new museum in 2025 requires a system and capability uplift in the department’s ability to manage a major commercial venture.

Recently a Director of Finance was appointed to help modernise the finance function ahead of both milestones. However, the department faced timeframe and budget constraints to fit any modernisation project within the 2024 Financial Year.

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“We needed to assess, select and implement a Finance & Planning solution within six months to meet our program commitments,” said a museum spokesperson. “We needed to de-risk the FP&A component of the PaTH Wave 2 implementation due to these pressing timelines.”

The group sought a high-level of system design and implementation expertise, understanding the nuances of NSW government finance reporting requirements, including aspects such as PRIME reporting to Treasury.

It put to market an accelerated competitive process to seek a partner which could assist. Decision Inc. Australia, which had extensive experience meeting tight deadlines and, specifically, implementing modernisation programs to assist government departments modernise ahead of PaTH implementations, was selected for the project.

“The challenging timeframes and conditions were understood from the first engagement with them, and we went through the process, along with our FP&A platform partner Workday, fully aware of the critical nature of the project,” said Tony Butler, Managing Director for Decision Inc. Australia. “But once we were selected, we were able to hit the ground running.”

The Solution

Decision Inc proposed the Workday Adaptive Planning Finance & Planning solution using its pre-built components such as the workforce planning model and SAP integrations for PaTH.

“The solution would underpin the implementation of a modern finance function operating model focused on the future commercialisation of the new Museum,” said Butler.

The solution and project plan was designed to meet key milestones that allowed the solution to scale and grow. As a team the project delivered a Minimum Viable Product prior to PaTH Go Live, meeting all functional requirements and the solution was ready on PaTH Go Live to ingest, consolidate and manage the FY25 budget for the museum group.

“Post implementation, we ran several sprints collecting future requirements aligned to the new museum launch and identified enhancements were implemented in two subsequent releases creating a solution that was scalable and fit for purpose for the future,” said Butler.

The Outcome

The Adaptive Planning solution automates core finance functions such as budget preparation, month end, forecasting and what-if scenario testing to create efficiencies that allow the business to focus on strategic initiatives.

In addition, the solution allows the group to automate much of its current finance reporting and optimise aspects of the finance function. Features like multi-version forecasting, what-if scenario testing and standard configured reporting greatly enhance its ability to use data to underpin the measurement of business performance and make better business decisions.

“Importantly, we were able to integrate into the NSW Government PaTH solution on time and budget within a very tight schedule, and avoid project overruns,” said Butler. “The group now has a solution that ensures it can meet its current requirements and scale once the new museum is up and running.”

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