The Torchie Awards reveal the stories of finance teams who are using cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) software to pioneer new forms of finance transformation. These awards were presented at Adaptive Insights' annual user conference Adaptive Live held in April 2016.

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Adaptive Live 2016
Torchie Awards Winners

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The Torchie Awards reveal the stories of
finance teams who are using cloud-based
corporate performance management
(CPM) software to pioneer new forms of
finance transformation.
They demonstrate finance operating as
strategic partners to the business. They
reflect finance empowering their
organizations to be agile. And they reveal
the power of quickly garnering insights to
make effective, data-driven decisions that
drive competitive advantage.

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5 Winners of Finance Transformation
The customer award winners reflect excellence in planning, collaboration, forecasting,
operational planning, and performance management.

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Excellence in Planning
Creates best-in-class
accessories that protect and
enhance mobile devices for
consumers around the globe.
Publicly traded with
revenues over $250M
InvisibleShield is the #1
selling screen protection

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Inaccurate demand forecasting
impacted profit margins, frequently
incurring large freight expenses for
priority shipping from China
Two years ago, there wasn’t a
data-driven process in place for
forecasting, and the company
missed its sales forecast by 33%
Challenge

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Enabled flexible management
reporting: Production and
shipping now closely tied to
demand and sales forecasts,
reducing shipping costs, and
improving the bottom line
Built dashboards for the
executive staff and
sales and product
managers to track core
KPIs on a daily basis
Reduced costs: In first
year of forecasting,
reduced freight costs by
$8 million by improving
demand forecasts
$

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By understanding product demand at SKU level,
better decision-making on product pricing
and promotions improved the overall product
portfolio profit margins by nearly 5%.
Outcome

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Excellence in Forecasting
The largest grower and producer
of olive oil in the United States.
Growing olives using time-honored
farming techniques while
embracing modern technology.
Revenues over $100M
Apps chart the history
of each orchard

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Needed a new solution to
optimize pricing and distribution
model within the constraints
of a single olive harvest
Company had been growing
rapidly in a competitive market
and needed to move out of
Excel to improve pricing and
distribution optimization
Challenge

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Implemented multi-dimensional
forecasting using Adaptive
cube sheets: increased visibility
for units sold through cogs to
net profit on a product SKU
and customer basis
Launched detailed
rolling forecasts,
maintained and updated
monthly by sales and
operational teams
Created dashboards
for every sales
representative to see
their own sales trends by
product, by channel, and
by end customer

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Emerged with a five-year plan that supports
modeling scenarios on capital investments,
hiring plans, and potential acquisitions.
Outcome

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Excellence in
Operational Planning
Provides innovative video job
interview technologies combined
with recruitment screening and
evaluation tools for employers.
Helps companies
hire 17% faster
Cuts recruiting
costs by 44%

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Finance team set out
to transform its sales
planning process
Company needed a better way to
manage its rapid growth and
improve top line forecasting
Challenge

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Created a sales rep-
based, bottoms up
sales planning model
Provided CFO
with rapid access
to metrics
Implemented monthly, rolling
forecast model—leading to more
accurate bookings forecast:
bookings forecast variances
reduced from 20% to 2%

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Using their new driver-based sales model, the finance
and sales teams are able to collaboratively perform
scenario analysis based on various sales team growth
and productivity assumption drivers.
Outcome

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Excellence in Business Partnering
and Collaborative Planning
The largest voluntary health organization
dedicated to funding research, finding
cures, and ensuring access to treatments
for blood cancer patients.
900 employees
Across 54 chapters
in North America

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Planning process was long,
not very collaborative,
and reporting minimal
Finance generally
viewed as tracking
historical transactions
Challenge

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Deployed solution to
400+ managers and
employees (nearly half of
employee base), enabling
cross-functional corporate
performance management
Raised transparency
for operational metrics
(chapter-level cash flow,
campaign-specific returns,
donor contributions)
Introduced monthly
rolling forecast
process at chapter
level to closely
monitor cash flow

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Longer-term plans were created, with workforce plans
to anticipate organizational structure changes,
assess cash flow, and evaluate strategic opportunities
Outcome

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Excellence in
Performance Management
Exclusive radio broadcast partner to leading
sports and entertainment brands including
the NFL, Olympics, Grammys, and Country
Music Awards.
Reaches 245M
people each week
454 owned-and-operated stations
across 90 U.S. media markets

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A growing need to decentralize
planning and reporting to put more
control and responsibility out to the
general managers in 90 markets
Reporting was cumbersome, Excel
planning processes were not
scaling, and the majority of
reporting had to be delivered out to
market managers via email
Challenge

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Automated and
decentralized
the annual
budgeting process
Implemented self-service
drag-and-drop reporting
that brought information
into the hands of business
managers in seconds,
not days
Created browser-
based access to
real-time
information—
creating ownership
Allowed each market
to update their
forecast every Friday;
programming
investments are
then driven based
on forecasts

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Senior management can now easily monitor market
performance across 90 markets—reallocating
programming dollars to markets that are most profitable
and reducing spend in lower performing markets.
Outcome

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We know there are many inspiring customer stories within
organizations that are embracing Adaptive Insights. We
want to hear your story!
And we encourage all customers to join our
Torchbearers Community, where you can access
learning materials and best-practice resources, and
knowledge share among peers.
Share Your Story of Finance
Transformation

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For more stories of Adaptive Insights transforming
teams, companies, and industries, check out
www.adaptiveinsights.com/customer-stories
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