Macquarie Group accelerates finance operations with an ambitious transformation
In partnership with Oracle and Deloitte, Macquarie adopts a cloud-based general ledger, modernising its finance operations to meet future business needs.
This case study originally appeared on macquarie.com
One of the biggest technology implementations in Macquarie’s history
Recent advancements in cloud technology offered the opportunity to put in place a new platform that strengthened Macquarie’s general ledger (GL) foundations and provided the scale and functionality needed for future growth. As part of a broader finance transformation program, it was vital that the new platform provided a future-proofed foundation for further transformation and empowered its staff to innovate and create value.
Identifying partners in growth
Macquarie’s legacy PeopleSoft GL was implemented 17-plus years ago and while regular upgrades were made, its finance operations quickly outgrew the platform. Over the same period, Oracle had developed an industry-leading suite of cloud-native finance applications, which was identified as an ideal solution to meet Macquarie’s evolving business and technical needs. Over a three-year period, completed in three major waves, Oracle, Deloitte, and Macquarie’s teams worked as one unit to implement large parts of the Oracle Fusion Cloud Application Suite globally, making it one of the biggest technology implementations in Macquarie’s history. The project involved more than 2,000 people across 24 global locations.
Shaping Macquarie’s finance functions for the future
Having migrated over 1.2 billion lines of GL data, Macquarie is the first financial services organisation of its footprint to introduce a global cloud-based financial management and reporting system of this scale. This project further establishes Macquarie’s relationship with Oracle as a global technical partner dedicated to supporting and shaping Macquarie’s finance functions for the future.
“We have aligned to the Financial Management Group core mission of ‘strengthening foundations and enabling growth’ through three key Fusion outcomes:
1. We now have a best-in-class future-proofed platform—we don’t expect to have to upgrade to a new general ledger again.
2. We’ve redefined and improved many business processes along the way.
3. We’ve launched a platform that will continue to drive value creation.”
—Kwesi Nicholas, Fusion Program Business Lead, Macquarie Group
Key points about this effort:
1,700+
Macquarie-trained Fusion system users
1.2 billion+
lines of GL data migrated
Improved security
Data encrypted at rest and in transit and full system change audit trails
Simplified business processes
Significant reduction in key reports and allocation models
Reduced delivery times for key reports
Reports are available up to two hours earlier than prior
Month-end results delivered on schedule
Validating the efficiency of the new GL
“Re-platforming a general ledger is no small task. Macquarie began the process with the end state in mind, and we took a staggered approach to minimise the risk deploying smaller capabilities early, such as payables and receivables and testing performance throughout. And we conducted a parallel run after the soft launch of the major GL release. We were continually taking advantage of innovations on the product as we progressed, which truly unlocked the potential of the SaaS technology for Macquarie.”
—Catherine Macrae, JAPAC Solution Engineering Lead, Oracle
“Deloitte and Oracle have been working together for more than 20 years and through the combined best-of-breed solutions, deep technology and sector expertise, as well as Macquarie’s collaboration and support of the necessary internal change management, the implementation was a great success. The platform has laid the foundations for future digital transformation and provides Macquarie with a competitive advantage in the growth of their business.”
—Peter Nikandrow, Lead Partner APAC - Oracle, Deloitte
“As a global financial services leader, Macquarie needed a single platform that could scale with them and deliver continuous innovation. With the implementation of Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Macquarie has been able to automate many manual tasks associated with reporting, enabling employees to focus on larger business activities. The consolidated cloud-based platform has also allowed Macquarie to improve efficiency, meet global myriad of compliance, minimise risk, and increase business agility.”
—John Leonard, Vice President, Applications, Oracle Australia
Partners
Macquarie partnered with Deloitte for the financial transformation project.