At Quest’s BLUEPRINT 4D, Marcel Esqueu, VP of Financial System Transformation and Financial Close for The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, shared his team’s experience transitioning from PeopleSoft to Oracle Cloud.

Guardian has provided mutual life insurance to customers for over 150 years and currently serves 39 million customers throughout the U.S. With a rich history of success and millions of customers relying on its services, company leaders are committed to evolving the tech stack as better technology comes available.

A few years ago, the finance department began to identify gaps in their legacy finance architecture capabilities, which limited their ability to achieve Guardian’s business vision. To address the gaps, they began searching for a solution that aligned with their Guiding Principles of Architecture.

Guardian’s Guiding Principles of Architecture

• System Platform – “Cloud first” – one platform, end-to-end, unless functional requirements are not met. Open for scalability and growth.
• Standardization – Standardized master data governance for finance, accounting, and planning with a common finance data model.
• Centralization – Central management of hierarchies, security, roles, master data, and scope. Centralized architecture with accounting hub.
• Fit-for-Purpose – GL / Subledger / Accounting rules, etc. created to fit for specific purposes of the function.
• Integration – Seamless integration without manual handoffs. One COA, single platform with drill down and back, throughout the platform.
• Automation – Enable automation across the platform (i.e. Automated consolidations for intercompany transactions).
• Reporting Views – Seamless view to users for drill down purpose to the lowest level of details (contract/policy level).
• Data Capability – Data integrity – a single repository properly conformed will be able to solve the data consistency issue.

With these principles in mind, the Guardian team identified and implemented Oracle Cloud as their new finance solution. Keep reading to learn the case for change, finance wins, and key takeaways to aid your own journey to the cloud.

The Case for Change

To showcase the necessity of a change to their technology stack, Esqueu and his team defined the modernization case for change and the implications on his division.  Esqueu outlined the following reasons for a transition from PeopleSoft to Oracle Cloud:

• Fragmented, multi-vendor architecture driving significant manual reconciliation efforts
• Reliance on on-prem and customized apps that are nearing end-of-life
• Lack of critical data integration capabilities with accounting rules decentralized across sources
• Infrequent and summarized accounting information limiting access to finance data
• Highly manual, labor-intensive, and inefficient process environment
• No single source of truth; no master data capabilities for finance data
• Lack of reporting capabilities and Finance Analytics
  • Difficult to provide new insights and answer key business questions
  • Agility and scalability constraints to support the company’s business transformation efforts
  • Increasing risks in the legacy environment

Having made a strong argument for the update, company leaders approved a transition and began searching for the right fit for their future goals. In the end, Oracle Cloud fully aligned with their Guiding Principles, and the team began preparing for big changes.

Then, the pandemic hit.

At first, Esqueu thought the timing couldn’t be worse. But he quickly realized that working from home was a blessing in disguise. His team was able to fully dedicate themselves to a successful implementation, free of typical office distractions. Today, Guardian looks at the finance program upgrade as the gold standard for the firm.

Timeline of Guardian’s Journey

• Finance Strategy Announced 2018
• Oracle Contract in Q4/19
• POC/POT Signed Off Q1/20
• Release 1 Go Live 1/1/21
• Release 2 Go Live 7/1/21
• Release 3 Go Live Q1/22
• Release 4 Go Live Q3/22
• Release 4b Go Live Q1/23 (ARCS, Narrative Reporting)

Guardian’s Scope of Applications

Since transitioning from PeopleSoft to Oracle Cloud, Guardian’s scope of applications includes a mixture of legacy apps and new capabilities.

Legacy Applications

• PeopleSoft – GL, AP, FA, Purchasing, Consolidations, Allocations
• Frontier for Treasury (in progress)
• Essbase – Reporting and analytics
• Concur for T&E
• Adaptive Insights – Budget and Planning

New Modules/Capabilities

• Accounting Hub (sub-ledger)
• OAC (data analytics)
  • Lower-level enriched data (~900)
  • Spend analytics (replaces zycus)
• Tax Module
• Master Data Management
• Centralized Reconciliations
• Close Task Manager
• Narrative Reporting

More Licensed Modules

Additionally, their Oracle deal means they have access to even more licensing modules that can be implemented in the future such as:

• Project Accounting
• Accounts Receivable
• Billing
• Chatbot
• Mobile – OAC & Expenses

Data Analytics/Reporting Wins

With the Cloud in working order, the finance team reports big wins in five main areas: data analytics and reporting, close controls and enhancements, industry leadership, customer impact, and cost savings.

These wins include:

• New subledger accepts lower-level enriched data (almost 900) attributes now available for analytics. Half were requested by Actuarial
• Building out use cases into our world class analytics tool (OAC) enhances business insight and collaboration
• Able to record journals at lower-level attributes directly into the sub-ledger to support better analytics
• Lower-level data housed in the platform saves time going to various sources for reporting and analytics (except for Zeus)
• Implementing Narrative Reporting to support reporting disclosures through workflow approval and centralized dashboarding provides status and reduces emails
• Essbase cubes are embedded into the platform allowing data to be available immediately

Close Controls and Enhancements

Additionally, Gaudian’s transition from PeopleSoft to Oracle Cloud includes the following close controls and enhancements:

• Single allocation tool across budget and actuals reducing reconciliations between prior disparate systems (e.g. budget vs actual)
• Implemented Tax module (TRCS) saving tax team from utilizing only Excel
• Close dashboard/Task Manager efficiently tracks and invokes closing processes (i.e. allocations) with workflow sign-off and central repository for complete close. Also helps to identify bottlenecks.
• Centralized data management tool is fully integrated, avoiding errors in making changes manually to multiple systems
• Automated Wire transfers invoked through the platform vs previously performed manually in Treasury
• Audit reports available to help manage any unauthorized configuration changes
• Implementing module with workflow approval for better controls and transparency and less reliance on Excel

Leading the Pack in Finance

Guardian Finance is ahead on journey to future of finance as indicated by 3rd party maturity assessment, and is one of the first companies to build NII model in the planning tool.  They are also delighting customers with better service by providing:

• Integrated Platform supports self service model – Users can create intuitive analysis based on the data available in the platform
• T&E reimbursement pushed into employee bank accounts next day vs waiting a week
• Able to move to monthly close with negligible extra effort
• Email approvals across the platform

Additionally, Gaurdian Finance has experienced high impact cost savings due to recurring savings from reduced headcount and from having double the functionality for half the cost.

Key Takeaways

If you ask Esqueu to name the key to success, he’ll say it’s having a strong leadership team made up of functional partners and project managers. There was constant communication with the CFO and his direct reports, so all parties could make fast decisions and stay informed on the project status.

In the last two years, the team transformed their capabilities with Oracle Cloud, modernizing their entire architecture from left to right. While they made tremendous progress, they understand they are on a continuous journey, which requires continued investment.

As they aspire to become a true Insight Driven Organization, they are now focusing on developing Finance Analytics capabilities. Finance teams are learning their new OAC-based Analytics capabilities to understand how they can leverage and expand them to improve analysis and decision-making.

Moving forward, Guardian finance will continue to innovate, add platform enhancements, and look for automation opportunities. To hear directly from Esqueu, watch this presentation on the transition from PeopleSoft to Oracle Cloud.

You can find more information regarding PeopleSoft Move to Cloud by joining one of our Oracle Cloud groups where you can find others on the same journey.

If you are interested in seeing more blogs and presentations like this, please visit our Quest Content Library.