Sveaskog Uses Hypergene as a Tool for Ongoing Monitoring and Long-Term Planning

Our Controllers get more time to look ahead and support the business because their work has become more effective.

Anders Nilsson, Senior Controller

Challenge

Sveaskog is Sweden’s largest forest owner, with 14 percent of the country’s forests. The government-owned corporation has sales of over SEK 6 billion and close to 700 employees. Its operations are broad based. Apart from selling timber, pulpwood and biofuel to the paper, pulp and sawmill industry, Sveaskog also buys and sells land, and develops forests for purposes such as hunting and fishing.

When the organisation underwent a major reorganisation, which decentralised its profit centres, a greater need arose for assistance with budgeting, forecasting, reporting and monitoring.

At this time, Sveaskog also took the decision to replace its ageing BI system with a modern, user-friendly solution that would be easier to manage.

All data had to be stored in a single system, which would preferably also provide business planning and risk management support.

“We conducted thorough feasibility work, which involved conducting interviews and mapping processes from technological and financial perspectives – and, not least, factoring in operational needs. Simplicity and the possibility to do much of the work ourselves were high on our wish list. The fact that we had just delegated profit centres to many of our managers meant that the system had to be intuitive and contribute to more effective processing,” says Anders Nilsson, Senior Controller at Sveaskog.

Summary:

• Sweden’s largest forest owner, Sveaskog, underwent a major reorganisation which decentralised its profit centres. This triggered a greater need for assistance with budgeting, forecasting, reporting and monitoring.
  
  

Solution

Hypergene was selected after a thorough tender process, and the solution was quickly put into place. All tasks managed by the previous system were migrated to Hypergene, where they now work better.

Sveaskog uses many different data types. In addition to financial KPIs, this might be volumes of various types, such as harvested and sold timber, number of plants sold or harvested areas. Accordingly, information from several ERP systems is integrated into Hypergene.

The organisation now has support for ongoing earnings and operational monitoring in Hypergene, as well as budgeting and forecasting. Hypergene is also used for business planning, producing five-year financial plans and strategic business plans. The tool embeds support for Sveaskog’s strategies, targets, actions and risk management, where strategic initiatives are interlinked with target segments and activities.

In practical terms, Hypergene is now used for the entire business planning process. It delivers greater transparency, speed and consistency and also makes it possible to visualise strategies and targets.

Summary: 

• Hypergene Business Intelligence.
  
  

Results

“Hypergene has become a tool for ongoing monitoring and long-term planning," Nilsson says. "Managers can check status, and have more understanding of actual figures by drilling down into information easily without needing any support systems. Critical information has been integrated into a user-friendly and understandable tool. Our Controllers get more time to look ahead and support the business because their work has become more effective.

"The value of this new solution is apparent in several levels of the organisation. Apart from middle managers and controllers everyday work being more effective in easier, management also gets a better overview. For example, our CFO can now go into the system on the fly and easily get an overview of relevant and updated KPIs.

“We’ve also seen positive effects on the processes we work on. Budgeting, forecasting and business planning became clearer, more alive and flexible because everything is integrated and executed in a single system. They key members of the Hypergene implementation team were even nominated for Sveaskog’s Improvement of the Year on the theme of Simplicity,” Nilsson concludes.

Summary:

• Critical information integrated in a user-friendly and understandable solution.
• Budgeting, forecasting and business planning became clearer and more flexible.
• Controllers get more time to look ahead and support the business.