As Simpson Strong-Tie grew, so did its need to better forecast its output, headcount, and overall business.
Creating building materials and selling them to national retailers and lumber yards, this global manufacturing company ran on software that started as a disk operating system (DOS)-based, homegrown system that was internally siloed. But with more products and a greater footprint, business leaders sought the ability to better plan for months—and years—into the future.
When employees started using SAP Analytics Cloud, leaders soon found themselves enjoying dashboards and visibility that the software was able to provide at a much faster pace than Microsoft Excel, which the business had previously used. Now, the organization is live in SAC and able to forecast 18 months out.
Ahead of her session at SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference, (titled “Manual to modern: Simpson Strong-Tie’s journey to efficient financial forecasting”), ASUG spoke with Myra Roberson, senior manager of NA Operations Finance at Simpson Strong-Tie, about the company’s digital transformation to SAP Analytics Cloud, details of the company’s blueprinting process, and more.
Implementation Process and the Importance of Blueprinting
Blueprinting at Simpson Strong-Tie involved nine months of mapping out processes as the organization moved to SAP. The North American rollout took around two years, before extending across Europe. Now, SAP S/4HANA has been implemented in all locations, for about 2,000 users globally.
Specific to SAP Analytics Cloud, blueprinting began in Q4 of 2023, officially kicking off in January; Simpson Strong-Tie went live on the solution in North America during the first week of May.
This process opened Roberson’s eyes to the importance of being very detailed in articulating why workers approach processes in certain ways and working to understand their objectives. Given that so many workers rely on muscle memory in the process of their work, they might not always understand the historical origins of certain business tasks, especially those coming from a legacy-based system, she reflected.
Working alongside a consulting team to map out processes, Roberson emphasized that two to three days would be needed for them at the outset to collaborate with employees. The Simpson Strong-Tie team walked the consultants through every detail of their current processes, so that those architecting the SAP landscape had an accurate idea of everything that went into their work.
“The part of blueprinting that’s important is whoever’s developing that and sitting in there with you has the ability to have that dialogue at the time,” Roberson said. While those architecting the system undoubtedly still had questions after these initial conversations, she felt it was very important to have a face-to-face blueprinting session, to most effectively align on the needs of end-users and ultimately make the project successful.
Indeed, Roberson attributes Simpson Strong-Tie's success in moving further along through its transition to the time spent on blueprinting early in the process. “Without a very good, defined blueprint, it’d be very hard for anyone to even come in after the fact and do something with this project, if we didn't have a basis for how we started," she said.
Consultants also provided hands-on training to employees, to improve their understanding of the data behind the blueprinting process. Roberson wanted end users to feel comfortable about what they were developing; if a user was looking at data they understood, she reasoned, they’d be more likely to understand its role in the blueprinting process.
Scenario Planning and Streamlining
Today, Simpson Strong-Tie executives can use SAP Analytics Cloud to plan for a variety of potential scenarios, like projecting how tariffs might affect prices or how to prepare for an influx in sales due to the need for rebuilding after natural disasters.
Previously, the company’s Excel-based scenario planning involved forecasting for various regions, with seven in North America and more than a dozen regions in Europe. Executives looking to run a report had to save extra copies of files, compile them, and compare, all the while hoping nobody had accidentally tweaked a file or formula.
Equipped with SAP Analytics Cloud, executives can now quickly run reports side by side based on various factors they’ve identified, such as how a price change affects their operating margin.
The organization can also forecast demand from a production and a revenue perspective. Simpson Strong-Tie has embedded inside of SAP Analytics Cloud forecasting specific to how production requirements will impact head count. As pounds of product increase, for example, executives can project how many additional people they’ll need to hire. "This helps achieve a cleaner operating margin forecast than what we have had in the past," Roberson said.
This capability is available to 10 North American and three European financial controllers in financial planning and analysis departments at Simpson Strong-Tie; Roberson aims to have around 20 end-users live in the system later this year.
“The consolidation efforts, and the ability to see that consolidation in SAP Analytics Cloud on literally the push of a button, have been massive for us,” Roberson said.
Data Challenges That Drive Organizational Success
The intricacies of data sets often pose challenges for SAP users; recent ASUG Pulse of the SAP Customer Research found that nearly half (48%) of members struggle with master data maintenance and governance. Integration was a close second, with 45% of members citing it as a challenge.
Simpson Strong-Tie ran into both issues but overcame them throughout the implementation process, Roberson explained. In working to integrate headcount data with SAP Analytics Cloud, Simpson Strong-Tie worked to create crossover and table references to ensure data coming out of Workday could be leveraged in SAP. This involved some trial and error to achieve a data action inside of SAP, Roberson said. But now that the integration has been created, there have been no significant issues.
Having gone through SAP S/4HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud implementations to successfully leverage data for analysis and planning, Roberson has some advice for others; she told ASUG that companies need to provide workers with clear expectations for using tools like SAP Analytics Cloud.
If a colleague is asked to input data, and they don’t understand the benefit of doing so, they’ll see it as just another task in their already busy days, she said, and be less likely to do so. Explaining the benefit the tool can have to the individual and organization is an important part of earning buy-in across an organization.
Roberson also attributes her team’s general SAP Analytics Cloud knowledge as a huge plus for the planning process. Understanding terminology and functionality up front, team members could more effectively engage in conversations about development. “There’s a benefit to understanding the basics of what SAP Analytics Cloud does, prior to planning, in order to be successful,” she said.
For more insights into Simpson Strong-Tie's journey with SAP Analytics Cloud, attend Roberson's session at SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference, titled “Manual to modern: Simpson Strong-Tie’s journey to efficient financial forecasting.”