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Finding new opportunities in the midst of a crisis

COVID-driven remote work spurs a major security upgrade at a global bank

Client

A major global bank

Sector

Financial services

Primary goal

Ensure secure collaboration and controls

Primary platforms

Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365

test

When an acquisition doubles your revenue in your largest market, there are some big numbers at play—especially when you’re a $48 billion CPG company. And the bigger the numbers, the bigger the impact of every strategic and tactical decision you make. You can’t afford to have your visibility clouded and your decision-making hampered by having two disparate financial operations functions each with its own systems, software, and people. So, when a global CPG company found itself in this situation, it called on KPMG to drive fast, smooth, cost-efficient integration of financial operations.

Key outcomes

1

Increased engagement 

and global alignment between cross-functional teams

2

Greater visibility

 into consolidated spend driving meaningful insights and more proactive decisions

3

Days shaved off

the monthly close cycle

4

More accurate

revenue and sales forecasting

When COVID-19 forced employees to work remotely, the U. S. subsidiary of a global bank needed to improve the security and compliance of online collaboration via Microsoft Teams. Like so many businesses, our client was stunned by the sudden changes to its workplace. But management also saw that the challenges of remote work were an opportunity to make security upgrades to improve performance and empower employees. As a longtime advisor on Information Technology (IT) issues and cyber security, and as a Microsoft Inner Circle Partner, KPMG was asked to help reconfigure systems to be more secure, collaborative, and efficient.

Key outcomes

Making a measurable difference

Collaboration

easier, more secure

Standardization

on a single global platform

Better protection

from cyber threats

Clearly defined

operational model for secure sharing

Full use

of Microsoft 365 security and reporting

Lower risk

of compliance and regulatory issues

Client transformation journey

Click on each part of the journey to learn more about our client’s transformation.

Client transformation journey

Before

Poor visibility threatened business objectives.

Acquiring a large organic food and beverage business helped a global CPG company expand its operations and nearly double its revenue in the U.S. However, as with most mergers, the integration posed some challenges. Two disparate IT environments with different accounting and reporting models, separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and multiple business intelligence (BI) tools required extensive manual intervention and offline data manipulation, preventing uniform reporting and analysis. Data was trapped in silos. Visibility was insufficient. A new CFO and the finance and accounting teams lacked the insight to support effective forecasting and both strategic and tactical decision-making. In a sector as competitive and fast-changing as food products, this company needed to increase visibility quickly.

After

Unified financial operations support global success.

While this CPG company’s business is spread across two continents (and originates from a number of acquired companies), its financial operations are now centralized and unified. A cloud-based platform extracts and loads data from numerous global sources, then configures and stores it in a central location. Accounting staff across multiple back offices work within a single governance structure and with a single set of streamlined processes, enabling effective reporting and supporting a swift, accurate close. Across the enterprise, visibility is excellent, and insights are at the ready, because analysts can perform real-time calculations and drill down swiftly to the meaning behind the numbers. Unified financial operations helps this $48 billion player predict accurately, plan effectively, and act swiftly—all crucial in a sector where windows of opportunity close as suddenly as they open.

Future

A strong foundation that can keep pace with continued growth.

There will be more acquisition targets in the company’s future. And with a cloud-based platform, governance framework, and standardized processes in place, integrating financial operations will be a swift, sure process. A successful integration inspired the CFO and global finance team to consider other areas for transformation. From evolving multiple layers of the target operating model within Finance, to jump-starting transformation across other functional areas, a powerful ripple effect began and continues across the enterprise. Having the right tools and processes to support a grander vision driven by meaningful insights will continue to empower positive change.

Before

Poor visibility threatened business objectives.

Acquiring a large organic food and beverage business helped a global CPG company expand its operations and nearly double its revenue in the U.S. However, as with most mergers, the integration posed some challenges. Two disparate IT environments with different accounting and reporting models, separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and multiple business intelligence (BI) tools required extensive manual intervention and offline data manipulation, preventing uniform reporting and analysis. Data was trapped in silos. Visibility was insufficient. A new CFO and the finance and accounting teams lacked the insight to support effective forecasting and both strategic and tactical decision-making. In a sector as competitive and fast-changing as food products, this company needed to increase visibility quickly.

After

Unified financial operations support global success.

While this CPG company’s business is spread across two continents (and originates from a number of acquired companies), its financial operations are now centralized and unified. A cloud-based platform extracts and loads data from numerous global sources, then configures and stores it in a central location. Accounting staff across multiple back offices work within a single governance structure and with a single set of streamlined processes, enabling effective reporting and supporting a swift, accurate close. Across the enterprise, visibility is excellent, and insights are at the ready, because analysts can perform real-time calculations and drill down swiftly to the meaning behind the numbers. Unified financial operations helps this $48 billion player predict accurately, plan effectively, and act swiftly—all crucial in a sector where windows of opportunity close as suddenly as they open.

Future

A strong foundation that can keep pace with continued growth.

There will be more acquisition targets in the company’s future. And with a cloud-based platform, governance framework, and standardized processes in place, integrating financial operations will be a swift, sure process. A successful integration inspired the CFO and global finance team to consider other areas for transformation. From evolving multiple layers of the target operating model within Finance, to jump-starting transformation across other functional areas, a powerful ripple effect began and continues across the enterprise. Having the right tools and processes to support a grander vision driven by meaningful insights will continue to empower positive change.

Client transformation journey

  • Before

    Poor visibility threatened business objectives.

    Acquiring a large organic food and beverage business helped a global CPG company expand its operations and nearly double its revenue in the U.S. However, as with most mergers, the integration posed some challenges. Two disparate IT environments with different accounting and reporting models, separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and multiple business intelligence (BI) tools required extensive manual intervention and offline data manipulation, preventing uniform reporting and analysis. Data was trapped in silos. Visibility was insufficient. A new CFO and the finance and accounting teams lacked the insight to support effective forecasting and both strategic and tactical decision-making. In a sector as competitive and fast-changing as food products, this company needed to increase visibility quickly.The preconfigured assets and technology accelerators delivered by KPMG Powered Enterprise let ambitious leadership teams take advantage of embedded leading practices to speed up the decision-making process while instilling confidence.

  • After

    Unified financial operations support global success.

    While this CPG company’s business is spread across two continents (and originates from a number of acquired companies), its financial operations are now centralized and unified. A cloud-based platform extracts and loads data from numerous global sources, then configures and stores it in a central location. Accounting staff across multiple back offices work within a single governance structure and with a single set of streamlined processes, enabling effective reporting and supporting a swift, accurate close. Across the enterprise, visibility is excellent, and insights are at the ready, because analysts can perform real-time calculations and drill down swiftly to the meaning behind the numbers. Unified financial operations helps this $48 billion player predict accurately, plan effectively, and act swiftly—all crucial in a sector where windows of opportunity close as suddenly as they open.

  • Future

    A strong foundation that can keep pace with continued growth.

    There will be more acquisition targets in the company’s future. And with a cloud-based platform, governance framework, and standardized processes in place, integrating financial operations will be a swift, sure process. A successful integration inspired the CFO and global finance team to consider other areas for transformation. From evolving multiple layers of the target operating model within Finance, to jump-starting transformation across other functional areas, a powerful ripple effect began and continues across the enterprise. Having the right tools and processes to support a grander vision driven by meaningful insights will continue to empower positive change.

The reason our clients trust us is because we’re always on their side. There were many instances during this engagement when the client wanted additional security features that weren’t normally supported by our vendor partners. We could have tried to scale back what they were asking for, or tried to find an alternate solution. But we knew it was important to them, so we passed the request on to the vendors and got them to make adding them a priority.

Vivek Saxena

KPMG Engagement Leader

YouTube thumbnail image

Enabling Secure Collaboration

Transcript

With the increased adoption of cloud computing, and the globalization of systems, processes, and supply chains, more customer data is being collected, retained, disclosed, and transferred around the globe.

Unfortunately, data breaches continue to rise, so it is more important than ever to build trust in how we are handling customer data.

KPMG is leveraging Microsoft technology to build cyber security solutions that prevent data loss and identify and monitor threats.

In this demonstration, we show how we helped a global bank secure one-drive file sharing among employees and non-employees.

Adele, a retail manager, is on a group chat with her colleague Christine and Sai, an external insurance agent. They are discussing Mortgage and Sales documents. Adele intends to separately share all files with Christine and then share only the public documents with Sai.
Unfortunately, she makes a mistake and uploads all of the files to the group chat. This presents a potential data breach for the bank.
Christine, as an employee of the bank, is able to view and open all of the files. She can also view the security controls for each and note the ones that are marked as confidential.
Sai has access to all non-sensitive, public files that are shared.
However, since Sai is not an employee, when he tries to open one of the documents containing confidential information, the system automatically denies him access. Based on the content and sensitivity of the file, the bank’s cyber security tool flags confidential documents and blocks access to external users. This helps protect them from data breaches.

Leveraging the Microsoft Compliance Center app, the bank can use data loss prevention policies to block files that are unclassified, confidential, or contain NPPI data.

The bank also uses the Microsoft Defender for Cloud app to catch misclassified and unclassified files and restrict them from being shared externally.

KPMG can help you create and implement security policies that meet your specific requirements. With the right cyber security solution in place, you can reduce data loss and incidence response time while generating operational costs savings.

Secure your organization, build trust with your customers, and gain a competitive advantage.
Business led. Technology enabled.

Learn more at: read.kpmg.us/Microsoft

1. Vision Phase
Getting more out of Microsoft

Our KPMG Powered Enterprise approach to digital transformation starts by working closely with the client to establish a Target Operating Model—a best-case scenario for how new processes and technologies will work together to solve problems and create value.

Despite the previous difficulties with taking secure collaboration beyond email and videoconferencing, the client’s chief information officer (CIO) understood that Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure already offered nearly all the cyber security capabilities needed—the key would be configuring them correctly. And although some functions in the upgraded system would still be handled through on-premises software, a full migration to the cloud was the longer-term goal.

2. Validation phase
Consensus building at home and abroad

The next stage was to build consensus among the various constituencies within the organization on how the upgraded system should be designed, deployed, and managed. Although the project targeted the bank’s U.S. operations, extensive consultation and planning sessions were held with personnel responsible for end-user technology, security, operations and infrastructure at the global level. This made sense not only because a broader international rollout was expected in the future, but because security, risk, and compliance requirements vary by country or region.

3. Construction phase
A better model meets better technology

After conducting a final security assessment, the KPMG team identified gaps in processes and technology and recommended a new security operating model for the U.S. that would ensure a high degree of security. The new model was also designed to enhance other IT capabilities such as analytics, lean/agile operations, and cross-functional collaboration. Other important elements included:

  • Implementing a new preview feature for Microsoft DLP to meet information security requirements
  • Allowing remote employees to securely access documents via laptops, tablets, or smartphones without risk of data exfiltration
  • Activating security-specific capabilities like data classification, information protection, data loss prevention, and data management platform (DMP) policies
  • Improved monitoring and reporting of incidents in which files are shared with unauthorized users
  • Creating an end-user training guide to help employees understand the goals of the new system and how to use it effectively
  • Adapting Microsoft 365 to create automated custom reports to streamline operations and reduce overhead.

And not every part of the final design was immediately available. Thanks in part to our longtime partnership with Microsoft, (and our deep understanding of the client’s priorities), our team was able to press for enhanced functions designed to address the client’s specific needs.

4. Delivery phase
Test, confirm, and deploy

Since nearly all the U.S. bank’s 17,000-plus employees would have access to the new system, advance testing and feedback were required prior to a full rollout. The process started with a pilot launch to about 70 people in late 2021, which yielded valuable responses on everything from usability to documentation for specific features and functions. After incorporating this initial input, a larger trial reaching about 1,000 workers in the IT organization followed. Our team then opened a distribution list for these users to share questions and feedback prior to a full launch in early 2022.

The first result was that we established an interim state during the pandemic which allowed the client to consolidate all collaboration on the Teams platform. Once this solution was in place, we defined a structured path to upgrade security and enable the full range of collaboration features available from teams.

To date, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, starting with the bank’s CIO, who was impressed with the content, ease of access, and controls built into the system. More generally, the full launch produced very little disruption among rank-and-file workers who are now able to share data and collaborate more easily. There were zero complaints.

5. Evolution phase
Going global and moving to the cloud

With the deployment of the new security solution in the U.S., KPMG and the client are now planning to replicate its success in other regions. Meanwhile, KPMG continues to monitor the U.S. platform to identify new security issues and add improvements where needed.

Along with better security and more effective collaboration, transitioning to the cloud-based versions of Azure, OneDrive, and Microsoft SharePoint is allowing the client to retire local on-premises drives and data centers, delivering significant savings and balance sheet improvements.

Meet our team

For smart businesses, managing cyber risk means more than playing defense

Let’s talk about where you are now and your goals for the future.

Image of Rajan Behal
Rajan Behal
Managing Director, Cyber Security, KPMG LLP
Image of Vivek N. Saxena
Vivek N. Saxena
Director Advisory, Cyber Security Services, KPMG LLP

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