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It takes a commitment this strong to build a cloud foundation this quickly

The Israeli government’s fast actions and unwavering focus helped enable cloud foundation development in just 11 weeks

Client

Government of Israel

Primary goal

Develop and deploy a secure cloud foundation within a highly compressed timeframe

Technology

Google cloud

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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

The Government of Israel began its journey from on-premises solutions to Google Cloud when it became clear that a cloud foundation would help balance the need for organization-wide governance with those of individual ministries. Building a fully enabled foundation would typically take about nine months, but the government was faced with a fast-approaching deadline for a successful pilot migration. KPMG helped the government envision a provisional Google Cloud foundation that would provide robust security, support a pilot workload, and, once fully enabled, empower migration of all ministries. Then, working together, they built the MVP—in just 11 weeks.

Key outcomes

Making a measurable difference

11-week

delivery of a secure cloud foundation able to support a pilot migration

Multi-account

structure accommodating numerous government ministries

Secure

technical architecture supporting future cloud deployments

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 government’s quick, decisive actions helped lead to the successful creation of a cloud foundation in a fraction of the time it typically takes.

1. Planning phase

Drawing on our broad experience to solve a highly specific set of challenges

KPMG drew on four of our member firms (in the U.S., Germany, Israel, and India), and on four key service lines to assemble a team with the skills and experience to meet the Israeli government’s needs.

Core team members had extensive experience in cloud foundation architecture for large government projects, multi-cloud development, migrations, and environment security. We also delivered artifacts, IaC/PaC templates, and playbooks that have been continuously updated and codified over multiple engagements. As a result, our team was able to mobilize quickly, integrate seamlessly with Israeli government teams, and rapidly assess the current- and future-state requirements.

After gaining a clear understanding of the government’s needs and establishing a high-level architecture, we assigned tasks across three, 3-week sprints focused on iteratively enhancing the cloud foundation and its capabilities. 

Once we had gathered technical requirements including networking and security, logging, monitoring, and alerting, and regulatory requirements, we began extensive design sessions across key domains including governance, security, and networking.

2. Design phase 

Setting up the basic cloud foundation structure

We got to work setting up a structure that would support the more basic cloud foundation needed in the short term, and provide a strong foundation for a fully enabled, production-ready migration factory.

Security was among the top priorities. We reviewed baseline security controls and provided a framework that encompasses leading practices based on standards developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Center for Internet Security (CIS), and the cyber security experience and insights KPMG has developed working with numerous clients.

Security controls must be closely aligned to an organization’s needs. Developing them from the ground up can be time-consuming. However, KPMG has defined and continuously refines more than 100 Google Cloud security controls. Drawing from this robust library of predefined controls, and employing the MoSCoW prioritization method (must-have, should-have, could-have, and would-have), we were able to rapidly align a precise set of controls to the Israeli government’s security standards, requirements, and framework. This included enabling Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multifactor Authentication (MFA) using Google Cloud.

We also established a resource hierarchy (folders/projects) and centralized billing, enabled a role-based model to enforce separation of duties and management of privileged access, and provided and end-to-end and observable network topology to help ensure secure connectivity between platforms, services, and users.

3. Build and deploy phase

Leveraging leading practices to put cloud foundation and governance and processes in place

KPMG draws upon leading practices from within our own client base and from organizations around the world to design processes and policies.

After developing IaC to deploy cloud foundation features based on the design and technology specifications collected from our client, we then worked closely with them, iteratively reviewing and executing code. The goal was to empower the Israeli government to execute a continuous deployment using internal resources after the pilot migration.

4. Validation and hypercare phase

Helping to ensure a smooth landing for the pilot and subsequent migrations

As with all phases of the project, this last one required creativity to meet the aggressive timeline without sacrificing capabilities or performance.

Validation

Typically, KPMG would validate all security baseline controls for configuration and effectiveness and then share the results with our client. They would then validate the controls using their own criteria. This can be a time-consuming process. So, instead, we used a rolling approach—completing and validating one set of controls and handing it off to the government for review before proceeding to the next set. This allowed our two teams to work in tandem. Also, we provided the government with documented validation steps so they did not have to create their own—further accelerating the process. Lastly, while we validated all controls for configuration, simulating all controls for effectiveness wasn’t feasible. Instead, we selected a subset and performed showbacks to demonstrate effectiveness. We followed similar validation processes for policies, groups, roles, etc.

Hypercare

Hypercare involved two go-lives. First, we conducted a soft launch involving all core cloud foundation capabilities that did not require internet access. This allowed the technical team to start using the provisional cloud foundation at the seven-week mark, providing ample time to test, validate, and report issues. We resolved these issues, added enhancements including internet access, and then completed the second go-live, confident that the cloud foundation MVP we had built would perform as planned and meet the government’s needs.

Turning insights into opportunity

A breadth of resources across the world helps KPMG address your specific challenges

It’s not only the breadth of experience and resources we have, but the connections between them that allows KPMG to assemble the kinds of teams that can take on the most daunting challenges. For example, to help meet the government of Israel’s needs and timeframe, we tapped a KPMG specialist who had helped architect a similar cloud foundation. That KPMG specialist tapped others with deep insights into multi-cloud development, migrations, environment security and, of course, Google Cloud. Tell us about the challenges you’re facing, and we’ll show you the team that can help solve them.

Meet our team

We can show you the way to faster, more efficient cloud migration.

If your organization is making a move to the cloud, talk with us first about the best path to take and what to watch out for on the way.

Image of David Bar
David Bar
Principal, Head of Cloud and Data Solutions, Admin-Operations, KPMG Israel
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Image of Vinodh Swaminathan
Vinodh Swaminathan
Global Lead Partner & Principal, KPMG US
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Image of Mahendra Kalidindi
Mahendra Kalidindi
Director Advisory , CIO Advisory, KPMG US
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Image of David Bar
David Bar
Principal, Head of Cloud and Data Solutions, Admin-Operations, KPMG Israel
Read bio
Image of Vinodh Swaminathan
Vinodh Swaminathan
Global Lead Partner & Principal, KPMG US
Read bio
Image of Mahendra Kalidindi
Mahendra Kalidindi
Director Advisory , CIO Advisory, KPMG US
Read bio

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Some or all of the services described herein may not be permissible for KPMG audit clients and their affiliates or related entities.

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