Ascend Partners Named 2022 Power of the Platform Award Winner by OneStream

Project Summary

After successfully implementing OneStream for consolidation to replace Oracle HFM, Barrick Gold wanted to streamline their planning process which was maintained in 3 separate Hyperion Planning applications. Having data across different applications led to an extensive reconciliation process which resulted in multiple sources of the “truth”. These challenges, along with a desire to incorporate new models (Capital Plannings, Allocations) in a very short period of time, made OneStream the perfect choice for Barrick. With our firm, once again as their implementation partner of choice, the OneStream Planning application was built to deliver:

1. Extensive data entry dashboards
2. Location-based file loading for multi-decade activity
3. Smart yet powerful business rule logic to create a unified platform that is able to produce and consolidate a company-wide “Life-of-Mine” consolidated plan going out approximately 60 years

The planning project has reduced the time it takes to get more accurate real-time results, allowing the planning team to focus more of their time on analysis and review of the numbers, rather than reconciling the numbers between different sources.

The Life-of-Mine Planning project won the Power of the Platform award because the Planning application that we built for Barrick utilizes the full capabilities of the OneStream Intelligence Finance Platform. The extended planning and analysis capabilities that have been achieved across all areas of the organization and the ability to plan with the speed, agility and flexibility that is required by a global leader in the metals and mining sector were the deciding factors for this win.

Platform Capabilities

The Barrick build was centered in one core cube. It incorporated relational blending for Capital Planning and Allocation models. Loading multi-decade data with hundreds of thousands of date records relied on Range Workflow Tracking frequencies and varying input frequencies to keep the data loads as efficient as possible. Reporting extended beyond cube views into BI Viewer / BI Designer to provide relational data pivot grid reporting. Custom calculations were employed to automate processes as much as possible without losing sight of keeping it simple. Barrick’s application currently hosts 420 users.

Budget Then & Now

For the current consolidation of the entire Life-of-Mine (LOM) plan within OneStream, it takes about one week from the date the individual sites and entities load their planning data in their separate workflows. Prior to OneStream, this took approximately 3 - 5 weeks from the date of site submission resulting in a stale LOM consolidated view of the company.

Forecast Then & Now

Similar to the budget process above, forecast submissions take about a week to consolidate at the group level. Previously, forecast submission would take about 2 - 3 weeks and would not have as much forward-looking data.

Business Case For Planning

A major motivation for Barrick to move to OneStream planning was to have all of their CPM data in one application. One source of the truth was the main driver for this along with the desire to eliminate the unnecessary hours devoted to ensuring data tied across different systems. In addition, the turnaround time for reporting was incredibly lengthy because data integrations were required to pull data prior to consolidating and reporting; thus, the need to greatly reduce reporting time was also a driver for choosing OneStream.

Final Results

1. One source of the truth
2. Reconciliations of the various scenarios copied to each application are no longer required
3. Prior to OneStream, the LOM consolidation would only hold 5 years of data and was at a more summarized level of granularity. Now with OneStream, it can hold multiple decades of data with more granularities including:
4. Capital and exploration breakdowns by individual project details
5. Automated calculations for accretion and various statistical accounts
6. Planning effort reduced by 100 - 120 hours per month
7. Turnaround time for planning reports reduced by 50%
8. Multiple planning scenarios and alternative scenarios (what-if, snapshots) supported at the same time to allow for upside and downside comparisons to the base case scenarios

See the May 26, 2022 Press Release for additional details.