Transforming financial consolidation: How a global manufacturer cut close cycles, eliminated errors, and boosted confidence with HFM automation
Case study
About
Welspun Corp Limited is a globally recognized leader in large-diameter steel pipe manufacturing, serving critical infrastructure needs across oil, gas, water, and industrial sectors. Since its establishment in 1995, the company has expanded across six continents, driven by innovation, strategic diversification, and a steadfast commitment to quality.
Combining advanced manufacturing capabilities with forward-looking business practices, Welspun continues to scale globally and strengthen its long-term growth, reinforcing its position as a trusted partner in building resilient and sustainable infrastructure.
Problem
The challenges included:
- Prolonged consolidation, close and reporting cycles due to manual processes.
- De-centralised operations restricting flexibility and slowing decision-making.
- Weak data governance reducing trust in financial results.
- High dependency on manual interventions, increasing errors and inefficiencies.
- Slow adaptation to entity structure and ownership changes, complicating reporting and compliance.
- Time-consuming and error-prone manual translation and Cumulative Translation Adjustment (CTA) calculations.
- Cash flow preparation requiring repetitive manual work, leading to delays.
- Lack of automation in consolidation adjustments such as goodwill calculations, non-controlling interest (NCI) and equity accounting.
- Manual preparation of movement details and notes to accounts, delaying accurate disclosures.
Solution
Welspun implemented Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) to streamline its consolidation and reporting processes. The solution replaced prolonged, manual, and fragmented activities with a centralised, standardised, and process-oriented approach.
Automation was introduced in intercompany eliminations, cash flow preparation, and advanced consolidation adjustments such as goodwill, non-controlling interest (NCI), equity accounting, notes, and schedules. This reduced repetitive manual work, minimised errors, and accelerated close cycles.
The implementation also strengthened data governance and controls through embedded validation rules and audit trails, increasing trust in reported numbers. With real-time visibility and the ability to adapt quickly to changes in entity structures and holding patterns, HFM enabled greater accuracy, ensured compliance, and freed up teams to focus more on strategic decision-making.
Impact
The adoption of HFM enhanced operational efficiency, improved accuracy, and provided leadership with timely insights for better decision-making. The key outcomes included:
- Reduced consolidation, close, and reporting cycles by days or weeks.
- Enabled a centralised consolidation exercise with a standardised, process-oriented approach.
- Strengthened data governance and controls, improving trust in reported numbers.
- Enhanced adaptability to changes in entity structures and holding patterns.
- Automated intercompany eliminations, cash flow preparation, and consolidation adjustments (goodwill, NCI, equity accounting, notes, schedules).
- Improved accuracy and compliance through streamlined audit trails, validation rules, and controls.
- Delivered real-time visibility into financial performance to support faster decisions.
- Enabled timely year-end financial statement publishing without parallel runs and with reduced spreadsheet reliance.
- Drove user adoption, with teams focusing more on strategic initiatives than manual processes.
