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From fragmented data to a single source of truth
How Deloitte helped a global consumer goods company simplify financial reporting, improve data reliability and build a scalable foundation for future acquisitions.
The challenge | More brands. More data. More complexity.
As a global consumer goods company expanded its portfolio through acquisitions, integrating new brands into its reporting ecosystem became increasingly complex.
With well-known brands spanning beauty, personal care, food, and health and wellbeing, the company faced a growing challenge: How do you bring multiple businesses, systems and reporting formats together to create one consistent, reliable view of performance?
Each operating company (OpCO) followed different reporting formats and levels of data detail. Teams spent considerable time gathering information from multiple sources, including OpCOs, central teams and iFinance, manually updating figures, verifying data and reconciling missing master data before preparing financial and management reports.
Adding to the complexity, approvals and validations happened largely over email, limiting visibility and making the process difficult to track. An existing Excel macro-based solution offered limited support but struggled to scale as more brands joined the portfolio.
The result? Fragmented data, time-consuming processes, reporting inconsistencies, and operational inefficiencies made it harder to generate timely, trusted business insights.
The solution | One framework. Multiple data sources. A unified view.
Deloitte set out to turn this fragmented reporting landscape into a unified, automated and scalable reporting ecosystem.
At the heart of the transformation was a trusted reporting data lake, designed to bring disparate financial and management data together, standardise it and make it accessible for more informed decision-making.
The solution integrated data directly from operating companies’ ERP systems, wherever possible, alongside existing company datasets such as iFinance files. Through automated data mapping, cleansing and harmonisation, information from multiple sources was transformed into a consistent format aligned with the company’s global reporting requirements.
The standardised data was then made available through Power BI, enabling more streamlined reporting, improved visibility and greater agility across the organisation.
But bringing data together was only part of the solution. Making that data trustworthy was equally important.
Deloitte established a unified data framework with robust validation processes to ensure consistency and accuracy across datasets. Audit trails, strengthened authentication mechanisms, access controls and security protocols helped safeguard sensitive financial information, support regulatory compliance and reinforce data integrity.
The result was a reporting framework designed not just to meet today’s needs, but to accommodate the company’s growing portfolio of brands.
The impact | Less manual effort. Greater confidence. Better decisions.
The transformation went beyond simplifying reporting. It changed how the company could manage, validate and use data across its expanding business
- From manual processes to automated efficiency: Automation across the data lake reduced manual intervention, minimised errors and streamlined reporting workflows. Automated mapping between acquired brands’ master data and the company’s master data also simplified onboarding while maintaining consistency.
- From fragmented information to trusted reporting: A robust validation framework ensured that master and transaction data were checked before reaching visualisation tools. Alignment with global reporting standards and management reporting best practices improved data accuracy, consistency and comparability.
- From reporting complexity to actionable insights: With timely, relevant information and KPIs aligned to strategic objectives, teams gained a clearer view of business performance. This enabled them to monitor results, identify and mitigate risks, uncover opportunities and support strategic and operational improvements.
- From acquisition challenges to scalable growth: The unified framework made it easier to integrate newly acquired brands into the company's reporting ecosystem, creating a consistent and reliable foundation that can extend to future acquisitions without adding the same level of reporting complexity.
The outcome | Turning reporting into a strategic advantage
What began as a challenge of integrating data across acquired businesses became an opportunity to rethink how reporting could support the company’s growth.
By replacing fragmented, manual processes with a unified, automated and secure reporting framework, Deloitte helped the company move from spending time preparing and reconciling data to using trusted insights to make more informed decisions.
The result is a more efficient, consistent and scalable reporting ecosystem, one that supports today’s business priorities while laying the foundation for tomorrow’s acquisitions.
One unified framework. Trusted insights. A stronger foundation for growth.
