Case Study: How KPMG Transformed Financial Planning with Oracle EPM Cloud

Executive Summary:

For a global organization like KPMG — operating across audit, tax, and advisory services — financial planning isn’t just a back-office function. It’s a strategic compass. Yet, in a world defined by speed, complexity, and disruption, KPMG found its legacy forecasting processes too manual, fragmented, and slow to match the pace of modern business.

Through its strategic partnership with Oracle, KPMG implemented Oracle Cloud Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), transforming its approach to financial planning and performance analysis. The result: a 33% reduction in forecast cycle time, a 40% increase in self-service reporting, and a finance team now empowered to drive insights rather than chase data.

This case study details KPMG’s transformation journey — highlighting the strategy, the challenges, and the real-world results enabled by Oracle Cloud EPM.

1. The Strategy: Transform Finance into a Strategic Advisor

KPMG, one of the world’s most respected professional services firms, understood that modern financial planning is more than accounting. It’s about:

• Enabling real-time insight across global functions

• Empowering teams to analyze, not just compile

• Standardizing processes while embracing agility

• Scaling forecasting to handle both routine operations and extraordinary events

To enable that vision, KPMG’s finance leadership set out to:

• Eliminate spreadsheet sprawl and manual reconciliation

• Centralize planning, forecasting, and reporting across departments

• Shorten the close and reforecasting cycles

• Build a flexible system capable of modeling diverse business scenarios

• Improve governance, traceability, and data reliability

The firm had relied on Oracle Hyperion for decades and saw the shift to Oracle Cloud EPM not as a technology upgrade, but as a strategic leap.

“With Oracle Cloud EPM we gained the ability to put multiyear planning and forecasting in place. The tool will drive the metrics that we use to measure our business.”
— Scott Fritz, Managing Director, KPMG

2. The Challenge: Manual, Time-Consuming, and Fragmented

Despite its size and sophistication, KPMG’s internal finance operations had become overly complex:

• 200+ customized spreadsheets circulated across departments

• Forecasting relied on manual consolidation, prone to delays and errors

• Monitoring changes between plan vs. forecast required extensive review cycles

• Reporting lacked traceability and confidence in the numbers

• Analysts spent more time building data than analyzing it

KPMG Brazil, in particular, struggled with delayed budget vs. actual reporting. “We took 8 to 10 business days to finalize reports,” said Sérgio de Jesus, Managing Partner of Finance, KPMG. “We couldn’t guarantee traceability or fidelity of information.”

Amid growing demands for agility and transparency, KPMG needed a more modern, automated, and intuitive platform — one that supported decentralized input while ensuring global consistency and integrity.

3. The Solution: Oracle Cloud EPM as a Catalyst for Finance Modernization

KPMG selected Oracle Cloud EPM for several key reasons:

• Powerful Forecasting Tools – Multiyear planning, scenario-based modeling, and workforce forecasting (including headcount tracking and compensation modeling)
• Intuitive Interface – Business users could create reports, run analyses, and update plans with minimal IT involvement
• Scalable Architecture – Standardized templates across audit, tax, and advisory eliminated silos while supporting enterprise-wide collaboration
• Self-Service Reporting – Enabled line-of-business leaders to explore insights independently and intuitively
• Automation & Cloud Benefits – No more managing servers, databases, or manual patches — just continuous innovation and security

“That’s one of the core benefits of working with an innovative organization like Oracle. In Oracle Cloud, everything is taken off our plate so that we can concentrate on our core duties.”
— Scott Fritz, Managing Director, KPMG

The implementation was led by KPMG’s in-house Oracle EPM team, combining deep Oracle product knowledge with tailored process redesign.

4. The Results: From Manual Drudgery to Strategic Insight

KPMG’s transformation through Oracle Cloud EPM produced quantifiable — and culture-changing — results:

Highlights include:

• 288 hours saved per analyst per year due to faster forecast cycles

• Seamless modeling of pandemic-related workforce scenarios

• Real-time insight into headcount changes, compensation, and productivity

• Improved decision-making due to data trust and automation

• Finance repositioned from data collector to strategic advisor

“KPMG’s finance department is no longer just building data — it’s analyzing it. Oracle Cloud EPM gives us the agility, reliability, and traceability to act strategically and in a timely manner.”
— Sérgio de Jesus, Managing Partner of Finance, KPMG

5. Lessons Learned and Strategic Implications

KPMG’s transformation wasn’t just about new software. It demonstrated that:

• Modern finance requires agility – In today’s volatile world, forecasting must be continuous, collaborative, and quick.

• Cloud solutions deliver speed and scale – Oracle Cloud EPM removed the burden of infrastructure, enabling focus on outcomes.

• Embedded expertise matters – Having a skilled Oracle EPM implementation team ensured smooth rollout and user buy-in.

• Planning is now predictive – Finance is no longer reactive — it anticipates, models, and advises based on real-time insight.

The transformation laid the foundation for an intelligent planning culture — where decisions are informed, scalable, and responsive to change.

Conclusion: Why Oracle Cloud EPM Was a Game-Changer for KPMG

KPMG’s experience illustrates how even the most seasoned organizations can unlock new levels of efficiency and strategic impact through digital finance transformation.

With Oracle Cloud EPM, KPMG redefined how it plans, forecasts, and performs — moving from fragmented spreadsheets to intelligent, enterprise-wide collaboration. The solution didn’t just improve numbers. It changed the role of finance itself.

For any enterprise looking to shift from reactive reporting to proactive strategy, KPMG’s journey offers a blueprint: combine visionary leadership with modern cloud technology — and finance becomes a force multiplier.

CushySky partners with forward-thinking organizations to design, implement, and optimize Oracle-powered transformations that drive measurable impact across finance, operations, and innovation.