How Rabobank’s collaboration with SAP Fioneer helped form Financial Control

Setting the scene

Rabobank recognised their global footprint – with multiple international jurisdictions and reporting standards – meant they needed to keep functionality streamlined to maintain control of the business while keeping costs low. Ultimately then, transformation was needed.

To get to their desired end state, Rabobank had specific, extensive but well-considered requirements. They also needed a partner with the same agile mindset and collaborative approach to make this happen.

Finding the balance between the niche and cost management

Rabobank needed minimal interruption to their day-to-day while big changes for complexity reduction were happening in the background.

They wanted to decommission legacy systems that were causing inefficiencies in reporting and to move to a more unified strategy based on a single-source of truth for data. One product, one global ledger and standardised checks and balances was the aim.

Additionally, they expected to gain real-time access to high-quality data and the freedom to experiment with new technology like AI and no-code solutions.

The complete digital transformation needed to be cost-efficient in the short- and long-term. But, knowing that an out-of-the-box solution wouldn’t work to meet all their requirements, this key priority was challenged from the start.

Design and build, together

Harnessing agility to create and achieve multi-goals

The priority of having a single data foundation as well as stronger reconciliation, reporting and usability meant co-innovating the Financial Control product with SAP Fioneer became the top choice.

By working with SAP Fioneer, Rabobank had an active participation in the design while being able to keep to the necessary financial parameters that fit with their budget. Rabobank’s OnePSL is made up of four different software solutions including SAP Fioneer’s Financial Product Subledger (FPSL) and Financial Control. These hit their key markers for success: one data source, a cloud solution, strong close processes and automation for these services.

The key to co-innovation success: trust and communication

To achieve a standardized product, Rabobank and SAP Fioneer utilized their respective business banking knowledge and IT and software expertise. This allowed for features such as reconciliation and flow reports to fulfil the strict requirements set by both the regulators and Rabobank’s ambitions and technology.

Additionally SAP Fioneer provided visuals instead of documents enabling Rabobank to fully interrogate usability and conceptualise the product in action, even if the design was rudimentary. These high-quality mock-ups reduced the amount of rework and code rewrites required. This differentiated process also meant stakeholders were involved and invested right from the beginning.

The continuous honest reviews on the latest iterations and swift action instilled confidence in Rabobank that SAP Fioneer are just as invested in innovation as they are.

“You both have to be willing to share insight and knowledge to build a strong product together.”

Erik-Jan Romijn, Product Control Manager at Rabobank

Enabling the present for ambitious future plans

Experiencing reliability and efficiency every day

Rabobank now start their day in the portal, where they can immediately identify mismatches between source data and FPSL, and make the manual corrections needed on the spot. When it comes to trade investigations, they’re able to better and more quickly find the accounting lines that have been produced for each transaction.

With data integrity between sources and the subledger and general ledger taken care of, account substantiation is achieved confidently and harmoniously. So when processing around 300 million transactions a day, efficiency is heightened not only saving time but putting them in greater control of the entire business.

Looking ahead with confidence and a solid foundation

With greater control over the business, Rabobank will start migrating more business domains in the coming months. They can also continue identifying how to streamline processes and reduce complexity further, for example, by integrating checks and balances and designing customized procedures. Additionally, as AI is within an easy grasp, further automation is becoming more of a reality.

“Why build it from scratch when you can have the knowledge and experience from a provider like SAP Fioneer?”

Jyoti Basant, Product Control and Accounting officer at Rabobank