Interview with Jimmy Weir, Director of Financial Operations, Emap

Emap plc is a media company whose purpose is to create entertainment and information via its media, radio and b2b lines of business. This FTSE 250 company is responsible for bringing Heat Magazine and Kiss FM radio, amongst other well known media brands, into our homes each month.

Jimmy Weir's remit at Emap includes responsibility for financial budgeting, reporting, procurement and shared services.

The Hyperion Implementation at Emap is considered to be very successful. What is your strategic plan for the system?

Now that we've nailed budgeting and forecasting, we are focusing on how data should be used. Using information cleverly is about making it accessible and simple to business decision makers.  

What drives you in your role?

It's satisfying to see a previously dysfunctional area come to life as an efficient and accurate solution just as it was originally conceptualised. People at Emap trust reports simply because the numbers are generated from our Hyperion solution. It's that kind of user confidence that we are most proud of.

"If it’s in Hyperion, people see it as reliable"

So you would consider User Confidence as one of the most important aspects of a BPM solution, then?

Yes, along with 'one truth'. It makes it easy to have confidence in data when you know that that there is only one version of the truth.

Do you view your Hyperion solution as just a reporting tool?

No, the primary function of our Hyperion solution is not only about reporting performance. It is a highly flexible mechanism for managing, analysing and reporting on financial and non-financial information at Emap.

It is interesting that your reporting operations seem more efficient than that of some other solutions. What’s your secret recipe for success?

Discipline, training and adoption. The discipline to perform due diligence and ensure that requirements are understood and catered for. Proper training for all users is vital to ensure efficient use of the system. Absolute insistence that all stakeholders adopt the new solution and adapt to new business processes.

What is the key business benefit that the Hyperion solution has delivered to Emap?

We can analyse and report on a blend of financial and non-financial indicators making more informed business decisions. What’s more, we can do all this so much more quickly than before. We have all the information we need at our fingertips.

Does this power of flexibility ever pose any problems?

The problem with this taster of efficiency is that it gives the users more powerful functionality and therefore they start expecting more from the system. This occasionally leads to unreasonable demands on the system. Although the system is highly detailed, users must understand that sometimes insisting on a very detailed level of granularity is not always necessary.

How do you manage these expectations?

The key expectation management tool is knowledge gained through education and training. The system will usually perform flawlessly when users are properly trained. Users need to be educated to understand what can and cannot be done and training is imperative to ensure that the solution is properly and confidently used.

Are spreadsheets still used?

The way we see it is that there are 2 generations; the Excel generation who will always put all their confidence in Excel and the BPM generation who understand and embrace the power and flexibility of BPM tools.

How do you bridge the gap between the Excel generation and the BPM generation?

Again, education and training. We are launching a training imperative in the next 6 months. The Excel generation are like children learning to ride bicycles – you just need to hold the seat and run alongside them for a while and then let go when they get the hang of it. Once they’re driving their own Hyperion experience, they’ll never look back.

What are your top 5 tips for BPM success?

• Go with your gut. From the early days it felt like the Hyperion solution was the right thing to pursue.
• Stay disciplined. Keep up the confidence and forge ahead, whatever resistance you might encounter.
• Look after your team. An implementation and support team that has the right mix of skill, knowledge and dedication is worth its weight in gold.
• Nurture your evangelists. Like-minded people will make your strategic vision go further in the organisation.
• Build your solution on solid foundations. A robust underlying ERP system and database makes for a structurally superior solution.

What are some of your lessons learnt?

Don’t sweat the small stuff; don’t worry about fancy graphics and presentation until you have the data and functionality right.

So what projects have you got in the pipeline?

We feel that we have only just scratched the surface of the scalability of our Hyperion installation. Our plans for the short term include better automation of data acquisition from our underlying ERP system – when you already have the data it makes sense to use it optimally. Other possible activities also include implementing HFM for statutory reporting and rationalising shared services. We are also considering the idea of a procurement management reporting system for the future.

You’re confident that you’ll get all this done?

Absolutely, we have a fantastically able team, which we are currently expanding. Although we use a number of consultancies and contractors from the open market, it is ultimately Emap that needs to ensure delivery.

Read other interviews...

HSBC - Avril Tuohy