Challenges: Scaling global expansion through smart finance
In 2021, Everest was working to quickly establish itself as a disruptive B2B company operating across multiple countries. They realised that to keep up with their fast growth, they needed a financial system that could handle the demands of scaling their business. This system had to support their growth pace, multi-country taxation, governance needs and automated financial process flow requirements, so they explored a Workday solution.
Everest wanted to showcase itself as a nimble, modern company that worked differently on the market. They needed a unique solution to be linked with different partner systems that would support their business strategy as well as the needs of their clients and supply partners.
Speed and simplicity drive financial flexibility
With their streamlined structure and lean headcount, Everest needed a fast, affordable financial management platform that enabled them to rapidly and nimbly adapt and evolve with business needs. Everest needed to onboard and integrate new supply partners and to expand the architecture of the external integration landscape without access to an internal IT department. Above all, the platform would need to process large quantities of invoices and complaints with unfailing accuracy, as even a single error would be enough to significantly disrupt their flow of business.
Timely execution for rapid growth
Additionally, Everest had established January 2022 as a clear, hard deadline for go-live. Timing was crucial, so with no internal IT support and limited overall know-how in Workday implementations they needed a partner who could not only move quickly but remain agile and flexible to accommodate the company’s rapid growth and change.
Solutions: Choosing the right platform for growth using Workday solution
Already harnessing the value of Workday, Picnic suggested Workday as an option to drive the Everest business forward. In addition to being more affordable than the other providers Everest was considering, Workday’s intuitive user experience and ready interoperability made the platform an ideal fit for Everest’s unique needs.
Finding the right partner for implementation
Knowing that, in the absence of IT resources, they would still need expert support in certain cases, Everest began the search for an implementation and application management partner, before quickly settling on Strada based on a valuable recommendation. Strada’s level of technical expertise and retail knowledge made them the only partner who could deliver the agility and flexibility Everest required, while also committing to their rapid deployment timeline.
Building an integrated system on the Workday solution
Together, Strada and Everest deployed Workday Financial Management in a state-of-the-art design, building a one-of-a-kind solution in the market. Workday is the central pillar in Everest’s operations. The platform functions as both a business-critical front-office system, processing Everest’s high volume of invoices, and a back-office system, delivering all the company’s management accounts.
This unique configuration demanded multiple custom integrations, reengineered as more requirements emerged, with Strada also partnering to ensure that each of Everest’s suppliers could be smoothly integrated into the platform and business processes. Each of Everest’s client partners now have the same experience, regardless of their individual platforms. This seamless integration also enables faster processing and simplifies error detection.
Strada’s AMS was deployed to support platform evolution, boost its capacity, and improve resilience. It also enables quick responses to changes so that the platform stays available and aligned with Everest’s business needs. Now, Workday Financial Management is Everest’s only tool for managing operations. It provides a strong foundation for smooth negotiations and gives them the flexibility to handle new and changing suppliers. And with the addition of Workday Adaptive Planning in 2024, they now have the ability to plan, forecast, report, and analyse financial data using a single source of truth.
“Buying is our core business, so we process a massive amount of invoices. If those invoices are not paid, suppliers stop deliveries, stores do not receive goods, and customers can’t buy them. So, there is no room for error in what we do. At the same time, we are a small team and we want to keep it that way. What we really needed was a simple solution that could do a big, complex job. Workday provided the ideal platform, and Strada provided the expertise. Strada was fast, flexible and creative, working closely with us to design and deploy something unprecedented: a financial management system that performs end-to-end business-critical tasks without fail.”
Christian Feldmann
Chief Operations Officer, Everest
Results: 42% growth and counting with Workday solution financial management
No other client is using Workday the way Everest is today with the innovative system architecture. The stability of the platform, along with Strada’s AMS support, allows Everest to onboard large suppliers and maintain their streamlined staffing model while meeting their business-critical processing needs. Invoices are paid on time, documents and pdfs are quickly and automatically sent and received, and readily accessible and accurate data allows for fast, reliable reporting.
Everest’s Workday platform allows their supply partners to enjoy the same easy experience, In fact, Everest’s unique system has garnered so much attention, the system itself is now a draw for clients, who can up their own margin just by partnering with them.
A fast-growing company, dedicated to maintaining a streamlined operation, Everest has doubled their number of clients since 2022, working with the biggest suppliers on the European market, and increased their sales turnover in the past year from ~€7 billion to ~€10 billion. This significant growth is only made possible by the power of the Workday Financial Management platform and the team’s ability to use it effectively.