Client Success Story
Case Study - Professional Services
Arup Unifies Four Global Regions into One Strategic Planning Model with ProLytics
Snapshot: Arup
Maximized the Vena platform by streamlining data sources and integrating core systems successfully
Accelerated ROI on platform investment by quickly understanding and standing-up the software solution
Unified global planning operations by transitioning from autonomous regional reporting to a centralized, integrated business planning model that strengthened visibility and alignment.
We didn't want to distract our people with the system's implementation. We wanted them to continue to be focused on business planning and forecasting. The transition was quite smooth because it wasn't like we were being thrown off in the deep end.
– Adil Mansoor, CPA, CA, FPAC, Head of Strategic Finance
Arup
About Arup
Arup is a global engineering, architecture, and design firm delivering innovative, sustainable solutions across the built environment. With approximately 18,000–19,000 employees across the UK, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas, Arup partners worldwide to solve complex challenges and create lasting impact.
The Challenge
Before working with ProLytics, Arup faced significant hurdles in aligning its global financial operations.
- Inefficient Frequency: The firm relied on an annual planning cycle that was not frequent enough to keep pace with global changes.
- Extreme Complexity: Finance managed complex project-driven operations across multiple countries, often using disconnected, spreadsheet-based approaches.
- Regional Silos: Five global regions operated with high autonomy, resulting in inconsistent P&Ls and hundreds of different forecast templates.
The ProLytics Solution
ProLytics collaborated with Arup to design a centralized forecasting system that replaced their fragmented manual processes. The scope of the solution included:
- Automating Forecasting to replace manual, offline quarterly forecast templates with a centralized cloud-based system.
- Developing Consolidation Models to aggregate data across global tiers and regions.
- Implementing Workflow Integration to manage regional submissions and approvals.
The ProLytics Implementation Approach
The collaborative build approach used Arup’s existing manual templates and mapped them into the new environment to ensure continuity. And to ensure global enablement, ProLytics conducted training calls for each region to teach them how to navigate the new system and functionalities.
Key Outcomes
Accelerated Forecasting and Global Planning
Arup’s dynamic, automated Vena model delivers scalable forecasting, unified global planning, and real-time, aligned data—giving leadership a powerful foundation for faster, more confident global decision-making.
Eliminated Manual Processes for better accuracy
The transition from offline templates and spreadsheets to automated feeds and streamlined data mapping improved Arup’s reporting accuracy.
Enhanced Financial Visibility and Decision Confidence
By centralizing data, standardizing reporting across regions, improving consolidation, and introducing real-time dashboards, Arup gained clearer organization-wide insight to drive faster, more informed decisions.
"The ProLytics team felt like an extension of the Arup team... having that centralized point of expertise really helps bring that level of confidence up."
– Adil Mansoor, CPA, CA, FPAC, Head of Strategic Finance
Arup
Why Arup Chose ProLytics
Arup needed a partner to help them modernize without overwhelming their staff with a radical technical shift. The Vena platform allowed the Arup team to leverage their existing Excel skills without having to learn a complex new system. They chose ProLytics to act as an extension of their own team to handle the heavy lifting of implementation. Working with the ProLytics team, they successfully migrated all four major regions to the new platform within two quarters.
The Experience
Despite the difficulty of change, the Arup team said regions adapted well because the interface remained similar to Excel and because the ProLytics team was there to guide them every step of the way.
“It was all manual before we started Vena… and having ProLytics create the templates for us in Vena and teach us how everything worked and all of the nuances with mapping a new file was really great”.
Adil Mansoor, CPA, CA, FPAC, Head of Strategic Finance
Looking Ahead
Arup is currently expanding their use of the platform and taking full ownership of the workflows developed during the implementation. Future plans include exploring additional features and continuing to refine global business planning to provide better insights to the board.
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