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Alex Klepadlo, Director of FP&A at Brightcove, shares how his team uses Adaptive Insights, with Carlson's attentive support and services, to achieve optimal collaboration and forward-looking business planning for scalable growth at their organization.

Please provide a description of your organization and mission.

Brightcove is the leading global provider of powerful cloud solutions that manage, deliver, and monetize video experiences on every screen.

Brightcove has approximately 600 employees and reported annual revenue of $165 million in 2018.  

Please provide a description of your role and responsibilities within your organization.

As the Director of the FP&A team, I partner with department heads of all teams within our organization to develop our financial planning and reporting.

My team and I manage forecasting, budgeting, expenses, and revenue planning for the entire organization.

Please describe the challenges that your organization faced which led you to seek out a new cloud-based CPM solution.

Prior to implementing Adaptive Insights, our organization did not have processes that enabled scalable growth. We were forecasting and modeling within Excel, in which only one person at a time could make changes to a file. Because of Excel’s manual quality, mistakes could be made.

In addition, our organization has a goal to achieve breakout revenue growth by 2020. Therefore, we wanted a better understanding of how we could align our FP&A function with that goal. To get that understanding, we looked to the experts for guidance on the best way to grow our capabilities.

We knew cloud financial technology solutions would allow us to make changes at the same time and give us the capabilities to achieve scalable growth.

What factors made you decide that Adaptive Insights was the right solution for your organization? 

The main selling point for us was that Adaptive Insights enables all users to make changes simultaneously and effectively collaborate. Since we’re an Excel-driven organization, we also liked its OfficeConnect feature. We'd still get to use Excel and enjoy cloud properties that advance its functionality. All things considered, Adaptive Insights is a natural fit for us.

Which systems are you using Adaptive Insights with? What are the key benefits? 

Currently, we’re using Adaptive Insights with two systems: Namely and Oracle.

The integration between Adaptive Insights and Namely, our HR system, is especially important. With that integration, all updates HR makes in Namely are automatically reflected in Adaptive Insights. Because of all the changes that happen to headcount on a weekly basis, this integration saves us a lot of time.

Oracle, our ERP solution, stores the financials. With an integration between Adaptive Insights and Oracle, we can develop three core financial statements: Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow. Adaptive Insights modeled those financials in detail.

With Adaptive Insights, what abilities do you now have that you didn’t prior to implementation?

With Adaptive Insights, we like how our team’s users can log in and make changes at the same time.

We’ve built out our financial model through 2025. We don’t have to roll numbers over year after year anymore. Having the ability to build out our models into the future is a great time-saver, and we’re excited about our ability to plan for the long term.

In the next few months, we’d like to also build out our dashboard capabilities. Typically, we send financials to the executive team through e-mail. With customized dashboards, our executive team would be able to log in and easily review financials themselves in Adaptive Insights.

What are some of the other benefits you have experienced that may be less quantifiable?

The trustworthy and consistent insights that come with using Adaptive Insights with the support and services of Carlson, is valuable to our organization. Our team can feel comfort and confidence in knowing we’re benefiting from finance best practices.

Can you please describe the customer experience you enjoy at Carlson that makes the most difference for you? 

We are enjoying an amazing experience with Carlson. Josh Ladd and Mary Manzano – the consultants who help us – are so great.

During the implementation, we had some issues customizing views within Oracle to make it work. The Carlson team did such a great job adjusting the roadmap and ensuring we adhered to timelines while the Oracle piece was ironed out.

I really appreciate their flexibility. Since this is our first time moving from Excel to a cloud solution, their patience and understanding give us the support we need.

Our confidence in knowing Carlson is the Adaptive Insights expert, as well as the top partner, also makes the most difference for us. We continue to benefit from their expertise in implementations for many organizations across various industries. They give us perspective that makes our Adaptive Insights user experience easy.

Why do you recommend Carlson Management Consulting?

I recommend Carlson Management Consulting because their team is going to help you step by step during the implementation and throughout your experience with Adaptive Insights. They’re going to map out your journey, so you understand how to achieve business goals.

When you ask them about best practices, they’ll give you insights informed by deep experience. They’ll also provide various solutions that can guide you to profitable outcomes. I always appreciate their strategic guidance.

Why do you recommend Adaptive Insights?

You need a cloud financial technology solution to become a true contributor to your growing organization. With Adaptive Insights, you have the capabilities to be collaborative and build financial models that help you plan for growth. That forward-looking planning is why I recommend Adaptive Insights.