In BrightAnalytics, we can easily implement structural changes and add new dimensions. Consolidation now takes almost no time, whereas it used to take much longer.

Faster and more efficient decision-making with data

Running a growing organisation with big ambitions based on numbers is only possible if you choose to automate and digitise your finance processes. That’s exactly what House of Clouds did when CFO Maarten Zwitserloot joined the team. This IT company is all about what they call “digital acceleration.” Could BrightAnalytics help them achieve this too? Read on to find out. 

“House of Clouds follows a buy-and-build strategy to create a pan-European organisation with enough strength to serve our clients in the best possible way,” Maarten explains. “Our goal isn’t to become as big as possible but to help our clients accelerate digitally in a smart and sustainable way, so they can strengthen their position for the future. Until recently, the companies in our group each handled their financial processes in their own way.” Finance was mainly seen as a supporting function rather than a driving force. “When I joined as CFO, I had the opportunity to redesign everything. Administratively, my goal was to automate and digitise as much as possible, so we could manage our business based on the data this would generate. Our finance team is small, so we need to organise ourselves as efficiently as possible to handle as much as we can as a team.”

Supporting the strategy 

The first step was to migrate all accounting processes into one unified system. After that, Maarten wanted to implement a business intelligence layer on top of the organisation’s administrative framework. He quickly began looking for a tool to support this. Did House of Clouds, as a software company, consider building the solution in-house? Surprisingly, they didn’t. “We know what’s involved in developing software ourselves, which allowed us to quickly make the right decisions to suit our needs,” Maarten explains. “Additionally, as part of our buy-and-build strategy, we want to easily integrate new organisations. If we were to build something ourselves, for instance in Power BI, it would lead to higher maintenance costs whenever we added new companies. By contrast, the solution we use now—BrightAnalytics—makes this process very simple. This way, the tool helps us gain immediate control over acquired organisations.”

Straightforward and efficient 

Thanks to the implementation of BrightAnalytics, there is now greater uniformity in how the House of Clouds group handles finance. The company started with the financial module, which includes management and shareholder reporting, budgeting, customised forecasting, and intercompany eliminations. “This immediately helped us speed up the month-end closing process because we needed to do far less manual work. Previously, we tied everything together in Excel. Not only did that take longer, but it also resulted in a lack of consistency, a higher risk of errors, and less flexibility. If something changed, we had to tinker with the Excel files. In BrightAnalytics, we can make structural changes and add new dimensions quite easily, while consolidations take almost no time at all. It’s a big improvement compared to how things were before.”

Shortly after implementing the financial module, Maarten also started using the operational module, which includes the billability app. “This app, in particular, gives us insight into billability. As a service company, tracking employee utilisation is a key data point for us. Where are our colleagues spending their time? How are client utilisation and rates evolving? Recently, we also implemented the controlling app. One of BrightAnalytics’ strengths is their ability to act quickly. Once we indicated that we wanted to activate it, they had it up and running in no time.”

Fast and flexible 

BrightAnalytics’ ability to respond quickly and work closely with its clients was a decisive factor for Maarten. “From the initial discussions to the implementation, we had excellent and direct communication. The BrightAnalytics team responds promptly, is open to feedback, and even suggests additional possibilities for our business. For example, they customised the billability app to make it even more effective for us. On top of that, the platform is very user-friendly. We can make adjustments ourselves to suit our company’s needs. We’re very satisfied—so much so that I’ve already pointed several fellow CFOs from other companies towards BrightAnalytics.”