Abstract
KYOCERA Document Solutions Europe transformed its planning and reporting processes in finance and sales by replacing manual, Excel-based workflows with Board’s unified planning platform. Facing inefficiencies, errors, and coordination challenges across multiple time zones, the company centralized planning, forecasting, and reporting to enable continuous planning and real-time visibility.
The result is a faster, more accurate, and scalable approach that reduces manual effort and improves forecast accuracy, while enabling confident decisions based on a single source of truth. Today, Board supports a wide range of processes across approximately 20 European legal entities, helping teams shift from data preparation to data-driven decisions while supporting alignment within the global corporate structure.
Why This Story Matters
KYOCERA Document Solutions Europe successfully transitioned from fragmented, manual planning to a unified and efficient planning platform. This case is relevant because it shows how organizations can:
- Eliminate fragmented Excel workflows across international, time-zone-distributed teams
- Improve planning and reporting speed and accuracy across global teams and multiple entities
- Enable continuous planning through real-time insights and advanced reporting
- Free up business users to focus on strategic, customer-facing activities instead of manual data handling
Key Learnings
- Start with a clear focus on first core use cases then expand incrementally.
- Prioritize user adoption through training and a structured hypercare phase post go-live.
- Centralize data and processes to reduce errors, eliminate rework, and improve collaboration.
- Continuously expand use cases to maximize value from a comprehensive planning platform beyond the initial scope.
The Company
KYOCERA Document Solutions Europe Management B.V. is part of KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc., a globally recognized leader in comprehensive document solutions headquartered in Osaka, Japan. Its offering includes reliable, environmentally conscious multi-functional products and printers, along with business applications and consultative services that help customers streamline and control their document workflows for greater efficiency. As part of a global organization, the European business operates across multiple countries and entities, requiring consistent planning, reporting, and alignment with global headquarters and corporate processes.
The Challenge: Inefficient and Error-Prone Planning Processes
Before implementing Board, KYOCERA Document Solutions Europe relied on manual, paper- and Excel-based planning processes that were both time-consuming and susceptible to errors. Monthly planning cycles were managed through spreadsheets shared via email across teams operating in different time zones, creating significant coordination challenges and delays.
This fragmented approach not only led to delays and increased administrative workload, but also heightened the risk of human error and inconsistencies in data. The lack of a centralized, automated system often resulted in repeated rework due to late inputs and version control issues, ultimately limiting the organization’s efficiency and ability to respond quickly to business needs.
Jagadeesh Kadiyala
Prior to Board, our planning process depended on multiple Excel templates and email exchanges. It required considerable manual effort to collect inputs, align stakeholders, and consolidate results, which increased the risk of inconsistencies and errors—especially in a global environment.
The Solution: A Unified and Scalable Planning Platform
Why KYOCERA Document Solutions Europe selected Board
After a thorough evaluation process, KYOCERA selected Board for its strong capabilities in planning and forecasting, as well as its ability to support comprehensive, scalable planning processes across large datasets and multiple business units. Board’s concept of an integrated, enterprise-wide platform aligned well with KYOCERA’s goal of modernizing and optimizing its planning operations.
Board was chosen due to its ability to integrated applications across multiple processes and business areas.
Implementing unified planning across business functions
To overcome fragmented processes, KYOCERA implemented Board as a unified planning platform across its European entities.
The solution introduced a structured, scalable environment that eliminated Excel-based workflows and enabled teams to work with consistent, reliable data. This improved accuracy, reduced manual effort, and supported efficient management of large data volumes. The initial focus on planning and forecasting quickly expanded to support a broad set of use cases, including:
- Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
- Budgeting and Forecasting
- Credit Management & Cost Allocation
- Management Fee Calculation & Recharges
- Sales & Commercial Planning, including annual planning, monthly alignment, and rolling forecasts
- Management Reporting and Performance Analysis
By consolidating these processes into one platform, KYOCERA eliminated siloed workflows and established a consistent, scalable planning model across approximately 20 legal entities.
Implementation experience
The implementation experience was positive overall, with users quickly recognizing the advantages of adopting a dedicated planning solution. Supported by Mosaic, an experienced Board implementation partner, the transition to live deployment was smooth, complemented by a hypercare phase to promptly address issues and comprehensive user training to ensure adoption. Mosaic worked as an extension of our team, supporting both project delivery and day-to-day operations.
Implementing Board allowed us to standardize the process, reduce rework, and establish a more controlled and efficient planning cycle.
Jagadeesh Kadiyala
The Benefits: Faster, Smarter, and More Integrated Planning and Reporting
- Reduced data consolidation time to ~1 hour across ~20 legal entities
- Eliminated Excel-based workflows, significantly reducing manual effort and errors
- Improved forecast accuracy through centralized data and continuous planning
- Enabled real-time visibility into performance, including actual vs. plan analysis
- Unlocked customer-level insights, strengthening commercial decision-making
- Freed up business users’ time, enabling greater focus on customers and strategic activities
Planning and Reporting on a Unified Platform
With Board, KYOCERA Document Solutions Europe has established a unified platform that supports a wide range of critical business processes. These include annual sales and budget planning, monthly sales planning aligned to annual targets, and rolling sales forecasts across all group companies. The platform also enables detailed comparisons of actual performance against plans, year-over-year analyses, and comprehensive sales reporting. Beyond sales, Board supports financial and accounting reporting, dashboards, and intercompany recharge processes, ensuring consistency and transparency across approximately 20 legal entities.
Significant Efficiency Gains and Time Savings
One of the most immediate benefits has been a substantial reduction in manual effort. Planning processes that were once fragmented and time-intensive are now fully centralized, eliminating the need for Excel files shared via email and reducing planning cycles from 2–3 weeks to just 1–2 days. Data consolidation across the group, performed monthly as part of the close process, used to take approximately 1 day but now takes just 1 hour—an impressive improvement given the scale of data and number of entities involved.
Improved Decision-Making and Business Insight
Board has enhanced the organization’s ability to make informed decisions by delivering more accurate and timely reporting. In particular, the ability to compare actual results against plans has strengthened strategic planning and enabled more effective follow-up on sales activities. Advanced and specialized reporting capabilities, such as monitoring sales and service revenue at the individual customer level, provide deeper insights that were previously difficult to achieve.
Empowering Teams to Focus on Value-Added Activities
By reducing the need for manual data preparation and rework, Board has had a tangible impact on day-to-day operations. Business users now spend less time consolidating data and more time analyzing it. For sales teams, this translates directly into more time spent with customers rather than managing spreadsheets, contributing to improved productivity and overall business performance.
Jagadeesh Kadiyala
Today, Board provides a unified platform for planning, forecasting, and performance reporting across our group companies. We complete our planning activities more efficiently than before, and our reporting—especially comparisons of actuals versus plan and customer-level insights—supports more timely follow-up and stronger commercial decision-making. Overall, Board has reduced manual effort and improved transparency across the organization and the teams spend less time preparing spreadsheets and more time acting on the information to support better business decisions.
Conclusion
KYOCERA Document Solutions Europe’s journey highlights the impact of moving from disconnected, manual processes to a unified and continuous planning environment. By implementing Board, the organization accelerated planning and consolidation, improved forecast accuracy, and enabled real-time visibility. What began as a transformation of planning and forecasting has evolved into a scalable, always-on planning capability, empowering teams across the organization to make confident, data-driven decisions and respond quickly to changing business conditions.
