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"When I started at Agro Merchants in 2019, the company had just done an implementation of FCCS and ePBCS, Oracle's latest cloud solutions. This software was new to me, so I had to master it first. But it was clear even then that some things had not been implemented in the right way."

Mark quickly saw where improvements could be made. At various times, he enlisted the help of several reputable EPM consultancy firms. One collaboration was a great success, but another - in the early 2020s - unfortunately did not materialise.

Lack of commitment

"The consultants who were to support me at that time were too busy with other customers. They could not fully commit to our business. When I had two weeks leave due to family expansion, there were problems. But the consultants did not respond quickly enough to my colleagues' questions. So I still had to step in regularly myself. It was clear that this was not working. I thought: What should I do now with all the things we still want to build? And that while other work had to go on as well.

It was precisely at that moment that Mark came into contact with Bart & Partners.

Relatively small, new player

"I had never heard of Bart & Partners. Nevertheless, I decided to make their acquaintance. It was a niche player. No-nonsense image. No blabla. Founded by two experienced men with an international track record. But it was also a relatively small club that had not existed for very long. So I had my doubts, also considering my experiences with that renowned EPM player.

But during the talks, my doubts were soon dispelled. The consultant they put forward was Fred Admiraal. When that name was mentioned, I was immediately more reassured. Because, I knew, this is someone who has a lot up his sleeve. And he could work for us four days a week."

And so it happened. Fred went to support Mark, who stopped working with the other consultancy company.

Hands-on man

"Fred is a really hands-on guy who knows how to ask the right questions right away. He also helped me to better organise my work. I had already started building a forecast process in the ePBCS application. But I ran out of time to develop it further. Fred took it over from me and developed it further according to our specifications. Another project was a weekly bank cash forecast process. He also pulled that all the way through for us and built it into ePBCS."

Even with Fred Admiraal there was still too much work to do. So, after consulting with the CFO, Mark decided to hire another consultant from Bart & Partners. That consultant was Jeroen Drupsteen.

Smart automation of processes

"Jeroen is really a specialist. I am so happy with that man. You give him an assignment and he makes sure it gets done. I don't have to get in the middle of that. He works in the same way as I do. He really does deep checks, which I also do normally. That works so well.

"And he looks further. He also looks at what we are doing. What can we organise in a better way? By cleverly automating processes, he has already saved me so much time."

"On an external server we have EPM Automate running, a feature of Oracle's EPM Cloud application. Through scripting you can automate tasks in FCCS and ePBCS. And yes, Jeroen has those skills."

Can Mark give an example of such time-saving automation? Yes, he could.

Making SOX compliance processes smarter

"An example is the automation of our SOX compliance processes. Americold is listed in America, so as a company we have to be SOX compliant. It is one of the strictest standards in the world, requiring you to implement all kinds of controls, designed to prevent fraud."

"One of the controls that we implemented for SOX comes from the requirement that we, as administrators, must be able to demonstrate on a weekly basis that we have not changed anything that is not authorised. So what do you need for this? The audit tables. Everything we do is recorded in them. I had to extract these reports from the system every week and turn them into a pivot table. I then sent it on to a business user at head office so they could go through it."

"Jeroen said: 'We can automate that too'. Then he fixed it. So I don't have to do that manually anymore. That saves a lot of fiddling. I don't have to think about it anymore."

Companion and sparring partner

We ask Mark what he likes most about the cooperation.

"First of all, the commitment. Look, sometimes something just has to be finished. Or there is a problem that needs to be solved immediately. At times like that, I really have an ally in Bart & Partners. Together with Jeroen and Fred, I have often experienced that we are online until late at night. And that we do it together. The six-hour time difference with America also means that we are often still working in the evenings."

"Both Fred and Jeroen are so skilled and work so meticulously, it is simply great to work with them. And because they are both so skilled, they are also serious sparring partners. Whether it is about creating a new entity structure or something else. You just need people who speak the language. Who know how to write certain business rules. Who know what the data model should look like to create a process that is fast and stays fast.

That requires experience and expertise. That is what you get at Bart & Partners. And that is what you want. Less hassle, more efficiency, more job satisfaction."