First of all, what kind of company is Ingram Micro?

"Ingram Micro is the largest IT distributor in the world. The head office is in America, but the Global Financial Systems team is managed from Utrecht. From here I manage my team, which is spread all over the world."

Ingram Micro worked with EPM software from Hyperion. Why did you decide to switch to OneStream?

"Hyperion gave us the push. We had to upgrade or switch to Oracle EPM cloud. However, switching to the cloud with HPCM, Hyperion's profitability tool, was not an option for us. That was the moment for us to look around in the market and we came across OneStream. They offered a better solution than the Hyperion solution we had."

Was it an easy choice?

"No, definitely not. It was a long process. We are a slow follower. Ingram Micro is a huge company, so we don't take decisions overnight. We like to see that someone else has gone before us. We found that Oracle was not yet ready with their consolidation tool. It had not yet been successfully rolled out in any company of our size.

"OneStream could not prove that their tool would work for us either, but we saw many positive things. OneStream promises 99% customer satisfaction. We didn't believe that at first, so we started calling their customers. All of them found OneStream superior to Hyperion."

"Yet we were not yet convinced. We have a very complex profitability tool. In the end, Tom Shea, the CEO of OneStream, guaranteed us personally that OneStream would work. Then our CFO decided to go for it."

It is customary to work with a delivery partner for implementations. But you are not in favour of that. Why not?

"A delivery partner focuses on delivering the requested product. They do this within a certain timeframe and that is great. But once they've gone, the trouble often begins, in my experience. Then you spend another six months trying to improve things, because it is not easy to manage and maintain."

"To avoid that, I wanted to strengthen our team with external consultants who bring OneStream knowledge and experience and also understand the process side. I have a strong, global team with some very good consultants. But we didn't know the whole solution ourselves. Our CFO agreed, on condition that OneStream had the lead."

"So OneStream provided the architect and the lead consultant. But after two months, the latter said: 'I'm leaving for Australia, here's my successor'. That's when I thought: this is not going well. The new lead consultant was many times weaker than we needed."

Was that the time to get serious about bringing in your own 'OneStream' consultants?

"Yes, we really needed someone with experience. And that is what happened thanks to Bart & Partners. I had been talking to the owners, Bart Vringer and Bart van Velzen, for some time. They came up with Martijn Nauta, a top consultant, at exactly the right moment. With him on board, the project gained momentum. He handled the first phase of the project, the consolidation, perfectly."

"In an earlier phase, Bart & Partners had already brought Ágnes Törös on board. Ágnes is very good at data flows and knows exactly how things should be mapped. So she was exactly the right person to support us with the entire data management. Ágnes did most of the migration from Hyperion to Onestream."

Soon you called on Bart & Partners again. Why?

"At one point we were quite far along with the implementation of the consolidation piece and wanted to pick up the budget piece. But again, OneStream's consultants were not very strong. So I started talking to Bart Vringer and Bart van Velzen again. Then they came up with Paul Hollander."

"I had never heard of Paul before, but he really is the greatest virtuoso I have ever come across on OneStream. And he seems to be just as good in Hyperion. Yeah, he's done some really great things. Without Paul we would never have been able to go live with the budget piece. A very smart guy, just like Martijn by the way. Those are the two top consultants in the Netherlands. I don't think you'll find many better ones."

Ingram Micro is a company with an American management culture. Does that require specific characteristics of a consultant?

"We do a lot on the fly, so you have to be extremely flexible. At a company like Philips, everything is first completely designed and then built according to the specs. Ingram Micro says: this is what we want, just start building. And then the opinion changes 20 times, when we see what is possible. Fortunately, flexibility is one of the strengths of our team. I'm pleased with that."

At one point, there were three projects running towards go-live: consolidation, budget & planning and account reconciliation. How did you manage that?

"Yes, that's when things got exciting. In July we went live with consolidation, in August the budget module was on the agenda and account reconciliation had to go live in September. With so many changes, things can quickly become a mess. And that's exactly what it threatened to become. It was difficult to keep everything under control. Bart Vringer saw that too. He came up with the idea of placing a project manager next to me who could help bring structure. That was a stroke of genius.

"That project leader was Edgar de Reus. Edgar is structure, structure and yet more structure. In the past six months, he has acted as a kind of shadow to me and has pushed not only me but also the project in the right direction. Edgar made sure that everything was streamlined, that everyone kept doing their tasks and that we did not overlook anything. In addition, he has been our safety net for everything that could go wrong, including the technical stuff."

How decisive was Bart's coaching role?

"Very decisive. I have become a lot more effective myself thanks to him. I've had a lot of conversations with Bart Vringer about everything I'm working on and what I'm up against. He has added a lot of value to my thinking and to the eventual creation of the solutions and the team."

"I know that Bart also regularly spends time with the consultants. A project like that goes up and down, not just in terms of the pressure, but also in terms of stress levels and frustration levels. There have definitely been moments during a project when we thought: we're not going to get through this. And what Bart does very well is to put his feelers out in the team to see what they are up against and make timely adjustments where necessary. You don't see that at any other consultancy company."

What has been the added value of Bart & Partners for you?

"First, that they know how to deliver the right people. That is key. Bart van Velzen always had the right consultant ready at the right time. Especially that combination of the right people has been golden. This ultimately led to us having three successful go-lives in quick succession. Of all the major projects at Ingram Micro over the past six years, this is the only one that was delivered on time, within the scope and budget."

"Secondly, that they constantly think along, both Bart van Velzen and Bart Vringer. That is their strength. Being able to think along in how best to set up projects. But also how I can best fulfil my role as director of a financial systems team."

"If I come up with a substantive question, Bart van Velzen can step in. He is very strong technically, process-wise and strategically. Do I run into organisational issues? Bart Vringer knows where to put his finger. He really holds up a mirror to you and is almost more of a coach than a supplier of people.