Players in the hospitality industry need to work harder than ever to attract customers. Nicolas Quiviger, group financial controller at groupe Barrière, explains, “With access to digital devices and the internet, people have more information to plan their free time.” Consumer expectations have also risen, calling for further investment to improve services. This – combined with pressures from competitors that have embraced digital capabilities – is squeezing margins across the industry.
During peak seasons, the number of personnel groupe Barrière needs can more than triple, so it becomes a battle to retain talent. Given unique hospitality industry challenges, accessing the right data at the right time is critical.
We have to make the right strategic decisions at the right time. We needed a unified system to ensure that all our financial and people-related data would be secured in a single location, with easy access on demand.
Group Financial Controller
Simplicity, security, mobility, adaptability, granularity.
Groupe Barrière decided to centralise finance procedures across the organisation. It wanted everyone to have access to a single, robust accounting and finance system group wide. Alexandre Lordereau, finance transformation programme manager at groupe Barrière, says, “Implementing Workday has truly been a transformation project for us. The key benefits of Workday were that it allowed us to standardise and simplify by streamlining processes while maximising security.”
The organisation also wanted data to be accessed at any time from anywhere through multiple devices. Workday gave groupe Barrière the accessibility it needed as well as customisation opportunities, so the business could tailor views. Lordereau says, “With Workday, you can easily drill down to the most minor details in a transaction. It’s really cool.”
Improved accounting and finance information.
For an organisation’s accounting and finance team to be truly effective, it needs constant data on its operations. Comments Quiviger, “Simply enabling a company to close the end-of-month or end-of-year periods isn’t enough. We need access to real-time data as well as help in analysing it to transform the organisation’s way of working and to make staff more effective.”
Because data is in one place, personnel find the information they need faster. Says Quiviger, “I know where I can find the data I need to make decisions, and I don’t have to email anyone, asking for their help. I’m confident the information is in Workday.”
With Workday, we can do finance differently.
Finance Transformation Programme Manager
Greater alignment between teams.
When the HR team is fully aligned on Workday, accounting, finance and HR can collaborate more effectively. There won’t be discrepancies to fix between team datasets.
Granularity improves talent retention.
The granularity in Workday ensures that groupe Barrière can better assess the performance of seasonal personnel. For example, the organisation can identify which of its 23,000 seasonal workers are the best-performing employees and therefore the ones it should try to retain for the following year. “Workday also makes retention easier, because it’s technology that our people want to work with”, says Quiviger. “If you’re deciding where to work for a season, you’ll choose the organisation with the best systems.”
Days saved extracting data.
Groupe Barrière is now more competitive, because it makes decisions faster with Workday. The company can surface data in real time to understand performance, moment by moment.
According to Quiviger, “Our finance organisation is now a true co-pilot within the business. We have data at our fingertips. Compared to our previous experiences, we can save up to several days by finding precise information, on demand, in Workday.”
Part of a global community.
Groupe Barrière was the first Workday customer in France to use the Financials applications. It is now part of an international community of businesses with the same cutting-edge systems. For groupe Barrière, it’s an opportunity to compete more effectively on a global scale as well as share and collaborate with other Workday customers to ensure that the company gets the most out of its investment.
Groupe Barrière is driving change company-wide through the responsive support of Workday and its own internal project team. The team continues to seek new ways for Workday to empower its staff members across the company.
When you choose a solution like Workday, you get the opportunity to transform everything.
Group Financial Controller