SA Taxi unlocks real-time, tailored reporting capability across business with intelligent financial planning, forecasting solution

The client

SA Taxi is a South African financial services organisation providing financial support and investment to the growing South African minibus taxi industry.

The company supports entrepreneurs in developing thriving businesses in a traditionally considered high-risk sector and plays a significant role in driving job creation and growth in the country.

Part of the Transaction Capital group listed on the JSE, SA Taxi has been in business since 1996 and focuses exclusively on the taxi industry. Today, SA Taxi finances nearly 35 000 of the estimated 250 000 taxis that currently sit on South African roads and plays a pivotal role in the economy and transport system.

The requirements

SA Taxi, with its vertically integrated business model, has invested in operations to support the different aspects of the SA Taxi business.

Martine Burgess, Head of Group FP&A at SA Taxi.

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The company offers finance in the form of an asset-backed loan to minibus taxi operators – the vehicle then provides the mechanism to repay the loans as an income-generating asset. SA Taxi has a significant insurance business, offering bespoke insurance to the industry for both our financed vehicles and in the open market. The company has invested in full refurbishment capabilities, parts procurement and storage. In addition to this, other ancillary products include rewards through fuel, tyres and parts and telematics.

SA Taxi needed a solution that would allow them to improve forecast accuracy and manage their forecasting more efficiently. A solution provider that could provide post-implementation support was an essential requirement to ensure that SA Taxi was supported in areas where they could not be immediately self-sufficient.

SA Taxi required that the solution provide them with the ability to meet every finance stakeholders’ unique needs. The solution had to be integrated with the ERP system, provide detail down to every ledger within the ERP system and provide information at a high-level summary for the executives and funders for improved operational decision-making.

In addition, the company wanted more frequent forecasting with increased sophistication while improving team productivity by reducing the impact of more mundane tasks.

“Everyone needed to understand precisely how the system worked, how they could get more detail than in the past, and how to get the most value from the solution. With Decision Inc. assisting, we could bring everyone along and show them the benefits of these insights and collaboration across the SA Taxi group.” Martine Burgess, Head of Group FP&A at SA Taxi

The solution

SA Taxi worked with Decision Inc. to implement a Workday Adaptive Planning solution. Decision Inc. and SA Taxi ensured that all the right teams and individuals were equally invested throughout the implementation process. It was crucial that the key stakeholders of each operational area gave their input, that everyone understood the relevance of the data and that the benefits were visible to all stakeholders.

The step-by-step implementation included:

• Detailed project plan

The project plan was detailed down to a task level to ensure the project was delivered to the expected timeline and budget.

• Training and support to ensure full use of the solution

Decision Inc. provided the team at SA Taxi with training and support throughout the six-month implementation phase and was invested in making the entire process a long-term success. We provided SA Taxi with a dedicated post-implementation support team that ensured the team would gain familiarity with the tool and use it to its full potential when under immense time constraints.

• Informed and efficient SA Taxi team

We ensured that all the teams fully understood how to leverage the database and become efficient in their areas of expertise.

“I didn’t realise that the blueprint phase would be such an important part of the project – it was almost a third – but it was this detailed one-on-one with our modelling team and Decision Inc. documenting every cell calculation and unpacking the purpose of every business unit that resulted in a successful representation of our business in the tool.” Martine Burgess, Head of Group FP&A at SA Taxi

Benefits and value realised:

“The inputs, including historical data, are so much quicker to update. Everything is quicker to run. In the past, we couldn’t have had three versions of our budget models open simultaneously; now we have the scope, accuracy and scale we need at any time.” Martine Burgess, Head of Group at SA Taxi

• Improved data availability, efficiency, system capabilities

The company now has a cloud-based solution, utilising historical data pulled directly from the internal data warehouse. This provides several different financial statement views and automated interlinking of the other planning models across the entire business of SA Taxi.

• Diversified reporting capabilities

The solution can provide several different financial statement views that are automated and interlink with the other planning models across the entire business.

• Intelligent analytics with intuitive insights

The solution provided SA Taxi with dynamic and intelligent data and insights beyond traditional static models and data.

• Increased forecast accuracy

Every applicable line modelled in Workday Adaptive Planning is mapped to general ledger accounts feeding into the income statement and balance sheet, giving a true instantaneous reflection based on the planning and forecasting data.

• Automated data forecasting

The solution automatically models data and changes information on the income statement and balance sheet. All financial statements are available in a view that best suits the unit and situation.

• Improved data accuracy

Historical information from the ERP is directly integrated into the forecasting models, which drives the forecasting numbers along with assumptions entered by SA Taxi, allowing for increased data accuracy and relevance.

• Increased efficiency and processing speed

The data and forecasting integrations can be run at any time or at a specific schedule set by SA Taxi. Mundane admin tasks are significantly reduced, and everyone in the business has visibility into the right insights at the right time.

• Increased transparency and tailored reporting

All data comes from a centralised database, so information is only checked once and then the system is set up to automatically manage monthly updates and other essential tasks. Financial statements, income statement balances, cashflows and data are accessible in summary formats relevant to the individual, department and role.

Looking forward:

SA Taxi is committed to providing a unique and sustainable product offering to its clients. This is achieved through continuous innovation and investment into the right people, systems and processes across the business. This investment into their forecasting capability is testament to this philosophy.

The Workday Adaptive Planning solution has enabled SA Taxi to accelerate its forecasting processes and push the bounds of its overall FP&A capabilities. The SA Taxi team can now focus on delivering value and insights instead of focusing on collating information. SA Taxi looks forward to continuing its digital transformation journey to keep driving data-driven decision-making.