Recent mergers created new opportunities for Tarmac—and new challenges for the company’s shared services center (SSC). The center had not only inherited multiple ERPs, but multiple close processes from previous service centers. Combined with a reduction in staff, these factors lead to integration and stabilization challenges, especially during the month-end financial close.

According to Andrew Parris, director of shared services at Tarmac, “All reconciliations were completed manually, and different business practices were used across the business. As a result, we had little control over reconciliation quality, and there was considerable variability in the quality of evidence to support reconciliations and journals.”

A reliance on spreadsheets to track tasks and completions was also problematic, especially as the SSC operated across four business units in the United Kingdom. “We kept track of whether or not reconciliations had been done using a spreadsheet, so we had little to no visibility over the status of reconciliations except at the end of the month. This also meant we had no insight into risks or opportunities in the balance sheet.”

Prior to Tarmac’s acquisition by CRH in 2015, the business had been reviewing its approach to balance sheet reconciliations and month-end management. The acquisition prompted a delay whilst the new owners took over responsibility and it also prompted a plan for a migration to a single ERP and implementation of Sarbanes Oxley compliance. The combination of these factors created the perfect opportunity to transform control and compliance issues with new technology.

“We wanted technology that would create an accurate and controlled month-end process,” says Parris. “At a minimum, we wanted balance sheet reconciliations, journals, and month-end task management. Ideally, we would also have access to analytics, dashboards, and alerts.”

BlackLine’s financial controls and automation platform met all of Tarmac’s criteria, including the company’s need for a system that would integrate multiple ERPs and function solely in the cloud. To ensure a smooth rollout, the company named a part-time project manager and a full-time business lead to spearhead Project MERIT—Month-End Reconciliation and Internal Control at Tarmac.

With Project MERIT, BlackLine was rolled out over seven months, in three phases, to accommodate the company’s 6,800 GL accounts and five ERPs. Sponsored by Parris, the project has been highly successful, integrating best practice change and project management with best-of-breed technology.

Project MERIT was designed to not only streamline implementation but to gain the early buy-in of users. Many organizations, when implementing new systems focus on the technology, with Tarmac’s implementation of BlackLine, there was a clear focus on all three aspects of process, technology, and people.

“We wanted to ensure this project focused on all three,” says Parris. “We impact assessed systems and people to ensure minimal disruption. We created a communication program and followed a standard change methodology to create the vision and sustain buy-in.”