The Client

Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, Laureate Education, Inc., through its Laureate International Universities network, represents the largest most important education network in the world. It has presence in 15 countries with a network of 24 Universities and Higher Learning Institutions and more than 240,000 students. In Central America it operates in Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras with an approximate 24,000 students throughout 8 campuses. Laureate Education, Inc. has invested heavily in infrastructure and capacity projects as well as in the development of new product segments in industries such as: Hospitality, Health Sciences, and Masters.

The Challenge

Laureate Education, Inc. needed a financial planning software tool for the Central America regional operation. Each country had its own business model in excel spreadsheets, and they needed to consolidate and centralize all planning efforts. As an initial step they needed to develop a Financial Planning model that could generate information from the data input coming from the different accounting systems in place. They also needed to define a set of metrics and premises in order to project in short, medium and long-term efficiently and dependable. It was also necessary to make information available on-line to the different areas within the Organization that required such information. For this purpose, they wanted to acquire a world-class application that could manage the entire financial planning process from the analysis to the reports and forms generation, and in a multi-dimensional way. This model needed to be agile enough so that the management team could be able to react quickly enough to any issues and also be able to make decisions at all levels be it the operational, tactical, strategical or financial level of the Organization.

The Solution

The answer to their needs was born out of a joint effort between CIS Corporate and Solusoft. Both companies partnered together to jointly handle this project. First, CIS Corporate handled the analysis, planning and design of the proposed solution. Then, Solusoft handled the development, testing and implementation of the proposed solution. The final proposal presented consisted of implementing a one single standardize business model for the entire region using the Hyperion System 9 Planning Solution which is currently the world’s best financial planning software tool in the market. With the use of this tool it was clear that Laureate Education, Inc. was going to be able to achieve its goal of incorporating business rules and simulation scenarios for forecasting purposes, projections, and long-term planning. Hyperion System 9 Planning is a comprehensive and easy to use tool that can analyze data multi-dimensionally in an automated, secured, and on-line manner.

The Results

Laureate Education, Inc. managed to reduce the time effort involved in its entire Financial Planning process by reducing drastically manual work and automating the process of preparing budgets, forecasts, and long-term planning. Thus gaining more available time for valuable financial analysis purposes.