Jacobs Douwe Egberts Is Brewing Up Something Special with Workiva or more than 265 years, Jacob Douwe Egberts (JDE) has been inspired by the belief Fthat it’s amazing what can happen over a cup of coffee. While JDE is proud of its rich heritage, that doesn’t mean the company is stuck in the past—quite the contrary. JDE is looking toward the future, as is evident by their progressive approach to sustainability, their commitment to improving the social and environmental conditions in BRIEF origins where coffee is grown, and in the way its finance team works. IN

With growth comes complexity the figures into a consolidated version looking into solutions that would help of the Acorn Holding financials in the team speed up their reporting JDE is a privately held company owned Word®, where it was time-consuming process. He quickly discovered that by Acorn Holdings B.V., which also owns to format the document. in Boston was already the newly-formed JDE Peet’s and Keurig using Workiva—and they shared their Dr Pepper. This makes Acorn Holdings Since the teams were working across passion for the platform, which helped one of the largest coffee and beverage multiple time zones, a lot of time was seal the deal. platforms in the world. spent waiting for colleagues to finish a new version of the document—only “During the onboarding process, we The JDE team in Amsterdam is one person could access the file at the worked closely with the Workiva team responsible for facilitating the same time. and took our time to set everything up preparation of the financial statements in the most optimal way. This greatly for JDE, JDE Peet’s, and JDE Holdings, Version control issues were a real simplified things for us going forward,” in addition to the consolidated IFRS concern. It was possible for two said Orestis. “The Workiva Customer financial statements for Acorn Holdings. colleagues to download the file to their local drives and edit different versions of Success team is very supportive. I never As the number and size of companies the file at the same time before adding heard ‘This is not possible.’” owned by Acorn Holdings grew over the them back to the server. last few years, the process to produce Faster, more transparent, easier the financial statements became more All of these factors led to one to collaborate complex, and it required much greater overarching concern—their process took The team has now created separate collaboration with the Peet’s and Keurig too much time. source files on the Workiva platform for Dr Pepper teams. Since Acorn Holdings had big plans for the JDE, Peet’s, and JDE Peet’s in the future, including an IPO financials. These files are linked to an The challenge on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the overview for Acorn Holdings, creating a Previously, the JDE team would send team knew things had to change. transparent view into the performance of ® Excel files with multiple tabs to each company. stakeholders who would fill out the The need for speed With Workiva, the team was able to required information. The JDE team Orestis Tzortzis, a Global Accounting finish the JDE financials one week faster would then manually copy and paste and Reporting Specialist at JDE, began

The Workiva Customer Success team is very supportive. I never heard ‘this is not possible.’”

—ORESTIS TZORTZIS, Global Accounting and Reporting Specialist, Jacob Douwe Egberts “It’s really easy to apply changes. Since Since changes. apply to easy really “It’s IN

JDE had already worked to accelerate accelerate to worked already had JDE BRIEF They were able to use the time they saved saved they time the use to able were They See See what Workiva docan for you. to Go at the same time. same the at the throughout flow updates the all and and formatting on time save to able are Clean and simple audit process documents and spreadsheets, one one spreadsheets, and documents confidence that the numbers are correct.” are numbers the that confidence source the at made be to needs change Peet’s and Keurig Dr Pepper teams greatly greatly teams Pepper Dr Keurig and Peet’s the with Collaboration closely. work to States United the and Europe in teams report the of preparation the on focus to all throughout linked are figures the they since process previous their than they were able to further speed up the the up speed further to able were they Workiva with and process, audit their reports,” said Orestis. “And, I have full have I “And, Orestis. said reports,” updating the financial statements. financial the updating for Acorn Holdings, which requires the the requires which Holdings, Acorn for improved since multiple users in any in users multiple since improved location can be working on the document document the on working be can location Workiva for annual reporting. by processes adoptingand data, their people, connected Jacob Egberts Douwe Connected Solution time zones. in different stakeholders with it was difficult to collaborate was too slow,annual report and process to produceThe the Disconnected Challenges Jacob Egberts Douwe Company “This year was the first we went live with with live went we first the was year “This file the viewing someone for easy “It’s allows for separate conversations to take to conversations separate for allows “Now,all Orestis. said process,” audit simple. and The documents. the to of edits a lot a few days,” he said. days,” he a few Workiva has not only made an impact on impact an made only not has Workiva Workiva, and we immediately saw the the saw immediately we and Workiva, going through changes that required required that changes through going difference. We accelerated the whole whole the accelerated We difference. one place.”one done is auditors our with communication the to access have auditors external through comments in the platform. This platform. the in comments through and adjusted been has what see to where, and this makes it great for our our for great it makes this and where, place, but we still have it all centralized in centralized all it have still we but place, clean, transparent, more much process whole the makes which platform, was company the though even process process, and we were able to finish in just just in finish to able were we and process, Making anMaking impact • • • Results Connected explores an IPO explores demands company as the well future to meet team is positionedThe simple and transparent Audit process is much more documents and tables as formatting such tasks, administrative reduced time spent on process and reporting annual Accelerated the workiva.com/request-demo “What I love about my job is the analysis analysis the is my job about Ilove “What “For anyone considering Workiva, I’d Workiva, considering anyone “For JDE has big plans for the future, and and future, the for plans big has JDE And the impact has not gone gone not has impact the And finance team was recognized by recognized was team finance Orestis. said and using the information to help inform inform help to information the using and as formatting documents and tables, and tables, and documents formatting as such tasks, from move away to Orestis alongside the company. the alongside quality of their latest reports. latest of their quality definitely say, ‘Go for it,’” said Orestis. said say, it,’” for ‘Go definitely the complimented who executives Now, I decisions. and strategies our the reporting process, but it’s enabled enabled it’s but process, reporting the with Workiva, they now have the the have now they Workiva, with my job rather than administrative work,” work,” administrative than rather my job reporting process in place to scale scale to place in process reporting unnoticed. The performance of the the of performance The unnoticed. focus his time and effort on what he what on effort and time his focus have more time to focus on this part of part this on focus to time more have loves—and what makes an impact. an makes what loves—and • • • Why Workiva the companychose onboard new users which makes to iteasy platform is The user-friendly, button aclickupdated with of a beto enablingfiles, reports linked be can from source narrative and Numbers platform recommended the and Workiva with experience hadA stakeholder workiva.com [email protected] 888.275.3125

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