Integrating ESG Reporting with Financial Consolidation and Planning Processes

Koenig & Bauer is a globally active printing press manufacturer supplying machines and software solutions covering the entire printing, finishing and converting process. Machines from Koenig & Bauer are capable of printing on practically all substrates – the portfolio ranges from banknotes to board, corrugated, film, metal and glass packaging, and includes book, display, coding, decor, magazine, advertising and newspaper printing. With a history extending back more than 200 years, Koenig & Bauer is the oldest printing press manufacturer in the world and is today at home in virtually all printing processes.

“With the OneStream solution, we have achieved significantly higher process and audit security. We can systematically pursue our ESG goals while benefiting from significantly more efficient and structured ESG reporting that meets comprehensive regulatory requirements.”

- Dr. Bernd Heusinger, Certified ESG Officer, Koenig & Bauer

1. Increasing Regulation Within a Decentralized Organization.

Responsibility has been a core value for printing press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer for more than 200 years. The company has formulated comprehensive ESG goals in order to fulfill its social, environmental, and societal responsibilities. At the heart of the environmental strategy is a detailed plan to reduce CO₂ emissions at the company’s own production sites. Koenig & Bauer wanted to establish centralized, group-wide ESG reporting that would create maximum transparency and facilitate strategic group management.

The increasing regulatory requirements for ESG reporting also presented the company with new challenges. With the introduction of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), a system had to be created that not only meets the current reporting requirements under the German Commercial Code (HGB) and the EU taxonomy but is also equipped for future requirements.

“In the past, we worked with Excel. However, with our large number of production sites and global sales and service branches, this became too confusing and complex. Creation and editing also involved an enormous amount of manual effort and was very error-prone.”

- Dr. Bernd Heusinger, Certified ESG Officer, Koenig & Bauer

Koenig & Bauer estimates that the number of data points to be determined for ESG reporting across the company had increased tenfold. That’s when Koenig & Bauer sought a suitable corporate performance management (CPM) platform to optimize both ESG management and financial consolidation and planning.

2. Ambitious ESG Goals for a Complex Reporting Structure.

Koenig & Bauer began working with a dynamic and leading CPM/EPM consultancy in the DACH-region, specializing in the design, planning, implementation and optimization of business systems and processes. The consultants introduced Koening & Bauer to OneStream, which offered a modern and secure system architecture that integrates seamlessly into their existing SAP landscape, while also allowing for flexible integration with the organization’s non-SAP companies. This enables the standardization of data sources within a single source of truth. This creates traceability and increases data availability and reporting efficiency.

The implementation at Koenig & Bauer followed a classic multi-stage project approach :

1. Design phase, in which a technical target vision was developed, accompanied by initial training measures. This technical target vision was then translated into a concrete technical concept.
2. Implementation phase, during which the technical implementation of the system took place. The necessary programming work was carried out, the technical concept with all interfaces was implemented, and continuous training on specific topics was offered.
3. Test phase, where various extended test scenarios were run through, including technical tests, performance and functional tests, and integration tests. Particularly important were the user acceptance tests with actual data and a final user acceptance test before the go-live.
4. Roll-out phase included the actual go-live with appropriate pre- and post-support, as well as a one-month intensive post-support phase, which took place immediately after the go-live of the OneStream implementation at Koenig & Bauer and served to ensure a smooth transition to productive operation. In addition, the final documentation was created, which includes both a user manual and process documentation.

"At our initial meeting, we first presented our specifications, which defined the required data points and input masks as well as the ESG-specific key figures to be calculated and the necessary data sources. This was followed by the development of a test system. Through an iterative approach with regular meetings, we were able to ensure that OneStream was further developed in line with our specific needs, as a tailor-made solution. The project was completed within the specified timeframe of around six months."

- Dr. Bernd Heusinger, Certified ESG Officer, Koenig & Bauer

To ensure the quality and functionality of the solution, the consultancy firm completed numerous technical tests, performance tests, functional tests, integration tests and user acceptance tests. Koenig & Bauer employees from IT, ESG and global group companies tested the approximately 30 main input masks and the associated sub-areas for detailed entries.

Beyond ESG reporting, OneStream also supports the automated consolidation of intercompany relationships, including debt, expense and income consolidation, and provides versatile analysis options for group queries such as cost center reports and product group evaluations.

“Our implementation experience very professional and efficient project organization. In addition, there was a high level of trust and confidence. This enabled us not only to implement the actual project in an optimal manner, but also to build up an extensive internal knowledge of OneStream.”

- Dr. Bernd Heusinger, Certified ESG Officer, Koenig & Bauer

3. Efficient Transparency with Regulatory Compliance.

The data required for ESG reporting – such as personnel information such as the gender distribution of employees, hours worked, the number of accidents at work, full-time equivalents (FTE) and median pay – is entered into OneStream from around 60 different SAP (e.g. SAP HCM and SAP S/4 HANA) and non-SAP systems on a decentralized basis by 120 employees in the individual national companies using the respective input masks.

The entered data is validated using plausibility checks, which significantly reduce the audit workload for employees in the sustainability department. Among other things, the number of employees recorded in each group company is checked against the total number by gender. If there are any discrepancies, the system displays a visual and textual indication of where the discrepancy occurred and to what extent, so that the employee can immediately identify the need for correction.

The conversion of values from the respective national currencies into the reporting currency (EUR) and the calculation of reportable key figures such as the gender pay gap or the frequency rate of accidents at work, electricity consumption by energy source, as well as waste volumes and recycling rates are also carried out automatically.

4. A Smooth Go-Live Experience.

Koenig & Bauer has benefited from a proven, secure CPM platform offering process safety, auditability and automated key figure calculation. The OneStream solution was built with a sophisticated authorization system to ensure that users from the ESG department only had access to the data relevant to them.

To ensure smooth user adoption, user manuals and process documentation were created, and a final project report was written. Clear documentation guidelines were established for this purpose. Particular focus was placed on compliance with CSRD/ESRS regulations for ESG reporting based on Koenig & Bauer's specific materiality analysis.

Thanks to the transfer of know-how during the project, Koenig & Bauer is now in a position to further develop the solution independently and make adjustments such as metadata changes. Koenig & Bauer plans to further increase the level of automation in the future. Direct connection of SAP HCM and other systems to OneStream is on the agenda, in addition to using the platform more heavily within the finance department as a consolidation and planning tool.

“The clearly structured online training sessions were particularly helpful, as they remain a source of information for us even after go-live. I was then able to share this knowledge with the users in the national subsidiaries in groups and also accompany them through the transformation process. The high user-friendliness of the system was an ideal door opener here.”

- Dr. Bernd Heusinger, Certified ESG Officer, Koenig & Bauer