Video · August 19, 2025
How Spectrum Safety Solutions went live on OneStream in 8 to 12 weeks with CPM Express
About this video
Spectrum Safety Solutions, a US-headquartered fire safety manufacturer with operations in Scandinavia and approximately 1,500 employees, was spending significant time refreshing manual Excel files across four brands with no consistency and constant spreadsheet risk. When the decision was made to replace the legacy system, the priority was clear: get to close and consolidation as quickly as possible without a lengthy, resource-intensive implementation.
CPM Express delivered exactly that. Live in 8 to 12 weeks with no significant customization required beyond mapping GL accounts to predefined structures, Spectrum Safety was extracting value almost immediately. For Alex Whittlesey, CPM Express makes a professional CPM solution accessible to companies that might have assumed implementation was out of reach, proving that speed to value and quality do not have to be in conflict.
Speakers
Director of FP&A | Spectrum Safety Solutions
Key takeaways
- Manual Excel refreshes across four brands with noconsistency and constant spreadsheet risk made change urgent. Spectrum Safety Solutions needed to get away from Excel-based close and consolidation quickly and without a drawn-out implementation process consumingsignificant time and resources.
- CPM Express delivered a live, running close and consolidation solution in 8 to12 weeks. That accelerated timeline meant Spectrum Safety was extracting real value almostimmediately rather than spending months in requirements gathering, development, and customization cycles.
- The pre-built CPM Express solution met all of Spectrum Safety's needs without significantadditional customization. Mapping GL accounts to predefined structures within CPM Express was straightforward, removing one of the most common friction points in a typical CPM implementation project.
- 60 users across four brands and corporate are now working from one consistent, governed platform. Replacing inconsistent Excel files with a single source of truth eliminated the spreadsheet risk and variation that had previously undermined confidence in the numbers across the organization.
- CPM Express makes a professional CPM solution accessible to companies that assumed implementation was out of reach. For organizations concerned about time and resource requirements, an 8 to 12 week path to value changes the calculus entirely on whether a platform like OneStream is achievable.
Read Full Transcript
My name is Alex Whittlesey. I work for Spectrum Safety Solutions. I'm the director of FP&A. Spectrum Safety Solutions is a manufacturing company focused in fire safety. We are headquartered in the US but have operations in both the US and Scandinavia.
We're about 1500 employees. Prior to using OneStream, we were spending a lot of time refreshing files, manual Excel files. The problem with everything coming out of Excel is there's not a lot of consistency and there's a lot of variations that you can have.
There's always spreadsheet risk that we're worried about. When we were looking to replace our legacy system, we knew we needed to get away very, very quickly. The most important thing for us was we needed to close, we needed to consolidate.
So we started with that as our primary focus and CPM Express was a great option for us. We were able to implement within 8 to 12 weeks and that was a huge game changer. Right away we're running and we're not spending a ton of time in requirements and a ton of time in development and trying to customize everything.
What I think is great about CPM Express is because of that very short implementation time, you're running a lot quicker. You're able to extract value within that 8 to 12 week time frame. It's amazing.
We have about 60 users spread across all of our four brands and then corporate users as well. We have a short implementation time and then on top of that, we're already extracting value without having to drag that process on.
CPM Express pre-built solution met all of our needs. There was really no need for additional customization beyond what was already offered. The mapping process around getting our GL accounts into the predefined ones within CPM Express was actually pretty easy.
If you're a company that's considering a CPM solution but thinking it might be out of reach, CPM Express is a great option because it cuts down extremely on the time and resources required to implement.
Related resources
Parkdale Mills
How Parkdale Mills eliminated seven Excel consolidations and cut close by two days in year one
BDO
How BDO replaced hundreds of weekly emails with one unified Finance platform
Cor Partners
How Cor Partners moved from version-controlled Excel files to one real-time source of truth
BlueScope
How BlueScope eliminated 75 spreadsheets and accelerated Finance with OneStream
