Success Story

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Achieves 83% Productivity Improvements and $925K in Annual Value Realized

612x250 Dana Farber

About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dana-Farber is a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and federally designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center that develops and disseminates innovative patient therapies and scientific discoveries throughout the world. Since 1948, the Jimmy Fund has raised millions of dollars through thousands of community efforts to advance Dana-Farber’s lifesaving mission.

Dana Farber Cancer Institute implemented Kyriba after years of operating cash management and accounting in an ad hoc manner: Doing what was necessary but relying on significant manual processes and disparate systems. Behind their industry peers in process maturity, Dana Farber worked with Kyriba to quickly change all that.

“In all these areas we’ve grown from all manual based to full automation, providing 100% visibility for strategic decision making. We are looking at realtime and on-demand cash visibility for a strategic cash forecast we can continually fine-tune.”

Gerry DiStefano,
Director of Treasury, Dana Farber Cancer Institute

Key Challenges:

  • Heavy manual, excel-based model resulted in excessive, unstructured and disparate functions in Treasury and Accounting.
  • Limited visibility into cash positioning within their ERP and across the organization, as updates were only done at the end of the month.
  • Strategic decision-making was near impossible without real-time cash positioning and forecasts.

Positive Business Outcomes from Kyriba:

  • Fully automated, insight-driven processes resulting in 228 hours per month saved – an 83% productivity improvement across the organization.
  • Kyriba is capturing 98.4% of accounting activities, with 82% of accounting rules mapped.
  • $925K in annual value realized in cash optimization and productivity

Value Realization: 228 Hours Per Month

Kyriba’s Value Realization Assessment (VRA) enabled Dana Farber Cancer Institute to provide the current state review post Kyriba deployment, resulting in 83% productivity improvement, including but not limited to:

  • Cash Accounting & Reconciliation: 121 hours saved per month (81% improvement), plus 100% productivity improvement on reporting and posting inter-company cash transactions, financial transactions and month-end market valuations
  • Daily Cash Positioning: 58 hours saved per month; 92% improvement
  • Short and Long Term Cash Forecasting: 49 hours saved per month; 82% improvement

Dana Farber Process Improvement Chart

“It’s nice to be in the strategic performance sector with benefits realized across the organization.”

Gerry DiStefano,
Director of Treasury, Dana Farber Cancer Institute

Annual Hard Savings of $652K

  • Increased interest income by nearly $215,000 annually
  • Improved strategic business investment to $437,500 annually

Dana Farber Savings Chart