Case Study
SANLAM INVESTMENTS
Sanlam Investments streamlines budgeting with IDU
ABOUT SANLAM INVESTMENTS
Sanlam is a leading South African financial services group, headquartered in Bellville and listed on multiple stock exchanges. Founded in 1918, it has grown into a diversified business spanning personal finance, emerging markets, investments, corporate services, and insurance. Sanlam Investments is one of the country’s largest asset managers, offering a wide range of local and offshore products — from unit trusts and hedge funds to retirement solutions — for investors, planners, and institutions.
THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Sanlam Investments, one of South Africa’s largest investment management companies, faced a major obstacle in its budgeting process. Each cost centre submitted individual budgets in Excel, leaving the financial manager to manually collate, cut, and paste data into a master file. This repetitive, error‑prone process consumed enormous amounts of time and drained resources.
Instead of focusing on strategic analysis and guidance, the finance team was bogged down in administrative tasks — constantly validating formulas, reconciling numbers, and rebuilding consolidated views. The lack of real‑time visibility meant that even small updates required re‑collation, slowing down decision‑making and increasing the risk of inaccuracies.
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THE SOLUTION
In 2014, Sanlam Investments implemented IDU‑Concept’s Financial Budgeting Module, integrated with their SAP ERP system. The new solution provided real‑time consolidated views, allowed multiple users to work simultaneously, and eliminated the need for manual spreadsheet maintenance.
The implementation was smooth, thanks to strong collaboration between IDU and Sanlam’s finance team. With automated roll‑ups, intuitive functionality, and robust reporting, IDU freed the finance team from administrative burdens. Managers across cost centres could now access accurate, up‑to‑date data, empowering them to track performance and make informed decisions throughout the year.
A PARTNER IN SUCCESS
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“Working with Sanlam Investments was about transforming their budgeting from a manual, error‑prone process into a streamlined, strategic tool. Seeing their finance team shift focus from admin to analysis shows the real impact IDU delivers.” – Geoff ten Oever, Account Manager, IDU
“IDU is a robust, user‑friendly and stable platform that we can highly recommend to any company looking to shorten their budget cycles, move away from spreadsheet errors, and gain a better day‑to‑day view of their entire budget.”
Gino Schoeman, Financial Manager, Sanlam Investments
THE RESULT
Substantial time savings: Consolidated budgets available instantly, eliminating manual collation.
Improved accuracy: Spreadsheet errors and broken formulas removed from the process.
Enhanced collaboration: Multiple users work simultaneously with real‑time updates.
Strategic visibility: Cost centre heads empowered to review actuals against budgets anytime.
