Listen "S1E4 | Leaving Excel Hell"
Episode Synopsis
What happens when a legacy manufacturing company finally breaks free from spreadsheet chaos?
We sat down with Ryan Smith, Corporate Accounting Manager at Anderson Corporation, to explore their ongoing transformation from outdated consolidation tools to OneStream's integrated platform.
The Real Story Behind Digital Transformation
Ryan shares the honest reality of moving a traditional organization away from Excel-based processes that "work very well" toward a more streamlined, analytical approach. This isn't a success story about overnight change—it's about the messy, ongoing journey of getting people to embrace new ways of working.
Key insights covered:
Transitioning from a "bare bones, basic and very old" legacy system to OneStream
Getting Excel-savvy teams to adopt new consolidation and budgeting tools
The challenge of employee retention when people are stuck doing manual, non-value-add work
Why having "our most valued people doing non-value-add work" is killing organizations
Building transaction-level visibility beyond trial balance uploads
Why This Conversation Hits Different
Ryan's candid take on the struggles of change management offers a refreshing perspective on what digital transformation actually looks like in practice. He discusses losing employees due to tedious manual processes and the ongoing effort to give teams the analytical tools they want to use.
Perfect for finance leaders wrestling with legacy systems, change management challenges, or anyone curious about the human side of technology adoption.
We sat down with Ryan Smith, Corporate Accounting Manager at Anderson Corporation, to explore their ongoing transformation from outdated consolidation tools to OneStream's integrated platform.
The Real Story Behind Digital Transformation
Ryan shares the honest reality of moving a traditional organization away from Excel-based processes that "work very well" toward a more streamlined, analytical approach. This isn't a success story about overnight change—it's about the messy, ongoing journey of getting people to embrace new ways of working.
Key insights covered:
Transitioning from a "bare bones, basic and very old" legacy system to OneStream
Getting Excel-savvy teams to adopt new consolidation and budgeting tools
The challenge of employee retention when people are stuck doing manual, non-value-add work
Why having "our most valued people doing non-value-add work" is killing organizations
Building transaction-level visibility beyond trial balance uploads
Why This Conversation Hits Different
Ryan's candid take on the struggles of change management offers a refreshing perspective on what digital transformation actually looks like in practice. He discusses losing employees due to tedious manual processes and the ongoing effort to give teams the analytical tools they want to use.
Perfect for finance leaders wrestling with legacy systems, change management challenges, or anyone curious about the human side of technology adoption.
More episodes of the podcast Black Diamond Podcast
S2E8 | $5B Distributor's OneStream Rescue
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S2E7 | Cutting Planning Time By a Week
23/10/2025
S2E5 | OneStream Power User Talks AI
25/09/2025
S2E3 | From Skepticism to Success
14/08/2025
S2E2 | Digital Transformation At Scale
17/07/2025
S2E1 | AI Transformation in Finance
03/07/2025
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