Global Insights, Local Currency

NorthStar Educational Products

Educational Materials / Publishing

Company Size

120 employees, $18M revenue

Global Presence

Operations in 14 countries

Timeline

12 week implementation

The Challenge

Managing international sales across 14 countries with multiple currencies, creating reporting inconsistencies and financial planning difficulties.

Each country manager maintained separate Excel files tracking sales in local currency
Finance team struggled with monthly currency conversion calculations
Consolidated reporting took 15+ days after month-end
Pricing strategies varied by region with no centralized visibility
Currency fluctuations created unexpected P&L variances

"We were never certain if growth in a region was due to actual sales increases or just favorable exchange rates."

— CFO, NorthStar Educational Products

The Discovery Process

Assessment revealed 14 different reporting templates across countries
Inconsistent exchange rate applications causing up to 8% variance in global sales figures
No standardized process for handling historical currency comparisons
Quarterly business reviews delayed by 3+ weeks due to consolidation efforts
Estimated $180,000 annual cost in staff time for manual currency conversions and reconciliation

The Solution

Implemented Microsoft Fabric data warehouse with multi-currency architecture
Created centralized data model with automated currency conversion based on daily rates
Developed financial dashboards that could switch between local currency and standardized USD views
Implemented historical trend analysis with constant currency comparisons
Built country-specific and global consolidated reports with drill-down capabilities
Automated daily exchange rate imports from trusted financial data provider

Implementation Timeline

Weeks 1-3

Assessment & Planning

Assessment, planning, and data model design

Weeks 4-6

Implementation

Data warehouse implementation with currency conversion logic

Weeks 7-8

Dashboard Development

Initial dashboard development and testing

Weeks 9-10

Training & Feedback

Regional manager training and feedback collection

Weeks 11-12

Rollout

Refinement and global rollout

Results

Days to complete consolidated reporting (down from 15+)

89%

Reduction in manual currency conversion efforts

12%

Revenue increase in Asian markets after identifying hidden trends

"Single source of truth" established for all international sales data
Real-time visibility into performance across all currencies and regions
Ability to perform "constant currency" analysis eliminated exchange rate noise from trend analysis

"We finally understand our true performance in each market without the distortion of currency fluctuations."