Hyperion adapts its tax function for global growth

What was the challenge?

“At Hyperion we’d grown our business significantly over the past few years — in part through global acquisitions — and we needed to evolve the tax function to meet increasingly complex reporting and compliance obligations. We knew we needed to bolster our controls to improve financial reporting. With the speed of recent growth, our in-house tax team needed help to meet the demand. We decided to collaborate with PwC, given its global profile and experience. Working together, we were able to transform both how we use technology and our processes in the tax function.”

Describe the solution delivered by the PwC community of solvers.

“PwC worked quickly to help us establish a tax managed services operating model. This allowed our team to focus on Hyperion’s vision and strategy for tax while the PwC team handled the details. Our first task was to improve controls and develop more efficient processes. We met with our people in our foreign offices to develop and implement a standardized global reporting process. On the tech side, we already had a full suite of Microsoft tools, but PwC’s Tax Reporting Strategy team helped upskill our team so we could more effectively manage global compliance and provision.”

How does the solution blend the strengths of technology and people?

“Collaborating with PwC helped us to scale our tax strategy and capabilities as the company grew and our needs shifted. We worked with one core team, but they could tap a range of professionals depending on our needs. This was especially valuable given our work overseas. If we had tried to hire a team in-house, it would have been difficult to find people with expertise in all the countries we were working in who could anticipate our granular needs. Instead, we brought technical questions about specific jurisdictions to PwC, and they answered quickly.”

Where or how did innovation and unexpected ways of thinking come into play?

“Now that we’ve worked together for several years, we’re starting to see the value of our relationship with PwC compound. As we undergo tax planning, we’re seeing incremental tax savings — whether that’s through cash tax savings or effective tax-rate planning ideas. We’re able to identify special projects that can improve our profile and tax position further, now and in the future.”