Verostone delivered a scalable FP&A foundation in under two months for this leading biopharma company
Fast-growing organisations often reach a point where spreadsheet-driven finance processes can no longer keep pace with operational complexity. For Apollo Therapeutics, an innovative biopharmaceutical company operating across the UK and the US that moment arrived as its research portfolio expanded and its Finance team needed a more robust, scalable way to consolidate data, forecast accurately, and support strategic decision-making.
To meet these challenges, Apollo partnered with Verostone to implement Planful, the modern FP&A platform built for speed, accuracy, and collaboration. The result? A complete transformation of financial planning and consolidation, delivered in under two months.
A Growing Portfolio, Increasing Complexity, and the Limitations of Excel
Apollo Therapeutics manages more than 20 research programmes, with over 600 activities happening at any time. For a lean Finance and Accounting team, handling multicurrency data, programme-level planning, and rapid scenario modelling in Excel became increasingly risky.
Their challenges included:
- Manual and time-consuming consolidations
- Limited ability to model multiple cost and clinical scenarios
- Lack of real-time visibility across programmes
- Heavy reliance on a few spreadsheets’ owners
- Difficulty enabling department heads to contribute to plans
In the words of Apollo’s VP of Finance, Gary Collins:
“We had clunky Excel workbooks for consolidations and an even clunkier one for forecasting. We needed agility to run scenarios and plan in a way that spreadsheets just couldn’t support.”
Apollo required a platform that could not only handle greater complexity but also empower the wider organisation with self-service planning capabilities.
Why Apollo Chose Verostone to Implement Planful
After evaluating multiple solutions, Planful stood out for its ease of use, scalability, and strong consolidation capabilities. But implementing a platform is only half the story, the success depends on how quickly it can be embedded into the business.
Apollo partnered with Verostone for several key reasons:
- Fast, low-friction implementation approach
- Deep experience delivering Planful across complex organisations
- Ability to integrate Planful with Apollo’s existing ERP
- A collaborative methodology that builds confidence from day one
“Some platforms felt like you needed engineers to run them. Planful was intuitive and Verostone helped us get up and running extremely quickly.” – Gary Collins
In less than two months, Apollo went live with Planful for close and consolidation, giving the Finance team an immediate foundation of trusted, validated data.
Building a Scalable Financial Planning Environment
Once the core consolidation structure was in place, Verostone worked with Apollo to expand the platform across the organisation. This included:
- Operating Expense Planning: Replicating and improving legacy Excel models within a structured, automated workflow.
- Workforce Planning: Supporting a 12x increase in headcount with forward-looking hiring visibility.
- Dynamic Scenario Modelling: Enabling programme leads to explore clinical and nonclinical cost paths with ease.
- Budget Manager Experience: Empowering more than 20 department heads and programme leaders with self-service planning.
- Spotlight for Microsoft 365: Automating recurring reporting packs and eliminating manual data refreshes.
- Power BI Connector: Integrating real-time financial and operational data for richer analysis and strategic insight.
The outcome was a modern planning environment that is both scalable and accessible, removing the bottlenecks previously created by spreadsheet-heavy processes.
The Results: Faster Reporting, Better Decisions, and Real-Time Collaboration
The combination of Planful and Verostone’s implementation support has transformed Apollo’s finance operations.
Key achievements include:
- Monthly reporting reduced from hours to seconds- Automated data refreshes eliminated manual consolidation work.
- Forecast cycle accelerated from quarterly to monthly– Without adding headcount, thanks to streamlined workflows.
- 20+ programme leads and department heads engaged– Through self-service reporting and ownership of their budgets.
- A future-ready workforce planning model established- Supporting rapid organisational growth with visibility and control.
- Real-time analytics via Power BI and Spotlight– Giving leadership accurate financial and operational insights instantly.
“Planful gives me confidence in the numbers without the risk of manual errors. With Verostone’s support, we now have the agility to deal with whatever comes next.” – Gary Collins
What This Means for Fast-Growing Organisations
Apollo’s experience is a powerful example of what modern FP&A transformation should look like:
- Fast, low-risk implementation
- A platform that grows with the organisation
- Finance empowered with real-time, trusted data
- Business-wide collaboration and ownership
- Freed capacity for higher-value analysis and strategic work
By partnering with Verostone, Apollo achieved all this in a remarkably short timeframe, positioning the organisation for confident scaling, better decision-making, and stronger investor trust.
About Verostone
Verostone helps organisations optimise performance by aligning strategy, people, processes, finance, and technology. Through expert consultancy and modern planning solutions- we give leaders the clarity and control they need to make confident, data-driven decisions.
If you want to transform how your organisation plans and performs, contact one of our consultants here to get started.