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Introducing VCCP:
VCCP is an integrated advertising agency known for high-profile campaigns such as ‘Compare the Meerkat’. With services spanning TV, radio, digital, AI and more, the agency supports thousands of clients worldwide. Operating in a fast-paced, private equity-backed environment, VCCP needed a financial platform that could keep up with its growth, complexity, and data demands.
The challenge:
Inefficient manual reporting and limited access to trusted data
When Raj Dadra joined VCCP as Group CFO, he saw immediate opportunities to improve and modernise core financial processes, to better support strategic decision-making and ease the day-to-day reporting burden.
“Our two Co-CEOs were emailing me daily asking for updated figures on various aspects of the business. There wasn’t a reliable, real-time view of our numbers.”
Financial reporting was slow, manual, and time-consuming. “Financial reviews were very analogue.
Everybody came armed with paper, after emailing spreadsheets around,” recalls Raj.
Reports to VCCP’s private equity backers and lenders were also built manually, using spreadsheets. “Our lenders wanted more granular information, but presented in a modern, accessible way that’s easy to digest,” Raj says.
At the heart of the problem was a bloated, inefficient IBM Planning Analytics setup. “The system we’d inherited was an absolute spiderweb of financials,” says James Richings, Group Management Accountant. This created a lot of extra work for the finance team.
“The old system kept falling over. There were hundreds of duplicate cubes and rules that didn’t talk to each other. Routine processes like month-end rollover took hours, and we spent lots of time checking numbers instead of analysing them.”
It’s a familiar story as businesses evolve. Every new reporting request adds another tweak or bolt-on. A once clean model becomes a tangled web, and the maintenance burden swamps any original
efficiency gains. It was clear the finance team needed a more robust, integrated, and accessible
system – one that could support both day-to-day operations and long-term strategy.
How Sempre became Involved
Building on long-term relationships
Sempre had worked with VCCP’s parent company, Chime, for years on other unrelated projects. When Raj stepped into the CFO role, he asked Sempre to develop dashboards to give senior leadership easy, real-time visibility into core financial metrics.
The first set of dashboards was delivered within weeks – immediately showing both the value of
Sempre’s expertise and the untapped potential of IBM Planning Analytics.
“The first dashboards Sempre created really transformed the way we do financial reviews and were very well received by users. That started us on a whole modernisation journey.”
Modernising finance with a leaner, smarter analytics model and tools
That initial dashboard project opened the door to a broader transformation. Sempre rebuilt VCCP’s entire IBM Planning Analytics model from scratch. The old, cumbersome structure – with 600+ cubes and 2,000+ dimensions – was replaced by just 30 streamlined cubes and 10x fewer formulas.
The result was a cleaner, faster, and more user-friendly model – one that improved reliability, reduced manual effort, and made it easier to access meaningful insights.
“Sempre has helped us move from a complex, messy setup to using technology in the most productive way.”
Sempre also rapidly built a standalone pricing tool that integrates directly with IBM Planning Analytics, giving real-time visibility into margins, rates, and discounts across new business proposals. Teams can model different scenarios on the fly, with built-in margin floors and discount rules to protect profitability while enabling consistent client pricing. “It gives us so much more live information to make better decisions when setting fees,” says James.
“Being able to build the pricing tool so quickly has really given us a competitive advantage. I don’t think many of our competitors can model proposals with this level of detail and commercial
confidence. Being able to build the pricing tool so quickly has really given us a competitive advantage. I don’t think many of our competitors can model proposals with this level of detail and
commercial confidence.”
For reporting, Sempre set up standardised dashboards for both internal and external use. Instead of relying on emailed spreadsheets and ad hoc updates, private equity investors and lenders now have direct access to up-to-date financial data in a consistent, easy-to-read format.
““All of the tools Sempre built give us the information we need to run the business more successfully.
The Outcomes:
Faster decisions, stronger pricing, and data everyone trusts
Sempre’s work has transformed VCCP’s finance function, shifting it from reactive and manual to strategic and insight-driven. Reporting is faster, forecasting more accurate, and teams now have the time and tools to focus on what matters. Leaders across the business now have real-time access to trusted data, without relying on spreadsheets or chasing last-minute updates.
“We got very good feedback from senior leadership on the dashboards. They are really easy to interpret, even if you’re not a finance person.”
Raj expects the pricing tool alone to deliver more than £1 million in value, helping teams model proposals more accurately and price more confidently.
“The pricing tool offers really significant benefits. Commercially, it’s a real profitability driver.”
VCCP’s relationships and reputation with investors have also grown stronger. They now have secure access to up-to-date, user-friendly dashboards, reducing the need for ad hoc reporting and improving transparency and trust.
“Our investors can get a better understanding of the business through the dashboards, which helps build trust. And it’s also reduced the time I need to spend on reporting and answering questions”
Data everyone trusts
Both the streamlined IBM Planning Analytics model and improved reporting capabilities have reduced the manual workload for the finance team. Now they can focus more on analysis and planning, rather than checking and compiling numbers.
“We used to check and check again to make sure numbers were right. Now we trust
the data – which saves us a lot of time.”
VCCP’s month-end rollover process has been cut from half a day to less than 10 minutes. “In our first month of solely using the new system, we’ve already gained incredible efficiencies,” says James.
With a cleaner IBM Planning Analytics model feeding reliable data into Power BI, VCCP is now exploring expanding its analytics capabilities – from strategic forecasting to HR insights and phasing out Excel entirely.
What about working with Sempre?
“I’d give Sempre a 9/10 NPS score. Working with them has been really successful all round and I really value the relationship. They always deliver; they’re responsive, flexible, professional, and really easy to work with – and that’s rare.
I really enjoy working with Sempre. They’re helpful, proactive, and very good technically and in understanding what the business needs.”
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FM Conway