Developing a value-led finance transformation for a leading NBFC in India

Piramal Finance undertook Project Tejas to modernise its finance and procurement processes. Their vision was to have an ERP system which could help them scale their aggressive growth plan. The programme was positioned to move finance operations under a unified, Oracle Fusion ERP platform which supported process automation, enhanced controls, operational efficiency, and user experience, and enabled online reporting for operations, statutory, MIS, and regulatory needs.

The programme’s scope covered Oracle Financials and Procurement, integrations with source systems, reporting and analytics, data migration, and post-go-live hyper care. The implementation went live as planned on 1 April 2026, with the system moving into stabilisation/ hyper care and BAU transition as per the agreed plan.

Key challenges of a decentralised financial system were:

• Disconnected systems limiting process efficiency and scalability: Multiple disjoint systems required significant manual coordination and data movement across processes. For example, opening a new branch could take 15–20 days, while maintaining a large volume of branch and cost-centre codes added operational effort and constrained scalability.
• Delayed month-end close due to manual reconciliations: Finance teams relied on manual reconciliation between loan management systems, other source systems, and general ledger. Retail business reconciliations could take 6–7 days during month end, delaying closing activities and management visibility.
• Limited profitability and business analysis: Existing systems could not efficiently interface granular branch and product-level details into the general ledger, limiting the ability to perform profitability, margin, and cost analysis using accounting data.
• Scaling growing invoice volumes: More than 10,000 supplier invoices each month were processed by 25+ users. With increasing business volumes and branch expansion, the key requirement was to sustain the same level of efficiency, improve team productivity, and absorb the additional workload without adding FTEs.
• Tax, compliance, and reporting dependency on manual controls: TDS, GST, PAN/GST validation, nil or lower tax rates, financial statements, regulatory reporting, and IndAS/IGAAP-related workings were managed through manual or spreadsheet-driven mechanisms, increasing dependency on users and increasing the possibility of delays and errors.

Piramal Finance partnered with PwC to deliver a value-led Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP transformation across finance and procurement. The programme was structured in phases, beginning with business blueprinting and solution design, followed by implementation of Oracle Financials and Procurement capabilities including general ledger, payables, receivables, fixed assets, cash management, purchase requisitions, purchase orders, sourcing, and enterprise contracts.

PwC’s approach focused on three core design principles: AI enabled process optimisation, AI-led adoption and AI powered reporting. The solution was designed to modernise and consolidate the finance platform from legacy ERP and accounting systems to Oracle Fusion ERP, establish Oracle Fusion as the central ERP backbone, automate finance and procure-to-pay processes, strengthen controls, and enable online dashboards for operational, statutory, MIS, and regulatory reporting.

The technical scope included integrations with seven loan management systems, a cloud data platform, an HRMS, a tax compliance platform, and other enterprise applications. Reporting and analytics were enabled through embedded analytics, operational reporting, and financial reporting tools, while an AI-enabled digital assistant supported user training and adoption.

The solution also included a financial staging hub, expected credit loss for wholesale business, related party transactions, an AP automation solution, and data migration for trial balance, customer and supplier masters, employee master, open AR transactions, unapplied receipts, asset and lease registers, open AP invoices, prepaid expenses, open purchase orders, open procurement contracts, and available prepayments.

Additional controls and analytics capabilities included MSME vendor tracking to support timely payments, validation and monitoring of struck-off companies, GSTR-2A-based invoice holdbacks to protect eligible input tax credit, and granular branch- and product-level profitability reporting.

The delivery of the programme followed a structured approach, including project kick-off, discovery, business process planning, to-be design, build, training, testing, data migration, cutover, go-live, and hyper care. A one-project team of Piramal Finance and PwC was set up with design authority and structured governance.

Based on the available source material, the implementation of the transformation programme delivered the following outcomes:

• Enterprise-scale cloud foundation: Oracle Fusion Cloud now provides a unified finance and procurement platform for 1,250+ users across multiple entities, replacing fragmented legacy ERP, accounting, and loan-management landscapes.
• Faster, more automated finance operations: The transformation has enabled a T+4 period close and automated more than 90% of supplier invoice processing. As a result, invoices can now be booked within three days of receipt, while manual effort for the invoice-booking team has fallen by over 50%. Streamlined scanning processes have also reduced manual effort by 80%, enabling the business to process more than 10,000 supplier invoices each month with greater speed and efficiency.
• Reliable integration, faster reconciliation, and a single source of truth: Seven loan-management systems and other critical enterprise applications are integrated through an architecture delivering 99%+ success. Automated reconciliation between financial accounting and MIS reduced reconciliation time by 70% (four working days) and established Oracle Fusion as a single source of truth for finance reporting.
• Stronger vendor compliance and payment governance: MSME tracking supports timely vendor payments, while struck-off-company checks strengthen supplier governance and reduce compliance risk.
• Protection of GST input tax credit: GSTR-2A-based holdbacks enable timely action on unmatched invoices, helping prevent GST credit leakage and generate savings from avoided input tax credit losses.
• Granular profitability insights: Branch- and product-level profitability reporting provides finance and business teams with more timely visibility into margins, costs, and performance to support informed decision-making.
• Connected and streamlined payment processing: Host-to-host banking connectivity, together with AI-enabled maker automation, facilitates straight-through payment processing, optimising the end-to-end payment process by 75%.
• AI-enabled productivity and decision support:  The AI-agent provides contextual guidance for user adoption while AI powered invoice extraction and validation, and contract intelligence improves access to procurement information enabling teams to focus on exceptions, analysis, and other higher-value activities.

Looking ahead

With Project Tejas now live, Piramal Finance is positioned to build on its Oracle Fusion ERP foundation and accelerate the next phase of finance transformation. As the platform stabilises and transitions into BAU, the focus will shift towards sustained value realisation, driving stronger governance, embedding process controls, higher automation, improving compliance visibility, and attaining timely business insights. Together, this could help the organisation in creating a scalable and future-ready finance and procurement ecosystem that can support business growth, enable faster decision-making, and continuously improve processes.