Hearst Harnesses AI to Help Transform Financial Operations

To stay competitive in today's fast-paced environment, diversified companies must continually adapt-streamlining operations, embracing innovation, and reducing costs. Hearst, founded in 1887 with businesses spanning financial information services, healthcare, transportation, and consumer media, has done just that by adopting advanced cloud technologies.

With a growing portfolio, Hearst needed a new financial system to unify fragmented financial data and offer greater operational visibility. To address this, Hearst turned to Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), unifying its financial processes and data across the organization.

"As our operations expanded, we needed to streamline our finance processes and accelerate decision-making. With Oracle Cloud ERP, we've consolidated 15 different charts of accounts into one and tapped into Oracle's cloud capabilities to drive savings and efficiency-delivering greater value to our businesses," said David Hovstadius, senior vice president, finance operations, Hearst.

By standardizing on Oracle Cloud ERP, Hearst is unlocking powerful AI-driven automation to help increase efficiency, lower costs, and boost decision-making. One standout feature-Intelligent Payments-uses embedded AI to offer early payment options to suppliers in exchange for discounts. With thousands of suppliers, many receptive to dynamic discounting for improved cash flow, the result has been significant cost savings and stronger supplier relationships.

Looking ahead, Hearst plans to deepen its use of Oracle's AI-powered tools to generate faster financial insights, manage costs more effectively, and uncover new revenue opportunities.

"We're excited about Oracle's generative AI-powered reporting features, as we believe it will help us further accelerate financial insights and decision-making," Hovstadius added.

Hearst's transformation, led by David and his team, is a compelling example of how organizations can innovate and scale using Oracle Cloud ERP. We're proud to support Hearst on its journey and look forward to helping them explore new capabilities and drive even greater impact.