Streem gets on the fast track to growth

Spurred on by ambitious green goals, Streem expanded its operations and grew its fleet of railcars and tank containers to more than 130,000 units. As the company expanded, its budgeting, supply chain operations, and asset lifecycle management outpaced existing technology. Reinventing finance, supply chain, and operating processes — and connecting them in Anaplan — slashed annual budgeting time, increased company-wide consistency and collaboration, and put Streem on the fast track to year-round reforecasting.

Streem makes, leases, finances, and maintains a huge fleet of railcars and tank containers used for international freight. The company’s decades of experience and ambitious decarbonization goals have attracted a new wave of shareholders in recent years and sparked a strategic shift toward growth.

To drive that growth, Streem relies on careful budgeting and forecasting throughout the lifecycle of its growing fleet. A larger fleet can generate more revenue, but it also makes day-to-day operations more complex.

Legacy technology wasn’t a match for that complexity. “We were using spreadsheets to manage 130,000 assets,” recalls Streem Group CFO Étienne Fallou. “This was super long, misleading, and collaborative work was really not easy. We wanted a solution that was more scalable and efficient.”

Fast track to expansion

To support its strategic growth, Streem moved its finance and supply chain planning to Anaplan. Today, Streem uses Anaplan to calculate budgets, track operating costs, manage CapEx investments, and drive leasing, repair, and maintenance services across its fleet.

The solution capitalizes on connectedness. “To build our budgets we need to link sales and operating costs, sales and CapEx, and more,” explains Streem’s EPM Project Manager François André. “Previously this was done manually, but thanks to automation in Anaplan we’ve reduced those manual tasks, which saves us time.”

Planning has become more collaborative, and its outputs are more accurate and actionable. “Everybody can work together to build their plans, and commit to them, in Anaplan,” Fallou says. “This has huge value because it bonds our widespread teams together, creates common ways of working, and gives us greater accuracy. These all help us grow the business.”

User adoption of Anaplan has been strong throughout Streem, and internal surveys find that 100% of users are either satisfied or very satisfied with the platform. “I’m really proud of those results,” André says. “They show that the enhancements we have made with Anaplan make life easier for our colleagues.”

Accelerating strategic growth

“What I like the most about Anaplan is that we can work much faster, and in a more collaborative manner, because it’s a common tool for everybody,” André says. “We can do it faster, but also with more accurate figures rather than working with estimates.”

Fallou agrees. “Before Anaplan, we started budgeting in July and ended in October. Now we are planning everything during September. We do it in one-third of the time,” he notes. He adds that the accelerated process pays off all year long. “This gives us more time for reforecasting based on collaborative data and helps us stay on track throughout the year.”

With budgeting, forecasting, and supply chain planning capabilities on Anaplan, Streem is using data to expand its operations even faster. “Each year we improve the way we use Anaplan to deliver more detailed and accurate information for the business,” Fallou says. “Looking ahead, we aim to create a daily reforecast of our budgets and logistics operations, which will help us to accelerate growth and further transform the company.”