From Spreadsheet Chaos to Strategic Clarity

How Rinnai Future-Proofed its Finance Function

When Dilend Chawda stepped into the role of General Manager – Finance & ICT at Rinnai Australia, he inherited a finance function straining under the weight of its own success.

Years of organic and acquisitive growth had expanded the business, but the underlying finance systems hadn’t kept pace. Budgeting cycles stretched into months, reporting was laborious, and teams were buried under mountains of spreadsheets.

“We reached a point where continuing with manual processes was just unsustainable,” Chawda recalls. “We needed a central source of truth – not just to reduce risk and errors, but to enable better collaboration and decision-making.”

That realisation sparked a transformation that would span five years, reshape how finance operated, and lay the groundwork for Rinnai’s future AI adoption.

Choosing the right platform – and the right partner

Rinnai’s transformation unfolded in three deliberate stages.

“The first crucial step was acknowledging that our legacy tools could no longer deliver the agility and efficiency we required,” says Chawda.

The team needed a scalable platform that finance could own – one that integrated with their cloud environment and supported the pace of business growth. After evaluating several options, they selected IBM Planning Analytics.

With the technology chosen, the next step was deciding who would implement it. That’s where Octane Software Solutions, a specialist IBM partner, came in.

Octane offered a hybrid onshore–offshore delivery model that let Rinnai scale resources as needed and manage costs effectively. Just as importantly, its low-code approach allowed internal teams to stay hands-on throughout the rollout, accelerating adoption and capability-building.

Those early wins were essential to the third and final stage of the transformation: building trust and momentum.

“Within just a few months, we’d moved from manual closes to automated processes, with clear time savings and improved work-life balance,” Chawda says. “The immediate benefits inspired the team and gave us a platform to keep evolving.”

From reporting to real-time strategy

The shift from hindsight to foresight came quickly. Budgeting – once a four-month ordeal – is now a scenario-driven process, with finance actively interpreting results alongside business leaders across operations, supply chain, and sales.

“What used to be about getting the data out on time is now about asking better questions and stress-testing assumptions,” Chawda explains. “With Planning Analytics, we can model what happens if FX rates change, or if we tweak the product mix. That gives us real confidence in our forecasts.”

Beyond the operational changes, Chawda highlights a cultural shift across the team.

“We have a lot of late nights in finance, so once the employees experienced the benefits of automation and reclaimed those valuable hours, the culture shifted from apprehension to genuine enthusiasm for change.”

His dual remit across finance and ICT helped accelerate that change.

“My role spans both functions, so I could bridge the strategic oversight of finance with the operational agility of tech,” he says. “That meant less time debating modernisation and more time delivering secure, scalable solutions.”

That alignment was a key factor in the project’s success.

“Dilend’s dual role meant we had strong leadership and no tug-of-war between finance and IT,” says Amendra Pratap, Managing Director of Octane. “We worked as one blended team, combining Rinnai’s business knowledge with our delivery expertise.”

Quick wins, lasting change

Today, the new platform is also supporting Rinnai’s fast-paced M&A activity, with acquired businesses able to be integrated into the group reporting framework within weeks, not months.

That speed has fundamentally changed the way leadership engages with numbers, Chawda says.

“Before, we were making decisions based on delayed reports. Now we’re working with current data and consistent metrics across the group,” he explains. “It means we can focus on value creation from day one.”

With the heavy lifting now automated, Rinnai is turning its focus to what comes next: AI. The company has already piloted a chatbot for customer service, and is exploring use cases in forecasting and production planning. But Chawda is clear-eyed about the risks as well as the opportunities.

“We haven’t mastered AI yet,” he admits. “But we’ve built the groundwork with stable systems, data governance, and strong training. That foundation is what will make AI adoption safe, trusted and valuable.”

Pratap agrees: “The biggest mistake is waiting for the ‘perfect’ roadmap – by then, you’re already behind. My advice is to start with one pain point that matters, modernise it, and prove value. For Rinnai, it began with automating consolidation and reporting. That gave finance the bandwidth to think strategically, and created the foundation for AI to follow.”

As the organisation continues to grow, so does its capacity to scale with confidence. For Chawda, the experience confirms what he’s always believed.

“Transformation is about more than technology,” he says. “It’s about people, curiosity, trust, and building systems that support better decisions, not just faster ones. If you get that right, the tech takes care of itself.”

3 things every CFO should do when leading finance into the digital age:

1. Act with urgency.
   “Delaying any transformation increases the challenge and cost. Take decisive action if your current systems are no longer aligned with your future objectives.”
2. Implement AI with strong governance.
   “As you embrace AI, ensure that your data integrity, security and compliance remain at the forefront. Automation should go hand in hand with a robust governance framework.”
3. Invest in your people.
   “The technology provides powerful tools, but it’s the team’s enthusiasm, curiosity, and resilience that will drive true transformation. Ensure your teams are equipped for the future, not just today.”