Workiva Expands Wdesk Across Meredith Corporation

Global Media Company Uses Wdesk to Set Higher Standards for Accountability

AMES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Workiva (NYSE:WK), a leading provider of enterprise cloud solutions for improving productivity, accountability and insight into business data, announces that Meredith Corporation has continued to expand its use of Wdesk, seven years after becoming one of Workiva’s first customers.

“As the Wdesk product and best practices were developed, we learned and expanded together,” said Karen Johnson, Meredith’s Director of Financial Reporting. “It’s been amazing to see how far we’ve come in streamlining our processes and finding new uses for Wdesk.”

Meredith began using Wdesk for SEC reporting, and has since adopted the platform for many other business processes that require collaborators to collect, analyze and report data.

“It’s so easy to link data in Wdesk, and we link as much information as we can, which enables us to rely on a single-source workbook,” said Johnson. “The fact that our changes flow through all of our documents and spreadsheets makes it all worthwhile.”

By using Wdesk to streamline its sub-certification processes, Meredith benefits from real-time visibility, process automation and an intuitive administrative workflow.

“Moving the quarterly certifications process into Wdesk is a real time saver,” Johnson said. “It saves 25 to 30 hours of prep time, mailing and faxing.”

Meredith also uses Wdesk for Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) compliance processes. “Wdesk allows our people to be the owners of documentation,” Johnson said. “Now we can hold people accountable through the audit trail, something we couldn’t do with our previous platform.”

Earlier this year, Meredith’s public relations department switched from legacy word-processing software to Wdesk, which allows team members to access documents in the cloud and solve version-control issues.

“We can all be in the same document at once, and it moves the process along so much faster,” said Johnson.

Johnson also expressed appreciation that Workiva continues to anticipate change, which helps her company keep up with new regulations and best practices.

“Last year when we announced a merger, it was a stressful time,” Johnson said. “But it was so comforting to know that I had visibility and access to all of my data in Wdesk, and I had the support of Workiva's customer service. We were filing in the same day in many cases.”

“I know I can count on Workiva to help with whatever the next challenge is,” said Johnson.

About Workiva

Workiva (NYSE:WK) created Wdesk, a cloud-based productivity platform for enterprises to collect, link, report and analyze business data with control and accountability. Thousands of organizations, including over 65 percent of the Fortune 500®, use Wdesk. The platform’s proprietary word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications are integrated and built upon a data management engine, offering synchronized data, controlled collaboration, granular permissions and a full audit trail. Wdesk helps mitigate enterprise risk, improve productivity and give users confidence to make decisions with real-time data. Workiva employs more than 1,200 people with offices in 16 cities. The company is headquartered in Ames, Iowa. For more information, visit workiva.com.

Claim not confirmed by FORTUNE or Time Inc. FORTUNE 500 is a registered trademark of Time Inc. and is used under license. FORTUNE and Time Inc. are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of, Workiva Inc.

About Meredith Corporation

Meredith Corporation (NYSE:MDP) is a media and marketing services company founded upon serving its customers and committed to building value for its shareholders. Its cornerstone is knowledge of the home, family, food and lifestyle markets. From that, Meredith has built businesses that serve well-defined audiences, deliver the messages of advertisers, and extend its brand franchises and expertise to related markets. Its products and services distinguish themselves on the basis of quality, customer service and value that can be trusted.