Johannesburg, 04 Dec 2006
IT and telecommunications services and solutions company T-Systems North America Inc, a division of ICT provider T-Systems International and subsidiary of telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, has streamlined its budget and forecasting process through the comprehensive financial budgeting and reporting software idu-Concept.
Within weeks of roll-out, the budgeting tool, flagship product of finance budgeting and product development specialist idu Software, had already integrated seamlessly with the company`s ERP system SAP R/3, improving data visibility, accessibility and ownership of budget responsibility.
"idu-Concept is easy to use, dynamic, intuitive and flexible, the ideal budgeting tool for the multi-faceted business model," says Leon Meuch, financial controller at T-Systems North America.
Historically the company prepared its financials and budget planning using spreadsheets. Consolidating data was onerous and time-consuming, with minimal consistency across the various business units within the organisation.
"Inevitably there would be several versions of spreadsheets and data accessibility was difficult, so it became easier for controllers to prepare the budgets for the managers. There was no uniformity of style or consistency in presentation, and the managers had little sense of ownership of the budgets for which they were ultimately responsible.
"We needed a tool that would place ownership for budgets in the hands of the managers, who ultimately are responsible for their respective cost centres," says Meuch.
Implementation of the solution at T-Systems presented some challenges. The US-based organisation comprised six different businesses, each using a different business model.
The recent acquisition of an additional IT business, gedas, presented a new set of unique budget requirements to add to the mix. In addition, T-Systems North America covers two countries - the US and Canada, each with its own currency.
idu-Concept was implemented in March. The budget for 2006 had already been completed using the spreadsheet method, and focus was given to training the users of the tool, customising it to suit the company`s requirements.
Meuch says the greatest advantage idu-Concept has delivered to T-Systems is flexible management of the many varied business lines within the company.
"idu-Concept presents simplicity of use and elegant flexibility. We simply download data from SAP and use Concept to slice and dice it any way we wish. Managers have their own access to the data via the Web, can run reports at any time and drill down through several layers of information to see the details," says Meuch.
idu Software consultant Andrew Peel notes the system is again proving very popular with management and users alike.
"The power of the tool lies in the ease of use it offers to the end-users and managers to analyse and report on variances between actual and budgets with the drill down capability to detail as an added aid to analysis," says Peel.
"Armed with this toolset re-forecasting becomes much easier and more accurate, and when completed within the same environment, an almost natural process."
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