FINANCE

A Blueprint for Better Management and Financial Reporting

October 30, 2006

Global operations, compliance mandates, and international reporting standards aren't making life easy for finance departments. In this climate, it's no longer tenable to manage financial reporting with outdated, ineffective tools – especially spreadsheets. For one thing, inefficient processes leave less time for strategic business activity. It's also much more difficult to control errors and misstatements. And most CFOs can do without financial surprises.

What's needed is a financial reporting process that can keep pace with an increasingly complex business model. Timeliness and reliability are the key elements. Quick and accurate financial disclosure – along with compliance to standards like IFRS and GAAP – reflects well on the finance department. It appeases both regulators and investors.

A blueprint for financial reporting

Enter the Management and Financial Reporting (MFR) Blueprint. The flexible, pre-defined model integrates management reporting and consolidation with statutory reporting. And it provides a pre-built library of easy to configure performance reports to simplify and accelerate deployment.

Internal reports offer management information for executives, LOB managers, and other staff. In most cases, the reports are exception-based, so managers can analyze variance from target, budget, current forecast, and previous year performance. External reports provide information required by SEC, credit, and ownership stakeholders. These are delivered in a well-understood, standard format.

The result is faster, more reliable corporate reporting. Business managers benefit too from the timely distribution of performance reports, which provide information that's critical for management decision-making.

"The functionality present in the MFR Performance Blueprint facilitates the production of a 'fit for purpose' suite of KPI reports more rapidly than previously possible," says Kevin Clifford, Head of Reporting and Analysis at the Thorn Group, "The MFR Performance Blueprint contains pre-defined formatting that can be quickly adapted to meet specific reporting requirements, reducing reporting suite development time and maintenance."¹

Built on consolidation and BI software

The MFR Blueprint is built using IBM Cognos 8 Controller and IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence. IBM Cognos 8 Controller provides strengthened financial management and control capabilities for enterprise financial consolidation and corporate reporting. The benefits? Timely, accurate information, improved decision support, and rigorous regulatory compliance. It simplifies consolidation and enables real-time adjustment. It's adaptable to business or regulatory changes. And it reduces time to close.

Click to enlarge

Integration with IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence – reports, scorecards, dashboards, and analysis – also provides deeper visibility into business and management controls. When users see and understand the root cause of errors and events, it leads to greater accountability.

Based on industry best practices

The MFR Blueprint is one of several IBM Cognos Performance Blueprints designed to speed the adoption of best practices in financial consolidation and corporate reporting. For example, the Close, Consolidate, Report Performance Blueprint, developed jointly with Deloitte, provides the tools to implement a successful controls-focused consolidation system.

Industry blueprints are created by the Cognos Innovation Center for Performance Management™ The Center develops solutions for business that help cut costs, streamline processes, boost productivity, and increase management visibility.

Summary

These days, business is complex and highly regulated. It calls for a new degree of agility and accuracy in financial reporting. IBM Cognos Performance Blueprints provide the best-practice solutions to help finance departments deliver timely, accurate reporting results. So managers, investors, and regulators have fewer surprises – and greater confidence in the state of the business.