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Consolidation Drives Performance and Compliance

Improving performance management is critical to any organization. And the increasing focus on accountability, transparency, and corporate governance—exemplified by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act—along with demanding, rapidly changing reporting requirements such as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), have made robust, cost-effective financial management more vital than ever.

Successful performance management strategies demand consolidation and financial reporting processes that reflect accepted best practices, are stable, rigorous, reliable, and free of control risks requiring manual intervention and the maintenance of spreadsheet-based “shadow systems.” To meet such requirements, increasing numbers of Global 3500 companies rely on IBM Cognos 8 Controller.

A key component of the Cognos performance management platform, IBM Cognos 8 Controller is a comprehensive, Web-based solution that offers power and flexibility for streamlined, best-practice financial reporting and consolidation. It offers built-in financial intelligence and advanced analytics atop an industry leading data platform to provide timely, accurate information, improved decision support, and rigorous regulatory compliance.

IBM Cognos 8 Controller provides support for IFRS, FASB, Basel II, and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, as well as multi-jurisdictional GAAP reporting. It also enables individual segment reporting by customer, product, or market, and generates an extensive audit trail to satisfy the needs of external and internal auditors.

Consolidating and reporting workflow

FINANCIAL INFORMATION: ENTERPRISE PERFORMANCE IN THE HANDS OF FINANCE

An enterprise application
IBM Cognos 8 Controller offers ready, yet easily managed menu-driven user access and provides a solid foundation for smooth data collection and dissemination of information. IBM Cognos 8 Controller provides a single shared source for rapid, enterprise-wide data access. At the heart of IBM Cognos 8 Controller is a centralized database that ensures efficient processing and administration, and enables continuous feedback and enhanced support for organizational decisions and their implementation. Its use of open, industry standard platforms and databases—such as MS SQL and Oracle—ensures high performance, data integrity, and rigorous, yet flexible security. And IBM Cognos 8 Controller is designed to align with in-place IT technology standards.

Putting users in control
IBM Cognos 8 Controller requires neither extensive development resources nor tedious, costly programming. Managed directly by finance, it allows users to amend entities, account details, and organizational structures as needed. IBM Cognos 8 Controller can quickly adapt to changing realities, ensuring shorter implementation times and a low total cost of ownership. As part of the Cognos Performance Management System, IBM Cognos 8 Controller offers unparalleled support for management reporting, statutory consolidation, corporate planning, scorecarding, and analysis.

IBM Cognos 8 Controller offers a choice of interface, either the familiar Web browser or Microsoft Excel. Either way, users have ready, yet secure access to IBM Cognos 8 Controller data for updating and reporting. Full Excel functionality streamlines financial data input and formatting of, and IBM Cognos 8 Controller capabilities are available from within Excel to enhance management of information.

FINANCIAL CONSOLIDATION: MEETING LOCAL AND GLOBAL REGULATIONS

Data collection
IBM Cognos 8 Controller handles all the process and control steps necessary to gather financial information from multiple sources and systems. Both quantitative and qualitative data may be entered automatically or manually in IBM Cognos 8 Controller. Financial data may be collected and presented in multiple reporting and transaction currencies. Individual data entry forms and templates are easy to create and manage. Users can attach documents to reported figures to broaden perspectives beyond quantitative information, text notes and reporting manuals can be collected to explain the reported information and facilitate its analysis. IBM Cognos 8 Controller can also access critical information that often resides in Microsoft Word or Excel documents, e-mail attachments, or links to Web pages stored on personal desktop computers.

Validation
IBM Cognos 8 Controller’s thorough validation processes cut lead times and ensure data consistency. Once entry or upload is complete, data is readily reconciled for accuracy, while users are immediately notified of inconsistencies. IBM Cognos 8 Controller facilitates certification of data submissions to insure accountability—crucial to the consolidation process.

Multiple reporting standards based on a single system

Managing the process
IBM Cognos 8 Controller offers an array of features to support and simplify the consolidation process—performing consolidations both automatically and manually with check-points, painlessly guiding users through every stage. Built-in process control enables users to track reporting from data capture and processing to printed or electronic output. Color coding identifies those who have submitted information and those who have not. Submissions are identified by date and by whether or not they have been verified and reconciled. When submissions are approved, IBM Cognos 8 Controller enables an administrator to lock data period and versions by entity and person.

Consolidation
Successful performance management demands a single view of reality—consolidated actuals, consolidated budgets, forecasts, and plans. Consolidated management data that fails to stand up to scrutiny alongside consolidated plans forms a weak base for future decision-making. But a reliable view of current conditions, based on a clear link between statutory and management consolidation, provides a firm foundation for both operational decisions and strategic action.

Currency conversion
IBM Cognos 8 Controller supports all currency conversion methods. It translates data in a foreign currency into the group default currency using predefined rates. Consequent translation effects are calculated automatically and reported in detail. IBM Cognos 8 Controller can also simulate the impact of exchange rate fluctuations. Any currency can be used on any account, so that operating entities can effectively use their own currency, while corporate finance can present figures in any currency suited to its purposes.

Inter-company eliminations
Inter-company transactions can be entered at entity level. Counter-party input can be viewed online to resolve differences immediately. The ability to enter the original transaction currency (such as the invoicing currency) helps distinguish currency differences from real differences: Real differences are automatically eliminated from predefined accounts. Differences can be posted to accounts receivable or accounts payable as required. Inter-company elimination is carried out in stages, regardless of consolidation structure, with all transactions handled at the point of origin.

Capital eliminations
IBM Cognos 8 Controller supports all current methods of capital consolidation and can perform staged eliminations in legal or management structures. After entering the investment value at the individual holding company level and entering relevant acquisition data, share capital is automatically eliminated. Goodwill is written off and can be booked to the individual company as required. The development of reserves, such as the identification of and changes in any impact of currency movements on the initial consolidation, can be reconciled at any time. IBM Cognos 8 Controller fully supports any structural changes such as acquisitions, disposals, or mergers.

PERFORMANCE: INSURING QUALITY DECISION MAKING

Analysis and decision support
By providing access to accurate data, reports, and analyses, IBM Cognos 8 Controller helps compress cycle times and meet increasingly stringent reporting requirements. Different users have different analytical needs. For financial analysts and those responsible for the close process that need access to financial data quickly, IBM Cognos 8 Controller offers more than 200 readily configurable, out-of-the-box reports.

Managing change
IBM Cognos 8 Controller’s built-in intelligence options accommodate change such as mergers, acquisitions, or reorganizations. Structure and business rule updates are made but once, and are then reflected throughout the application, supporting statutory consolidation, management consolidation, planning, monitoring, and strategy management.

Changes to entity structures can be saved with a time stamp. By linking entity structures to a time axis, structural changes can be easily carried out, enabling users to follow development in group structure. If a company is bought or sold either internally or externally, relevant postings like acquisition or adjustment of opening balance are automatically carried out according to previously defined system configuration. The treatment of foreign currency effects is included.

Organization hierarchy

Strategic Financial Analysis
IBM Cognos 8 Controller helps users translate corporate objectives and visions into concrete financial and tactical plans. Managers can quickly model and assess the impact of alternative business scenarios. With Global Targets and Key Drivers , initiatives can be modeled or simulated by entity, business area, product, or customer. Simulations are possible for all legal, operative, planning, or forecast scenarios, enabling detailed what-if analyses. Currency adjusted analysis is also supported. Consolidating actual data at budget rates or using various currency rates is simple to set up and requires no additional data capture.

Financial information from IBM Cognos 8 Controller automatically feeds the enterprise planning process, establishing an initial base for a plan or updating a plan with the latest actuals to facilitate a reliable rolling forecast. Combined with IBM Cognos 8 Planning, forward looking performance management is enabled across the enterprise. User participation in the planning process is enhanced through driver-based business models and familiar terminology. IBM Cognos 8 Planning and IBM Cognos 8 Controller form a powerful combination of financial credibility and forward-looking accuracy.

Monitoring
Monitoring is vital to the performance management process. IBM Cognos 8 Controller, with readily available scorecarding and metrics, can easily define critical success factors and link strategies to specific plans, measures, and objectives. Users can monitor and analyze results, identify shifts in trends, model alternative plans, and take timely action. IBM Cognos 8 Controller leverages an array of industry-leading Cognos solutions for enterprise planning, budgeting, forecasting, scorecarding, analysis, and reporting—for example, multi-format, enterprise-wide, information delivery as enabled by IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence—offering tightly woven enterprise reporting, analytics, scorecarding, and event management.

Complete report coverage

IBM COGNOS 8 CONTROLLER FEATURES

• Web-based, fully scalable for any size organization
• Cognos portal
  • Single access point to coordinate information delivery
  • Part of the Cognos Performance Management Solution
• Cognos security
  • Role-based security to minimize maintenance and enhance flexibility
  • Security and authorization model for centralized solutions
• Dynamic and user-modifiable workflow menus
• Flexible processing of modifications to corporate and account structures and group histories
• Integrated scenario manager for simulation and modeling
• Real-time reconciliation of internal balances in data input
• Automated calculation of:
  • Group-internal earnings on inventories
  • Elimination of internal balances
  • Resolution of translation issues
  • Acquisition value processing
  • And more
• Extensive process monitoring and control
• Practical, automatic report book generation and distribution
• Part of a complete performance management system for planning, monitoring, reporting, and analysis
• Support for IAS, IFRS, US GAAP, local GAAPs, and other regulatory requirements
• Multi-lingual support
  

IBM COGNOS 8 CONTROLLER TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Client Workstation

• Pentium 1 GHZ or faster
• Minimum 512 MB RAM
• 100 MB free disk space
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional, 2000 Professional
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
• Microsoft Excel 2000 or later
• .net framework 1.1 installed

Additional Resources:

Performance & Compliance: Neither is Optional

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Learn how to deal with the paradox of managing compliance while improving performance. This microsite offers valuable insights on how you can streamline consolidation, compliance and reporting processes - while enhancing performance management.

Financial Consolidation & Reporting for Visionary Finance Executives: IBM Cognos Controller

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Learn best practices for: Managing the processes of consolidating financial information. Delivering external management and corporate reporting. Providing transparency to sustain compliance and performance.

Consolidation: Laying the Groundwork for Sustainable Compliance

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Laying the Groundwork for Sustainable Compliance.

Managing the Reporting Supply Chain (RSC)

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With a concentrated effort in people, process and technology, your finance organization can deliver a faster close while meeting the ever stricter reporting requirements in effect around the globe.

Delivering financial results – with or without spreadsheets – that is the question

Web Seminar On-Demand

There is a clear distinction between organizations working with world class financial consolidation systems and those that continue to rely on spreadsheets and spreadsheet enhanced systems. The Hackett Group will present the contrast between World-Class and Peer Group companies in terms of their usage of spreadsheets for critical finance activities, and the impact that has on the cost, quality and responsiveness of the finance organization. Demonstrations and discussions will help you understand the roadmap to performance management, with introduction of Cognos Controller, the modern foundation required for renewing the automation of the close, consolidate, report process.

Performance and Compliance - Combining To Deliver Financial and Operational Insight

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A key driver for improving financial consolidations is to enable actionable performance reporting. In this Webinar, we will share how best practices in reporting are critical to world class organizations, enabling better confidence and decision making. Specifically, you'll see how business intelligence enhances information communication of timely, validated financial results.

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