CALLANGES
The APA group operates in four business areas: news agency, picture agency, information management and information technology. The editorial department cares for up-to-the-minute and multi media news services around the clock. Subsidiaries offer distribution, research and knowledge management as well as information technology solutions. As the so-called digital memory of the nation APA is among the largest database companies in the German-speaking area. The task was to map these complex connections of internal service relationships so that simplified management and provision of data becomes possible.
ACHIEVEMENTS
This was followed by the implementation of a central database solution. Thus at the end of the first phase of implementation the budget of the subsidiary APA-IT could be finished 10 days ahead of schedule. Many advantages of central data management could be directly realised, for example, the summary of segment plans in real time or immediate result transparency at last minute adjustments. At the second phase of the project the remaining parties entered the controlling platform, and thus the virtual marketplace, where the internal services are negotiated in the budgeting process.
TIMELINE
Focus on planning functionality, which is necessary for budgeting starting in August.
Close cooperation of the controlling with CoPlanner. Finalised modules are immediately tested and promptly customized.
Start of budgeting while finalising further functions such as shares in the persons in charges.
Processing of findings and preparation of the second phase, which was the rollout to the subsidiaries.
Rollout to all companies with first forecast, while continuously optimising the system.
Implementation of legal consolidation with the CoPlanner Legal Consolidation Manager.
LESSONS LEARNED
The phased rollout was the perfect solution in order to use the experience of the naturally IT oriented users of the pilot and to effectively integrate it in the corporate rollout. Now this has become the traditional procedure. The flexible controlling software is customized in accordance with changed external conditions. In further steps the legal consolidation was implemented and the documentation system was connected to the CoPlanner. The scanned document can be viewed via a link from the loaded posting line.
HIGHLIGHT
DER VIRTUELLE MARKTPLATZ
APA stands for innovative products and services. The same is required for budgeting. At the virtual marketplace internal services are offered to the departments with reference to quantity and price. The departments are able to specify their requirements and assign them to the respective cost centre as well as negotiate quantity and price. The price of each service is immediately evident in the CoPlanner. The planning methodology secures consistency between supply and demand, eliminates sources of error and significantly reduces the coordination effort. In order to finalise negotiations, reports that were commented by the planning parties are generated from the system. The planning effort is immensely reduced as previous year values can be transcribed.
Request a demo
Together we will discuss your professional requirements for business planning, consolidation, personnel cost planning, cost/performance accounting or reporting and we will show you the benefits of a standardized but flexible solution.