IBM Cognos Controller: Your All-in-One Financial Management Solution

It’s December and the current financial year will end soon in March 2020. For businesses, this is the most hectic time of the year. Accounting professionals run helter-skelter to compile balance sheets and ensure a smooth closing of all financial statements.

Going by whatever resources we have, consolidating financial stuff and analyzing it will always be tiresome. In such scenarios, having access to a consolidation and reporting solution that ensures controlled delivery of certified financial and management information is essential. Such digital initiatives must reflect accepted best practices and stability. It should also be reliable and free of manual intervention.

As a financial organization, using a single solution for consolidation, reporting, and analytics, you can enjoy greater confidence when dealing with numbers. You will avoid problems caused by performing tasks in diverse and incompatible systems.

Here Comes the IBM Cognos Controller

Cognos Controller is a comprehensive platform for financial and management reporting. It comes with both power and flexibility to guarantee streamlined, best-practice financial consolidation and reporting. Its full suite of capabilities put power in the hands of finance stakeholders, managers, line-of-business executives, and regulatory bodies. You can consider it to be the de facto starting point for planning, forecasting, budgeting, and other processes. The on-cloud deployment option will help your organization meet individual IT requirements without worrying about scalability.

Moving forward, this blog will bring you face-to-face with the limitless possibilities that Cognos Controller can offer you. We will discuss some of its capabilities in-depth and also discover their real-life applications through a case study.

Financial performance management with self-service and automation

Yes, IBM Cognos Controller takes you into the world of financial automation where you can handle all tasks by yourself. No dependencies on anyone. Moreover, you don’t require extensive development resources to get started. It adapts quickly to changing ownership structures. Users are allowed to amend entities, account details and organizational structures over a wide range of reporting capabilities.

Magic of a centralized database

At the heart of Cognos Controller is a centralized database that enables continuous feedback and supports organizational decision-making. It has menu-driven data access that ensures seamless data collection and dissemination of information. Its industry-standard platforms and databases are known for their data integrity, high performance, and rigorous security.

Audit trail for data

Administrators of Cognos Controller can configure, track and audit data flow within the consolidation process. The system maintains a clear audit trial. You can follow application and data changes by individual users and also filter, evaluate and analyze changes. Your finance team understands the adjustments and changes done when submitting accounting information. They can track the date and time of data access. Thus, an unchanged version of source data is maintained at all times.

Now, there are many more striking features of this excellent digital platform. Discussing all of them would be possible if this were whitepaper. We, at Accely, will be coming out with such an initiative soon.

However, we will now take a look at how IBM changed the financial landscape of Laura Ashley (a lifestyle brand) using its Analytics expertise. It will give you a clear idea of what Cognos Controller can do for your business.

Case Study: Hassle-free Corporate Accounting Solutions for Laura Ashley

Business Challenge

Laura Ashley has 16 subsidiaries and over 1,000 cost centers to manage. It was facing difficulty in monitoring the performance of its multiple channels effectively. Thus, there were loopholes when trying to make informed financial and management decisions.

Darryl Fernandes, Group Finance Manager at Laura Ashley, said: “Our existing financial consolidation platform has been a mainstay of our business for many years, but it runs on a platform that is reaching end-of-life. We knew we would have to update our software to mitigate the risk of running such a business-critical system on an unsupported operating system.”

The Solution

Laura Ashley worked with IBM to upgrade to IBM Planning Analytics and IBM Cognos® Controller. This enabled rapid financial consolidation for both management and statutory reporting.

Results

• 85% reduction in time taken to consolidate a year’s data—from half a day to 30 minutes.
• Saved hours on monthly reporting tasks by minimizing the need for manual data entry.
• Simplifies accounting for international subsidiaries with automatic currency conversions.

At the end of the project, Darryl said: “IBM Cognos Controller makes life substantially easier for the finance team during the busiest days in our calendar.”

(Case study source: IBM Official Website)

Similar to this premier lifestyle brand, your firm (irrespective of which industry you serve) can also leverage similar benefits. Getting in touch with SAP Business Consulting Services would be your first step in this direction.

Deploy Cognos Controller on Cloud Today

By doing so, you will be able to lower costs and accelerate time to value within a short span of time. After deploying on the cloud, you can add users as needed while minimizing capital-related costs. In addition, you can get a guaranteed uptime and keep your data secure. So, invest in Cognos Controller today for better financial management tomorrow.