A Fortune 500 commodity trading client maintained over 3,000 various financial reports from its ETRM system. Many of the reports were redundant and some were inaccurate resulting in “multiple versions of the truth.” Due to the excessive number of reports, month-end close was taking longer than desired. The client requested to develop a more efficient, accurate, and simplified reporting process.
Our business analyst determined that the 3,000 reports could be eliminated entirely and consolidated into a single batch process. Approximately 30 new reports were developed and reconciled to the client’s source data. The output from this batch process created a single database table easily accessible by common business reporting tools such as Microsoft Excel and Access.
There was significant maintenance cost savings for the client due to the elimination of the 3,000 reports. Finance and back office received more accurate financial information from the new batch process. Time and efficiency savings reduced month-end close by two days.
