Case Study: Integral Energy Re-energises with SPF Plus
Integral Energy Re-energises with SPF Plus Budgeting, forecasting and reporting reduced to mere seconds case study
Profile
Integral Energy is the second largest state-owned energy corporation in NSW, incorporated under the Energy Services Corporations Act 1995.
Industry
Electricity distribution and retail
Location
Greater Western Sydney, the Illawarra, and the Southern Highlands
Business Intelligence Requirements
- Publish web reports directly from Excel
- Collaborative real-time budgeting and forecasting
- “Bottom up” data capture and “top down” revisions
- Integrity, reliability and auditability of the data
- Flexible and intuitive reporting
- Versioning and “what if” scenarios for forecasting
- Customizable security
- Scalability and performance
Previous System
Excel spread sheets
Solution
SPF Plus; Applix iTM1 server
Benefits
- Substantial time and cost savings
- Comprehensive workflow control
- Low IT support
- Economical & fast implementation
- Increased data integrity and accuracy
- The ability to extend the technology to other BI requirements
- Feature rich, intuitive environment
- Central data storage
Tangible Benefits
Integral Energy has realised significant and tangible benefits from the implementation of SPF Plus – particularly the instantaneous consolidation. Alister Cairns (Financial Systems Manager) explains: "For budgeting we have reduced the time to consolidate and report each budget iteration (up to 20 per year) from three days to literally seconds. For budgeting and forecasting, all our initial expectations were exceeded. We now have a great framework for a complete Business Performance Management (BPM) system."
Business Scenario
In July 2000, Integral Energy underwent a significant restructure, which included centralisation of finance staff and functions.
Cairns says: "Prior to the restructure, our business units had responded to market developments by pursuing their own business strategies and growth opportunities. This led to some inconsistencies in financial systems and reporting that needed to be addressed as we moved more to a ‘one Integral’ approach. The solution included the introduction of a common chart of accounts across the organisation, and an end to internal billing in order to present a more accurate financial picture. There has also been a shift in the use of systems to a standard and integrated approach, which meant looking for products that would suit a wide variety of needs."
Business Solution
Integral Energy reviewed a range of solutions including SPF Plus, Adaytum, Hyperion and Cognos Finance. It chose enterprise planning and forecasting solution SPF Plus powered by iTM1 "because it provided us with the best fit to both our current and future requirements".
Cairns explains: "A key differentiator was iTM1’s unique calculation engine. Basically, a large number of users can instantly calculate and model large amounts of data on inexpensive hardware. We also have very complex budgeting requirements such as being able to allocate an individual employee across various accounts and cost centres, but also having people commencing or concluding their employment at various times throughout the year. We needed a solution that would enable users to input budgets into a centralised database, then instantly view these results or any consolidation. In addition, essential factors were having a web-based solution - given that communication to some outlying areas is weakand fast consolidation, particularly after coming from our old Excel model, which took several days to collate and consolidate."
Other Requirements Included:
- The ability to publish web reports directly from Excel
- Collaborative budgeting and forecasting (including “bottom up” data capture, or user input, and “top down” revisions)
- Integrity, reliability and auditability of the data
- Flexible and user-friendly front end reporting
- Versioning/“what if” scenarios (essential from a forecasting perspective)
- High level of security over different aspects of the data (eg. users could only see their part of the “world” and would be restricted from seeing salary data lying behind the budgets) • Scalability and performance
- The ability to extend the technology for our other BI requirements such as reporting, balanced scorecard, sales forecasts, demand planning etc.
To help Integral Energy achieve its aims, SPF Plus and an Applix iTM1 server was recommended to provide access for at least 150 users. Since iTM1 is Microsoft OLE DB compliant, the organisation has the choice of user interface: Intranet, Excel or other third-party client applications.
"As a division, we are now leaner and meaner – and we’re looking for continuous improvement, more efficient processes and more value added services for our business managers," Cairns says. "We are moving to do a lot more reporting and analysis out of SPF Plus and enabling others to do the same."
Another key ‘selling’ point of the SPF solution was the rapid implementation.
"We had five weeks to implement the system from scratch and, so we needed an easy-to-use system in order to implement the product, develop it, and train 150 users. And there was no need for Oracle / MS SQL database licensing or onerous hardware requirements!" Cairns adds.
Company Profile
New South Wales’ second largest stateowned energy corporation, Integral Energy distributes and retails electricity and value added services to 2.1 million people in households and businesses across a network franchise spanning 24,500 square kilometers in Greater Western Sydney, the Illawarra and the Southern Highlands. It has a yearly turnover of $1.1 billion.
Beyond its stewardship of the organisation’s financial performance, Integral Energy’s finance division has overall responsibility for providing advice to key external stakeholders, including its shareholders, the NSW Government, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, the Minister for Energy, NSW Treasury, as well as the Integral Energy Board and Executive. Advice is based on quality commercial and financial information that will assist and guide their decision-making.