FirstRand Bank bolsters financial management with Hyperion System 9 migration

Issued by Predictive Communications for Intellient
Johannesburg, 27 Jun 2006

South African-based integrated financial services group FirstRand Bank is consolidating and upgrading its financial management and reporting environment for increased accountability, auditability and functionality with its migration to Hyperion System 9.

Having managed its financial environment with Hyperion Financial Management and Hyperion Planning for the last few years, FirstRand Bank has embarked on the migration to Hyperion System 9 to create a central source of financial information and an integrated regulatory, management, budgeting and reporting environment. The solution will go live on 30 June 2006.

"We decided to migrate because our management and reporting structure was not as efficient as it could be," says Sylvia Pugin, project manager at FirstRand Bank.

"Certain divisions were reporting financial information in one way, while others were following different processes; the result was unnecessary reconciliation and data integrity problems. With the move to Hyperion System 9, all financial managers and financial officers will remain autonomous and empowered to make their own decisions, but the entire process will be controlled centrally. They will be working on the same systems, following the same processes and they will become accountable for their data."

Initially licensed for 400 Hyperion System 9 users, the company also plans to implement Hyperion MDM Server, the master data management solution that will assist users with change management issues concerning data.

Both Hyperion System 9 and Hyperion MDM Server will be run in an Intel-based Microsoft environment and will be managed on-site at the company`s head office in South Africa, with international reporting sites.

"FirstRand Bank will benefit from the Hyperion System 9 enhancements to visibility, auditability, reports matching and reconciliations," says Marc Scheepbouwer, managing director of local Hyperion distributor Intellient. "The quality of its reports will be significantly improved, adjustments and data changes passing through the system will be managed better, management accountability will be more defined and security will be controlled centrally. Better still, all these improvements will instil a greater awareness of the value of accurate data throughout the organisation."

With 23 000 people employed in the banking group alone, the FirstRand group provides a comprehensive range of banking, insurance and medical aid products and services to the South African market.

Intellient

Intellient provides business intelligence (BI) and business performance management (BPM) solutions to midsize and large organisations that require support for their management cycle. Intellient strives to provide solutions that improve organisational growth and profitability for their customers. This is achieved through Hyperion System 9, which includes data analysis and integration services; querying and reporting, performance scorecarding, modelling, budgeting, planning, forecasting, financial consolidation and reporting. Hyperion software is used by more than 10 000 customers globally and by over 60 companies locally. As a member of the EOH (Enterprise Outsourcing Holdings) group of companies, Intellient distributes Hyperion Solutions to the southern African market. Visit www.intellient.co.za for further details.

Hyperion

Hyperion Solutions is global player in business performance management software. More than 10 000 customers rely on Hyperion software to provide visibility into how their businesses are performing and to help them plan and model to improve that performance. Using Hyperion software, customers collect data, organise and analyse it, then communicate it across the organisation. Hyperion offers the industry`s only business performance management solution that integrates financial management applications with a business intelligence platform into a single system.

Named one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work for 2004, Hyperion serves global customers in 45 countries. A network of more than 600 partners provides the company`s specialised solutions and services. Hyperion generated revenues of $703 million for the fiscal year that ended 30 June 2005 and is traded under the Nasdaq symbol HYSL. For more information, please visit www.hyperion.com.

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