MAN Truck & Bus, the South African sales and manufacturing subsidiary of German heavy vehicles giant MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, has improved the accuracy of its financial reporting and tightened efficiencies in the budgeting cycle with the implementation of idu Concept, the comprehensive financial budgeting and management information system (MIS) solution.
With an annual turnover of R1.8 billion, MAN manufactures top-quality commercial vehicles for the South African transport haulage, agriculture, forestry, mining, food and beverage and construction industries. The range of vehicles include medium, heavy and extra heavy trucks as well as commuter buses and luxury coaches.
The solution, the flagship software of local finance budgeting and product development specialist idu Software, was implemented last year to replace the manual consolidation of monthly income statements and management reporting across the various divisions of MAN.
With company headquarters and central parts depot in Isando, a chassis assembly plant in Pinetown, a bus and coach manufacturing facility in Olifantsfontein, a used commercial vehicle operation in Centurion and a national sales, services and parts dealer network in Cape Town, George, Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Pietermaritzburg and Nelspruit, gathering data timeously and working through monthly cost centre figures manually had been difficult and prone to inaccuracy.
"Every month we faced the challenge of consolidating the spreadsheets from all the various divisions of the company," says Hennie Wiese, group financial controller at MAN Truck & Bus. "We needed a reporting tool that could interface with the three different core systems we use - Kerridge, Automate and Embrace."
Designed to streamline the budget and forecast capture and reporting processes, idu Concept is a Web-based solution designed to remove the iterative process inherent in spreadsheet-type environments. The architecture of the software and the intuitive nature of the client front-end provide maximum transparency in the budgeting and reporting process, providing line management with accountability for the financial reporting process without the complication of typical accounting environments.
"Idu Concept interfaces seamlessly with our three systems," says Wiese. "Data is output to the database daily, and via the intranet, our cost centres can access details of budgets and actuals at any time. Our reporting is now more accurate and the solution has enabled enormous time savings. Efficiencies have improved considerably and a great deal of transparency has been achieved."
"We were able to achieve a quick win for MAN, shifting the company from a cumbersome manual reporting process to an efficient, accessible, user-friendly system within days of implementation," says Kevin Phillips, MD of idu Software. "Idu Concept empowers users to take ownership of budgets, forecasts and expense management for their respective cost centres, increasing transparency and accountability in the budgeting process."
Wiese says MAN plans to use the solution to consolidate not only income statements but the company`s balance sheet, ultimately leading to a move away from the current spreadsheet environment.
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