Leading Global Insurance org gains source to sign-off control
A leading global insurance company was challenged with a financial operations environment that was fragmented and opaque. Information was coming from 140+ source systems and passed through legacy aggregation systems. Transaction detail was lost and applied accounting logic was inconsistent. With various technologies and types of systems handling aspects from ETL to reconciliations to calculations, finance lacked end-to-end control. Lagging access to quality data slowed the financial close and reporting processes.
In response to these challenges, they envisaged creating a state-of-the-art financial environment with ‘Straight-Thru-Information’ for increased control, consistency and visibility. This would give them the ability to manage internal and external financial information in a consistent manner. Centralized data standardization, accounting, mapping, and routing logic would provide a single-point of control for all transactions that have a financial impact.
Source to Sign-off Control
The company chose to roll out a solution from Aptitude Software with capabilities that are now packaged as modules within the Aptitude Accounting Hub. The solution delivered a quick return on investment for the organization in the following ways:
Works within existing architecture for lower incremental costs.
Simplifies technology stack, reducing cost and complexity
Scalable – initially rolled out in US location followed by rollouts in Europe and Asia
Positions them to integrate potential future acquisitions and new regulations quickly and with fewer costs
To achieve this, they first leveraged a powerful integration and standardization layer to bring together data from hundreds of policy administration and claims systems. This allowed them to remove the costly middleware and aggregation systems, described by the company as ‘black holes.’ Mapping and Accounting rules were then defined and applied by the business. The graphical user interface allowed users to see exactly what data was used for calculations as well as the applied accounting logic. They also gained the ability to trace back from General Ledger balances to the original transaction detail within the source system, giving them true source to sign-off control.
Benefits of the Aptitude Solution
Addressing data integration issues and centralizing mapping and accounting logic delivers several benefits for this global insurance organization.
First, costs and risk stemming from bad data are reduced. The Aptitude solution automates previously manual data collection and standardization processes and allows for the ability to capture more data attributes. Secondly, more accurate information leads to improved and expanded operational reporting and better analysis capabilities. Finally, the removal of aggregation systems and costly middleware reduces integration complexities and cost.
The new financial architecture also drastically simplifies the integration of new acquisitions. When the organization acquired a large insurance provider in Asia with a different General Ledger and financial systems, they were able to simply implement another instance of their previously defined rules engine. This saved them significant time and costs when compared to integrating another Accounting Engine or General Ledger.
The Aptitude Software solution also restores control and consistency to the finance team by centralizing the management and application of accounting logic. Teams now have the ability to monitor, document, audit, fix and enhance finance and accounting rules with little or no upstream and downstream impact. This decreases the amount of time it takes to generate statutory and management reporting and will help them respond to changing regulations that impact the business.
Conclusion
Aptitude Software delivered a scalable solution that will grow with the organization and reduce cost and complexity. The finance group now has the necessary tools to achieve financial control – to speed reporting, face new regulations, integrate acquisitions and gain new insight from their trusted data.
About Aptitude Software
Aptitude Software brings years of finance, accounting and software domain expertise and has helped clients with countless finance challenges. Our specialist finance solutions serve smart CFOs, empowering them to streamline processes, supercharge reporting and drive data-led decision-making. Email us at marketing@aptitudesoftware.com for more information.
Leading Global Insurance org gains source to sign-off control
A solution from Aptitude Software helped significantly improve financial control and transparency while reducing cost.
A leading global insurance company was challenged with a financial operations environment that was fragmented and opaque. Information was coming from 140+ source systems and passed through legacy aggregation systems. Transaction detail was lost and applied accounting logic was inconsistent. With various technologies and types of systems handling aspects from ETL to reconciliations to calculations, finance lacked end-to-end control. Lagging access to quality data slowed the financial close and reporting processes.
In response to these challenges, they envisaged creating a state-of-the-art financial environment with ‘Straight-Thru-Information’ for increased control, consistency and visibility. This would give them the ability to manage internal and external financial information in a consistent manner. Centralized data standardization, accounting, mapping, and routing logic would provide a single-point of control for all transactions that have a financial impact.
Source to Sign-off Control
The company chose to roll out a solution from Aptitude Software with capabilities that are now packaged as modules within the Aptitude Accounting Hub. The solution delivered a quick return on investment for the organization in the following ways:
Works within existing architecture for lower incremental costs.
Simplifies technology stack, reducing cost and complexity
Scalable – initially rolled out in US location followed by rollouts in Europe and Asia
Positions them to integrate potential future acquisitions and new regulations quickly and with fewer costs
To achieve this, they first leveraged a powerful integration and standardization layer to bring together data from hundreds of policy administration and claims systems. This allowed them to remove the costly middleware and aggregation systems, described by the company as ‘black holes.’ Mapping and Accounting rules were then defined and applied by the business. The graphical user interface allowed users to see exactly what data was used for calculations as well as the applied accounting logic. They also gained the ability to trace back from General Ledger balances to the original transaction detail within the source system, giving them true source to sign-off control.
Benefits of the Aptitude Solution
Addressing data integration issues and centralizing mapping and accounting logic delivers several benefits for this global insurance organization.
First, costs and risk stemming from bad data are reduced. The Aptitude solution automates previously manual data collection and standardization processes and allows for the ability to capture more data attributes. Secondly, more accurate information leads to improved and expanded operational reporting and better analysis capabilities. Finally, the removal of aggregation systems and costly middleware reduces integration complexities and cost.
The new financial architecture also drastically simplifies the integration of new acquisitions. When the organization acquired a large insurance provider in Asia with a different General Ledger and financial systems, they were able to simply implement another instance of their previously defined rules engine. This saved them significant time and costs when compared to integrating another Accounting Engine or General Ledger.
The Aptitude Software solution also restores control and consistency to the finance team by centralizing the management and application of accounting logic. Teams now have the ability to monitor, document, audit, fix and enhance finance and accounting rules with little or no upstream and downstream impact. This decreases the amount of time it takes to generate statutory and management reporting and will help them respond to changing regulations that impact the business.
Conclusion
Aptitude Software delivered a scalable solution that will grow with the organization and reduce cost and complexity. The finance group now has the necessary tools to achieve financial control – to speed reporting, face new regulations, integrate acquisitions and gain new insight from their trusted data.
About Aptitude Software
Aptitude Software brings years of finance, accounting and software domain expertise and has helped clients with countless finance challenges. Our specialist finance solutions serve smart CFOs, empowering them to streamline processes, supercharge reporting and drive data-led decision-making. Email us at marketing@aptitudesoftware.com for more information.
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