The Russian satellite television operator Tricolor TV, together with the international consulting company Odyssey Consulting Group, has implemented a comprehensive automated system for budgeting and payment control. The project is implemented on the basis of IBM Cognos TM1 and Odyssey RSys software products.
Tricolor TV is the largest Russian satellite television operator. Tricolor broadcasting regions TV" - the European part of Russia, the Urals, Siberia and part of the Far East. According to the data of 2012, the company's subscriber base includes more than 11 million households, the audience exceeds 30 million. human. There are almost two hundred Russian and foreign channels in the operator's broadcasting grid, including high-definition TV channels that won't leave indifferent even the most demanding viewers. The dynamic growth of the operator is facilitated by the affordability of offers. By 2015, the company intends to double the number of subscribers to up to 20 million households.
Tricolor TV management decided to increase the reliability and efficiency of the financial information received , to simplify the procedures for preparation, coordination, control and plan-fact analysis of budget execution. The implementation of the project was dictated by the dynamic growth of the subscriber base of the satellite operator, and, as a result, a significant increase in the volume of financial information. To optimize the financial management processes of Tricolor TV" chose specialists from the international consulting company Odyssey Consulting Group.
A new integrated budgeting and payment control system for all operator's divisions was developed based on IBM Cognos TM1 and Odyssey RSys solutions. The IBM Cognos TM1 toolkit was supposed to provide detailed planning, coordination and quarterly adjustments of the operator's budgets in a single environment, streamline the collection and consolidation of budget requests for all divisions of the company, and also provide preparation of plan-factual reporting. In turn, at the expense of Odyssey RSys Tricolor TV received the necessary mechanism for making and coordinating applications for payments.
" The main selection criteria in favor of these software products were ease of their deployment, the ability to flexibly adjust to changing customer business processes, a high level of performance and scalability, wide integration possibilities. The use of IBM Cognos TM1 accelerates the processing and analysis of large amounts of data typical for the telecommunications sector, which will allow Tricolor TV to realize long-term plans development,” says Nikolai Dorogov, director of information and analytical systems practice at Odyssey Consulting Group.
Building and launching the system into commercial operation took about 6 months. Due to the introduction of IBM Cognos TM1, Tricolor TV, first of all, managed to ensure high-quality planning and forecasting of the revenue and and additional services activated by them. In the solution of Odyssey Consulting Group on the IBM Cognos TM1 platform, separate accounting for income from individuals and legal entities is provided. Services paid by individuals through payment systems or using subscription renewal cards are allocated to different budget items. The cost of producing payment cards and Bonuses for partners are calculated based on current tariffs and services under subscription agreements. Unified budget forms have been developed for 45 Tricolor TV financial responsibility centers.
Using the system, the operator's financial department can study in detail the structure and dynamics of income and expenses in the context of each division. The customer managed to reduce the time and laboriousness of preparing and approving budgets, completely eliminating the human factor.
A specialized solution Odyssey RSys (Odyssey Requisition System) increases the transparency of operating costs of a satellite company. The system provides a full cycle of Tricolor TV payment management: allows quickly compose and submit applications, coordinate them according to dynamically generated routes and control the actual execution of the payment. Payment approval routes are set depending on the type of cost item, approved budget limits and current cash balances . Controlling the process of approving payment applications using Odyssey RSys allows satellite operator employees to operate within planned budgets and make operational decisions on each payment transaction before it is carried out.
“The approval procedure involves up to 5 employees of Tricolor TV, in total up to 30 payments are approved per day. Approved requests for payment are reflected in plan-factual reporting in the context of the functional divisions of the company”, - says the project manager. – «In this way, Tricolor TV receives prompt and detailed information about cash flow and prevents the risks of exceeding the agreed limits, maintaining financial stability the entire organization". In addition, due to the new system, the satellite operator managed to increase the transparency of interaction and strengthen the financial discipline of its employees.
50 users are already working with the Odyssey Consulting Group solution "Tricolor TV", in the near future the company intends to increase their number to 200. It is noteworthy that that the work on the implementation of the system of budgeting and control of payments was carried out in close cooperation with the specialists of the financial division of the satellite company, which will allow Tricolor TV to independently develop the solution in accordance with new priorities and tasks.
Summing up the results of the project, Evgenia Nosova, Financial Director of Tricolor TV, notes: “Odyssey Consulting Group’s integrated solution optimally matches scale and dynamics of our business, supporting the key stages of the Tricolor TV budget process. With its help, we can carefully assess the financial condition of our company and each division,
