IBM > Case Studies > Lion accelerates disclosure management and reduces risk

Lion accelerates disclosure management and reduces risk

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

Pacific
Asia

Country

Australia
New Zealand
Japan

Product

IBM Cognos Disclosure Management

Tech Stack

IBM Cognos Disclosure Management

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Cost Savings

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Applicable Industries

Food & Beverage

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Services

System Integration
Training

About The Customer

Lion is a leading beverage and food company with a portfolio that includes many of Australia and New Zealand’s favourite brands. Lion’s total direct and indirect contribution to the Australian and New Zealand economies is estimated at more than $5 billion annually. Lion employs close to 7,000 people, predominantly across Australia and New Zealand, as well as in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and the US. Lion’s manufacturing footprint across the Tasman spans more than 40 sites, including large breweries, craft breweries, wineries, distilleries, dairy farms, milk, cheese, yoghurt and juice sites. It also operates venues, and has over 40 Liquor King retail outlets in New Zealand. As part of its balanced business strategy goals, Lion undertook a review of its processes to identify opportunities for improvement.

The Challenge

Lion, a leading food and beverage company in Australia and New Zealand, aimed to transform its finance function from a business partner to a true value creator for the business. However, the company's current processes were preventing finance from effectively partnering with the business and becoming a value creator. The company's financial reporting process was particularly time-consuming and labour-intensive. The quarterly reports for its parent company, Kirin, contained 42 schedules in separate Microsoft Excel files. The figures had to be manually entered into the spreadsheets, constantly cross-checking to make sure no errors were introduced. During these reporting periods, the six-person group financial reporting team typically had to be supplemented by two additional team members, seconded from other teams. Even with this additional support, the team generally needed to work overtime to get the reports finished on time.

The Solution

Lion partnered with IBM Cognos Disclosure Management to get its transformation program off to a winning start. The project team went through a full RFI / RFP process, and evaluated solutions from four vendors in the disclosure management space, which were scored and ranked based on business and IT criteria. The team also decided to work with the BMA Group, an IBM Premier Business Partner that specialises in solutions for the office of finance, on the implementation of the IBM Cognos Disclosure Management solution. Within just six weeks, BMA helped the project team install the software, train the users, and generate the deliverables for the company’s ASIC and board reports. IBM Cognos Disclosure Management uses “tags” to link the final output files directly to the underlying source data. If one of the figures is changed in the source, the output files are updated automatically – eliminating the risk of human error, and dramatically reducing the need to cross-check and validate the data in the final reports.

Operational Impact

The solution went live within six weeks and delivered immediate results.
The solution provides a full audit trail, so Lion can see who has done what, and how each chapter of a report is progressing.
The whole reporting process is much more transparent and controlled now.
The success of the solution has also highlighted opportunities for Lion to consider deploying the IBM Cognos Disclosure Management solution to streamline report generation processes in other areas of finance.

Quantitative Benefit