Company: IBM, Armonk, NY, USA
Company Description: IBM is a values-based enterprise of individuals who create & apply technology to make the world work better. Today, more than 400,000 IBM employees around the world invent and integrate hardware, software and services to help forward-thinking enterprises, institutions and people succeed on a smarter planet.
Nomination Category: Product & Service Categories - Business Technology Solutions
Nomination Sub Category: Integration Solution
 Nomination Title: Account Receivables & Deferred Income Balance Sheet Integration Solution
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the the nominated new or new-version product or service, OR written answers to the questions for this category? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: If this is a brand-new product, state the date on which it was released. If this is a new version of an existing product, state the date on which the update was released:
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) introduced in 4Q 2020;
Full scale global roll-out/Go live completed in 1Q 2022.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Describe the features, functions, and benefits of the nominated product or service (up to 350 words):
Total 224 words used.
For the Senior Leaders at IBM, to receive Corporate Value Metrics insights, based on the comparison of Income & Expenses (I&E) and Balance Sheet details, it’s essential that we have a controllable segmented Account Receivables (AR) and Deferred Income (DI) balance sheet view broken down by brand, by country and business division, just like we do for Revenue (I&E).
Historically, due to IBM’s complexity related to a wide range of hardware, software and services offerings, our capabilities of measuring strategic and operational balance sheet driven metrics by business line was hindered by the limited granularity of the data, which was traditionally consolidated at summary level. As a result, Revenue data is fully segmented by brand, country and business division detail. Compared to AR & DI attributes which are consolidated at Invoice level because of the current backend legacy system landscape limitation.
To resolve AR & DI segmentation limitation (core component of working capital playing a key actionable role in free cash flow) we created a hybrid cloud solution – Enrichment Engine – independent from existing legacy landscape that extracts AR, DI and Revenue data elements from the consolidated ledger into a Cloud repository providing enriched data attributes that can be looked up by any system / user looking for the segmented details. (Refer to Figure 1 “Results”, Figure 2 “HOW” materials provided below as attachment).
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Outline the market performance, critical reception, and customer satisfaction with the product or service to date. State monetary or unit sales figures to date, if possible, and how they compare to expectations or past performance. Provide links to laudatory product or service reviews. Include some customer testimonials, if applicable (up to 350 words):
Total 335 words used.
Through this project we have been able to crack a puzzle that IBM has been trying to solve for several decades, and that allows to enrich IBM’s Balance Sheet driven metrics and provide insights into Free Cash Flow profitability; Focus on Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) and Economic Profit data by business division allowing strategic investment opportunities yielding increased company market value. Outcomes of this initiative, demonstrates achievements in three key dimensions
- Digital Data – Data is POWER. By generating accurate, quality and complete data identical to those of revenue, provide endless possibilities for engrain future Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cognitive analytics which will spearhead Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) measurement insights
- Lean Operations – By leveraging the power of Cloud technologies, we now have access to enriched data at all levels, enabling us to link Balance Sheet data to AR Systems championing a Fully Accountable Operating Framework. Empowering additional process simplification in our systems and focus on automation of manual workload activities minimizing unwanted development
- Financial Reporting – Compositions of Digital Data, Lean Operations Framework and Value Metric Insights, exposes to various pillars such as, Accounting, Treasury and Finance unlimited scenarios to generate data for IBM, thus, creating the ability to make better informed strategic investment decisions. All of which, was previously invisible to our stakeholders.
As a result, what was considered impossible for decades, is now proven to be possible.
Specific achievements are:
- Deployed our MVP Enrichment Engine in 4Q20 increasing AR & DI segmentation quality by 95% in Asia Pacific, setting the foundation and framework for global scalability.
- Exposing 90% of the balance sheet granularity previously invisible after the final Go Live in March 2022
- Project implementation and Resource management utilizing Agile ways of working reduced overall 2020 and 2021 project cost by $1.5M
- $10M cost avoidance by investing in a 100% flexible hybrid cloud application versus customizing a native SAP application
- Reduced Manual Accounting Entry Processes by 95% through automation programs increasing AR data quality and efficiencies in the process
- You have the option to answer this final question: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 97 words used.
Please see the attached document as described at the end of section 4 above.
Figure 1 (Results) is a simplified example showing the "before" and "after" results of the Enrichment Engine outcome providing the granularity now available in the Balance Sheet by product, order, business division and amount.
Figure 2 (How) is the Simplified Architecture to help communicate the 5 workstream objectives and project interdependencies. Enrichment Engine / Master Reference Table app (green box) represents the Cloud application leveraging ledger details that integrates the data (fully enriched data) into the repository table for further analysis and insights analytics.
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