The Client
Ford
The Ford Motor Company is one of the world’s largest producers of cars and trucks and one of the largest providers of automotive financial services. They market their vehicles under eight brand names.
Project Deployment Summary:
Ford’s treasury department keeps track of moneys available by evaluating accounts payable and accounts receivable ledgers. The reports detail the cash flows that allow executives to determine investment strategies. They also show account balances, reconciliations and specific transactions.
Before the ebusiness solution, three different people were faxing reconciliation information, bank account statements and transaction summaries monthly. In addition to the faxes, they were photocopying, making long distance phone calls and mailing documents to convey information to financial analysts and others that needed it.
With the ebusiness solution, Ford has eliminated the need for people faxing, phoning and mailing information. Financial analysts and others have the information delivered to their desktops.
“Ford will pay for Enterprise e-business Solution within the first six months by eliminating the old processes of delivering information and replacing it with Web Information Delivery.” -Doug Koenig, Project Manager, Ford Motor Company.
The Challenges
- Scalability to large number of users over the browser
- Ability to access multiple data sources and prepare statement efficiently without creating a central data repository
- Ability to export information as CSVs, excel, word, etc.
Business Benefits, Technical Differentiators
Financial analysts have information at their fingertips. They can easily identify inconsistencies in transaction data from places like the bank to various investment accounts. Executives can make critical investment decisions immediately.