Atteya

AEGON Insurance and AEGON Pension Fund have implemented ApplStream® BPL – Budget Planning with ORACLE E-Business Suite.

Companies of AEGON group in the Czech Republic extended their existing cooperation with ATTEYA Group in usage of the ApplStream^® portal by the BPL – Budget Planning modulethis year.

The initial state of budget planning and subsequent management of revenues and expenses in AEGON was almost exclusive use of the MS Excel environment and centralizing of planning in the financial controlling department.

Details for planning with insurance technical data were delivered to controlling by insurance mathematicians, and cost of sales and administrative costs plans were primarily drawn up by responsible managers, owners of cost centres and then summarized in controlling into a form of reporting required by the group. An implementation and monitoring of a number of control elements were necessary for the requirement of maintaining correctness of input data during the whole process. With regard to the system of work with plans – creation of a basic plan in autumn of the previous business year plus up to four possible improvements of the plan upon ending current quarters – the existing process consumed not an insignificant portion of controllers working hours fund and all this also with taking account of regular budget evaluation and providing feedback to both responsible managers and the top management.

Such solution was adequate to first years of functioning of both companies namely due to economic reasons. A significant share of manual work of a controller in the process of plan-making and subsequent evaluation thereof however became a limit to other activities of a controller in the course of time. The requirement for automation and higher efficiency of the budgeting process and management of revenues and expenses became topical.
The BPL Module – Budget Planning by ATTEYA Group introduced in 2010 appeared to be a suitable solution. We embraced also the possibility to discuss and exchange experience with this module with representatives of KOMTERM, who had already implemented the module. Now, after the initial training, we define budgets and get ready for the financial year 2012. Although we do not have practical experience for the time being, the value added is brought especially by:

- direct relationship of a budgeted item and a defined part of an accounting chain,
- interconnection of a horizontal and vertical view of the plan in a scope of detail needed (budgeted item and a relevant cost centre), and summation (overview of all items and cost centres),
- definition and determination of monitored periods for purposes of data input and following evaluation,
- clear determination of access rights (multilevel) and responsibility within the process of planning and cost management,
- transparency in budget approval and the possibility of budget revision control,
- easier monitoring and management of costs and revenues in reports adjusted to needs of individual users – budget owners, financial controlling, and management.

 Although there is a lot of work ahead of us when preparing the 2012 budget, we believe that this investment means advancement in systematization of processes and improvement of controlling environment of both companies. We will be glad to share our practical experience in future.