SOUTH WEST WATER SELECTS COMSHARE MPC TO DRIVE STRATEGIC BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND FINANCIAL REPORTINGLondon, UK, January 04, 2002 -- South West Water Limited, the water and sewerage utility for Devon and Cornwall, has selected Comshare’s* Management Planning and Control (MPC) solution to deliver powerful business analysis and financial reporting. Comshare MPC* on Oracle relational database systems will replace South West Water’s current spreadsheet-based financial management systems. MPC will provide an enterprise wide web-based solution for strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis, whilst complementing their existing financial systems with additional management reporting capabilities.“South West Water is under constant regulatory and customer pressure to deliver progressive cost efficiencies,” says Ian Bell, Project Manager, South West Water. “Consequently, we have to manage and deliver outputs to meet business objectives whilst striving to reduce costs. To manage both sets of requirements we needed to enhance our existing reporting environment with a system that could handle all aspects of the financial management and decision support process.” Comshare MPC was chosen for both its functional and technical strength. “MPC provided the depth and breadth of application functionality,” explains Ian Bell. “This was important to us as our IT strategy no longer supports bespoke point solutions. In addition, the strong system architecture fits well with our corporate database standard, Oracle, and enabled us to deliver a web-based solution and maximise on the investment of our existing corporate Intranet.” Comshare MPC will be delivered initially to 15 business analysts and 50 budget holders. “The business analysts are the high-end users who will use MPC’s advanced analytic functionality to provide enhanced investment profiling, improved response to business change, and more accurate modelling,” explains Ian Bell. “By improving the reporting and analysis process the business analysts will have more time for ‘value-added’ analysis.” The benefits to the budget holders include better delivery of the budget process, better management of capital investment programmes, improved access to information and migration of the corporate budget from an annual activity to a monthly rolling forecast. Recognising the ease and simplicity of maintenance, the IS department has passed control of the MPC application to key business users, who will act as systems administrators. “I especially like the low maintenance server-based application which uses intranet technology to deliver information and functionality,” says Ian Bell. “The fact that nothing needs to be in place on the client apart from a standard web browser makes managing the user environment in Comshare MPC very simple.” Comshare demonstrated a clear understanding of the business requirements from early on and also counselled South West Water on a proven implementation methodology. “The obvious business experience demonstrated by the Comshare team convinced us that Comshare and Comshare MPC provided the most complete package.” Last month South West Water completed phase one budget initiation - as planned, to budget and on time. They are now moving forward with reports and business rollout. The next planned phase commences in January 2002, when Capital and Investment Planning will be implemented. “We are extremely pleased that South West Water has joined our fast growing MPC client base,” says Louise Wells, head of international marketing, Comshare. “Once again, Comshare’s key differentiators – application depth and breadth, advanced analytic capabilities, experience, methodology and system architecture, made Comshare MPC the clear choice.” About South West Water Limited South West Water holds the water and sewerage appointments for Devon, Cornwall and parts of Dorset and Somerset. As a utility service provider, South West Water is regulated in the main by three bodies, the Office of Water Services (OFWAT), the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate. It provides services to 1.5 million residents and also manages over 600 waste water treatment works which discharge to rivers and have to comply with strict consents to contribute towards Bathing water and river quality. About Comshare Contacts: Comshare is a registered trademark of Comshare, Incorporated. Comshare MPC is a trademark of Comshare, Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders. |