Leader in international education embarks on programme of improvement for financial systems
Customer challenge
To extend and improve the use of Oracle Financials across global operations.
Solution
Mokum consultants are working with IBO on an improvement programme, encompassing financial systems and processes.
Key Benefits
- Greater financial transparency across IBO’s global operations
- More efficient financial reporting.
- Robust system support.
The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) is a non-profit educational foundation that works with 1,923 schools in 124 countries. Founded in 1968, it offers courses to some 500,000 students around the world with a focus on encouraging an international outlook and active learning and citizenship.
As in any organisation, the finance function at IB is crucial to its smooth running. The IB charges fees for student assessments, teacher training and publications, while every International Baccalaureate World School pays an annual fee to the IB for its accreditation. It is essential for the organisation to collect academic fees efficiently, while ensuring transparent financial reporting to the finance committee, part of its governing board.
Lack of systems knowledge
To assist in these tasks, the IB implemented Oracle Financials at the end of 2003 in its Cardiff, Geneva and New York offices. However, it soon became apparent that it wasn’t getting the full benefit from the system. “Our previous implementation partner hadn’t devoted sufficient time to testing and training, which meant that many of our people were learning on the job,” says Gavin Tudball, financial systems controller in the IB’s Cardiff office, which houses its finance, HR, ICT and strategic planning functions.
The business process side of the software implementation had not been sufficiently explored and when the IB wanted to introduce Oracle in its Buenos Aires and Singapore offices, it looked to Mokum to support the process.
Choosing a new partner
The IB sought tenders for the implementations from three consultancies with Oracle expertise and finally chose Mokum. “Mokum demonstrated a good understanding of the IB as an organisation and its values,” says Tudball. “They had excellent references from customers and a clear rationale behind both the contract price and the scope of the work required.”
Mokum built the system in both Spanish and English, implemented it remotely out of its London offices and trained Gavin Tudball to get the best from the software. Tudball subsequently visited the Buenos Aires and Singapore offices to conduct user training.
Although the implementation in Singapore was largely out-of-the-box, in Argentina, the system had to be localised to comply with various legal requirements around taxation, which meant that the project took longer to complete. Oracle Financials went live in Singapore on 1 September 2005 and the Buenos Aires office went live on 1 June 2006. Both implementations were completed on schedule.
Working in partnership
The successful work that Mokum had carried out on these projects encouraged the IB to include Mokum in a competitive tender for a new support contract in May 2006. Mokum won the three-year contract, “because of our proven experience of working with them, combined with a competitive price for an effective solution,” says Tudball.
The IB is now working with Mokum on a programme of improvement for its financial systems and operations, including an upgrade from version 11.5.9 of Oracle Financials to version 11.5.10, completed at the end of November 2006. The two organisations are exploring changes to software and processes to reduce the time taken to conduct financial reporting.
Streamlined financial reporting
Previously its five main offices all submitted financial reports in Microsoft Excel, which were then collated in Cardiff. Now that the offices are all using Oracle Financials, Mokum is configuring consolidation functionality that will allow the IB to add together the five sets of books and present them in US dollars, its reporting currency. In tandem with this, Mokum is implementing Oracle’s Global Intercompany System to allow seamless data sharing between offices – the absence of which had slowed down financial reporting in the past.
“The benefit of using Oracle Financials on a more global basis is greater transparency and the ability to see all our financial transactions from a single source,” says Tudball. “Once the consolidation work is complete, we’ll be able to provide financial information more quickly and to a wider audience, reducing the time taken to publish quarterly information from four weeks after the month end to two weeks.”
The IB is also benefiting from more comprehensive support for Oracle with a remote helpdesk and remote monitoring run by Mokum.
An ongoing relationship
Tudball says that the IB has developed a good working relationship with Mokum. “We are pleased with their performance on the support contract and the implementations, which means we are confident working with them on future projects. Because Mokum has built an understanding of our business, this helps when we want to explore new initiatives.”
The ongoing improvement programme features some 50 projects and will run until the end of 2008. These will include web-based access to accounts, web-based expenses and the implementation of Oracle’s fixed assets module.
