Tag: digitalization

CAFR implements an integrated system for digitizing the coordination of financial auditors in Romania
Context

CAFR (Romanian Chamber of Financial Auditors), like many other organization, is undergoing a digital transformation. As a result, not only within the profession, but also within the profile associations, changes are unavoidable.

CAFR has accrued information and experience for over 11 years, using a static database management application with auditors’ reports until the time of implementation. CAFR hopes to provide the over 5,400 members with a comprehensive way to communicate and organize their relationship with the new integrated system.

The digitized functionalities within the integrated system, developed on the WEBCON BPS platform, are those related to the community management activities:
- Management of the CAFR relationship with the auditing members, individual or legal persons, full members or trainees;
- Establishment of payment obligations and information on their settlement;
- Management of compulsory or optional courses;
- Control of the inspection activities of the auditing members;
- Processes related to the Human Resources department of CAFR;
- Analytical and synthetic reports.
At present, the system is also linked to the official CAFR auditing members’ site, the e-Learning platform and the financial-accounting application.

“Our goal was to create integrated business processes that would help and even automate our members’ coordination efforts. Combining digital working practices with workers’ and chamber members’ professional judgment pledges to yield positive results as the most successful way to the future.” – Adrian Popescu, President of CAFR.

Challenges
- The need to quick response and flexibly to changes imposed by applicable legislation;
- Developing a new Financial Intranet based on a business modelling approach with integrated procedures and sub-processes;
- Increasing agility and lowering costs by giving the IT department true autonomy in the creation of change management processes;
- Connecting the members-only extranet with the new BPM Intranet platform.
Solution

Developing an integrated system in the form of a primary dashboard that unifies many application modules. Each module is made up of procedures, actions, and reports that are organized by the types of tasks that a CAFR department must complete. The transition to the new application went smoothly, and users quickly adopted it.

Fig 1. General dashboard of the CAFR Intranet application

The system covers 5 areas that share inter-related stored data with each other: CAFR Data and Parameters, CAFR Intranet, CAFR Human Resources, CAFR Updates and CAFR Migration.

CAFR Data and Parameters includes:
- all dictionaries of data related to its members’ historical and current evidence-gathering activities;
- informational correlations between different areas of activities/processes, links to other application areas – visible among members – and the Chamber’s activities;
- definition of fees as generators of payment liabilities for each type of member, used in the calculation of fixed or variable fees, and have a direct link to the institution’s financial-accounting application.
Fig 2. Parameters dashboard

CAFR Intranet includes:
- a suite of parameterized dashboards that group relevant information and actions for each user.
Fig 3. CAFR Intranet module dashboard – professional preparation of members and trainees
- the specific operations to each department, membership management workflows, payment obligations, inspections performed or reporting on the activity of members, including courses taken in the e-Learning platform.
Fig 4. Example of a simple process for modelling and advance paid by an auditor member

Fig 5. Example of a complex process for modelling

CAFR Human Resources includes:
- the vital support for the administration of the contacts of the employees of the institution as well as the process of registration of vacation requests.
Fig 6. CAFR Human Resources dashboard

ENCORSA has created a new type of portal for the extranet section, in which members may send activity reports or statements in order to produce a type of annual payment obligation. They are uploaded to the CAFR Intranet, where CAFR workers can view or edit them.

Results

Speed of implementation of legal requirements. Required feeds, fields, or reports can be updated in days or hours. Routine changes and the introduction of new workflows are done with CAFR’s internal resources.

Agility. Possibility of continuous adjustment of workflows in response to legislative changes specific to financial audit; Workflow changes can be sent to users in minutes. CAFR also has the ability to create custom reports.

Process traceability. Creating comprehensive digital feeds for controlling each compartment’s activity, correlating and displaying tailored information per auditing member, calculating the annual amount due, and using simple links to assist the user in analyzing a member’s activity from multiple perspectives. This tracing is combined with the ability to see a user’s change history.

Integration of existing systems. All the data necessary to monitor the activity of the members are brought and integrated in the Intranet: the courses carried out in the e-Learning platform, the information on the receipts made or the data on the reports submitted by the members in the External Portal.

Operational simplification. Unitary management through a single platform of the entire activity of the institution.

Automatic calculation of fixed or variable taxes. The activity and the changes made in the Intranet part are reflected in the balance of payment / collection obligations that are administered in the financial-accounting application.

Reports sent to the External Portal are automatically downloaded. Because the reports filed in the portal are taken over and processed immediately, and correlated with the other information in the system, real-time monitoring of the commitments arising from CAFR membership is possible.

About CAFR

The mission of the Romanian Chamber of Financial Auditors “CAFR” is to build on a solid foundation, the identity and public recognition of the profession of financial auditor in Romania. Its primary goal is to ensure the profession’s long-term growth and strengthening through the adoption of the Auditing Standards and the Code of Ethical and Professional Conduct, as well as the complete incorporation of the International Standards and the IFAC Code of Ethics. All of this enables financial auditors who are members of CAFR to deliver high-quality services to the general public and, in particular, the business community.

CAFR has over 5,400 individual members and 1,800 legal entities as direct members, as well as several hundred trainees who are educated and helped in their attempts to join the Chamber.

Concluding

The purpose of CAFR’s transformation is to take advantage of technology’s ability to carry out its work more easily, rapidly, reliably, and on a large scale at any moment.

This system helps to decrease the time spent managing and controlling tasks / procedures to a minimum, in addition to accountability, which is an important feature in any organization.

The project also yielded tangible results by reducing the time it took to realize, verify and report CAFR members’ activities, as well as eliminating human error.
24 March 2021
Alpin Hotel monitors its profitability in real time through a cost control application
Cost control is the practice of identifying and reducing a business’s expenses to increase profits and start with the budgeting process. Given the current context in which the Hospitality industry has been one of the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the management of the company must have the appropriate instruments to equate the actual financial performance of the company with the estimates of the budget and whether the real expenses are greater than expected. Management still wants details in real-time to take steps that will save the organization.

“One of a hotel’s constant concerns is costs minimization. Obviously, without monitoring them, cost savings must not impact efficiency and cannot be done without supervision. Thus, the need for such an electronic control infrastructure to capture, compile and make it accessible to all information from all sources. In this way, we ensure that decision-makers have access to proper information.” – David Aron, Business Development Manager at Hotel Alpin.

Solution: Development of a Cost Control software application for Cost Analysis that offers managers a real-time view of sales, expenditures and budgets.

Results

Implementing activity procedure – achieving a complete digital flow for managing sales, expenditures and budgets on the BackOffice platform (WEBCON BPS);

Mobility – accessing the mobile application provides access to information and the freedom of movement to the management department;

Real-time information – tracking revenue, costs and budgets at any time;

Decision speed – having an overview and updated data you can make decisions “in time”, no need to wait to receive monthly / quarterly / half-yearly financial reports;

Operational simplification – managing the cost and budget situation from a single platform, receiving notifications, generating documents and KPI reports.

Future perspective

A dynamic mechanism that involves both the internal and external processes of a corporation is the implementation and distribution of technologies in hotel industry organizations. Digitization and automation lead to growing workforce productivity, substantial cost savings, quality and market share growth, and customer service creation and enhancement.

By embracing modern technologies to help streamline business and business growth, ALPIN Hotel aligns with developments by removing errors that can be created by individuals by developing a complete image of the company’s progression at all times.

The management of the organization has regular access to relevant reports, such as the one in the picture below, as a result of the introduction of the solution integrated alongside PowerBI.

About Alpin Hotel

The hotel is located in the resort of Poiana Brasov and offers magnificent mountain views with comfortably furnished rooms. The resort consists of 3 linked buildings: Hotel Alpin, Casa Alpin and Aparthotel Alpin. The complex has a large spa, 4 restaurants, 2 terraces and summer gardens, as well as 41 conference and event rooms with a capacity of 10 to 700 people. Other facilities include bars, a nightclub and 3 branded shops.

Challenges
- Implementing the cost control activities procedure;
- Reading up to date the financial data for the current month;
- Centralization of financial information, having quick access to it;
- Supply control and order management in real time.
Solution in detail
- Recording expenses, budgets and revenues in the BackOffice platform (WEBCON BPS), according to internal procedures;
- Control of expenses that go through an approval flow;
- Monitoring through reports and indicators such as: sales / costs, detailed budget / cost type; Business Intelligence reports have been integrated, in a unitary way, in the application dashboard;
- Grouping data from multiple sources to obtain interactive dashboards and reports that generate business results;
- Alerts in the application or via e-mail that help the flows continuity and the rapid flow of information.
Conclusion

Until now, effective hotel resource management appeared to be a difficult equation, but when managers turned to the approach established by Encorsa, things changed. As a result, it was better to understand how the company’s money travels and its effectiveness, how to minimize risks, and how to recognize the potential of unused benefit today.

There is no question that innovations for hotels will be an important part of hospitality in the future. Offering unmatched degrees of luxury and versatility, if they wish to retain a strategic edge in an ever more digital marketplace, hotels need to be able to follow these creative approaches.
25 February 2021
Quasar Comex gains performance and business continuity by automating internal processes
An advanced space where humans and RPA robots cooperate for unitary activity between existing applications, streamlining processes and and particularly decreasing expenses.

“I believe that digitization and automation are the key solutions for adapting to the current reality. We chose to invest in technological applications meant to increase the customer experience, to help operational productivity and maintain existing staff “, says Laurențiu Țigăeru Roșca, Founder and CEO of QUASAR COMEX.

Solution: Create a computerized advanced stream for taking requests, charging, producing AWBs and announcing as a Digital Employee devoted to E-Commerce.

Results

Activity procedure – establishing an advanced digital stream for dealing with the movement of taking and conveying orders, deftly adjusted on the BackOffice stage (WEBCON BPS); this stream naturally coordinates programming robots for computerizing microflows, for example, charging or AWB age;

Agility – continuous adjustment of workflows as business challenges diversify or change, using WEBCON BPS’ ability to editing flows in real time – INSTANT CHANGE;

Optimization of human asset stacking – via computerizing exercises with the assistance of programming robots, HR being diminished of monotonous undertakings, for example, assuming control over request information, invoicing, dropping requests on totally related stages, deciphering AWBs for Bulgaria or Hungary, and so on;

Operational simplification – unit management of the entire activity from a single platform, thus creating a digital space where individuals can intercede (eg dropping a request) on the action attempted by robots.

Below you will be able to view a control panel with activity indicators (KPIs) measured in real time.

About QUASAR

For over 27 years, Quasar Comex SRL does only exchange exercises and the experience and presence on 2 unfamiliar business sectors (Bulgaria, Hungary) shows consistency and creates trust the two clients and colleagues. Since 2015, it likewise creates online activities, and today this vertical is the principle hub of advancement of the organization. He additionally moved toward different deals channels, specifically Marketplaces: eMAG Romania, Cel, Elefant, Kalapod, TeamDeals, Allshops and MiniPrix.

Constant optimization of the business through processes automation

Without an arrangement of front and back-office business measures and without a coordinated way to deal with furnishing individuals with key data continuously, the difficulties of the present business climate will be hard to defeat sooner rather than later. the years to come. Hence, the organization expects to execute a back-office application that supports and permits such an exertion.

Quasar Comex has figured out how to expand its efficiency at any rate multiple times by executing mechanical robotized measures in the current movement of overseeing orders from online deals. In spite of the fact that Quasar Comex deals nearly significantly increased in 2020, the production of advanced work processes has figured out how to oversee exercises without extra staffing, ideally and without mistakes.

Challenges
- Managing sales growth, without hiring addition human resources;
- Proceduring the action to wipe out mistakes and improve the nature of administration conveyance in the E-Commerce business;
- End of dull errands for individuals with the goal that they possess energy for complex investigates important to smooth out the online deals business (top beneficial items, recognizable proof of poisonous stocks, and so on).
Digital Employee in E-commerce, detailed solution
- Creating an advanced work process through the Low-Code Business Process Management stage – WEBCON BPS, subsequently binding together the progression of data between existing programming segments – ERP, WMS, Marketplaces, own online store, dispatch stages (Sameday, DPD)
- Automatic monitoring of the entire flow and generation of real-time indicators such as:
  - Average pick-up time
  - Pending orders on picking
  - Pending orders in invoicing
  - Average order pick-up ime
  - Canceled orders
  - Pending packaging orders
  - Average order packing time
  - Number of completion orders
  - Average completion time
  - Number of total orders;
- Implementation of the mobile application for pickers (as a part of the WEBCON BPS platform) for taking over packing orders by pickers but also notifying them of changes made to orders;
- Automation of repetitive tasks such as billing, printing, AWB generation, document reprinting, was done with RPA software robots, coordinated through the WEBCON BPS platform;
- Creating measures through which individuals can intervene in decision making (for instance changing a request or dropping it), after whitch the flow will be proceeded automatically, being taken over by a software robot under the coordonation of WEBCON BPM;
- Setting up specially appointed reports to gauge measure proficiency, task discernibility and continuous choice announcing (call-to-arrange forthcoming rundown).
Conclusion

For Quasar Comex, the platform called Digital Employee in E-Commerce is the solution that provided them with robotic tools in order to generate a fast and error-free internal flow, tracking human intervention and reducing costs.

Because of this implementation, there is a reasonable expansion in efficiency and deals and the stream from taking requests, invoicing, creating AWBs and announcing goes on autopilot. Digitization is the future and Quasar Comex has understood that its business can be improved and smoothed out with the assistance of mechanical arrangements fitting to the current action and developing with the adjustments in the business environment.
10 November 2020