Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA optimizes external financial reporting
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- Europe
Country
- Germany
Product
- IBM Cognos Disclosure Management
Tech Stack
- IBM Cognos Disclosure Management
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Data-as-a-Service
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Use Cases
- Regulatory Compliance Monitoring
Services
- Data Science Services
About The Customer
Fresenius Medical Care is the world’s largest integrated provider of products and services for individuals undergoing dialysis because of chronic kidney failure. Through its network of over 3,400 dialysis clinics, the company provides dialysis treatment to more than 290,000 patients worldwide. The company is headquartered in Bad Homburg, Germany and has a team of 25 employees working on financial reporting. The company's financial reports are prepared in accordance with international accounting standards (IFRS and US-GAAP) and in different currencies (Euro and US dollars).
The Challenge
Fresenius Medical Care wanted to optimize its reporting process, particularly in light of the increased demands made by regulatory authorities on external financial reporting. The preparation of financial reports in accordance with international accounting standards (IFRS and US-GAAP [Generally Accepted Account Principles]) as well as in different currencies (Euro and US dollars) is a very complex and expensive process. The legal importance and reputational value of these standardized quarterly and annual reports for listed companies require the financial reports to be of a consistently high quality. However, the requirements for the structure and content of these reports are constantly increasing, while the submission deadlines get tighter.
The Solution
Fresenius Medical Care implemented IBM Cognos Disclosure Management to accelerate and streamline the reporting process while complying with all legal and regulatory requirements. The solution allows specific areas of responsibility to be assigned to individual employees, making it easy to work on different parts of the same report simultaneously. The system saves each change together with the exact time it was made and the identity of the author who made it. As a result, all the development stages and the complete change history can be traced very easily. At any time, a recent report of the current status can be produced and sent to senior management, other important internal decision makers, or accountants.
Operational Impact
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