Financial Management

Hilton Group "books"ќ in business performance management solution from Cartesis

FTSE 100 leader centralises global reporting for greater efficiency and visibility

December 9th, 2004 -- Hilton Group plc has selected the Cartesis® Suite to improve the quality of information available to its decision makers. Hilton will be implementing Cartesis Magnitude™, which encompasses key financial management activities - specifically budgeting, planning, forecasting, statutory consolidation, management reporting and performance management - in one single database. This will be combined with Cartesis Intercompany Server™, enabling the business units to reconcile intercompany balances directly with one another via the web in real-time.

The result for Hilton Group is a more efficient, insightful analysis of all its financials, which includes quantitative and qualitative data for its 390 hotels worldwide, LivingWell Premier Clubs and the Ladbrokes betting and gaming division. The one central source will enable the Hilton Group to dramatically improve the efficiency of collection and analysis of financial information. Moreover, this 'one version of the truth', will also give greater visibility of processes for informed decision making.

In addition to financial reporting, Cartesis Magnitude ensures an integrated BPM solution by providing access to a range of Hilton's key performance indicators. This includes information such as hotel rates and occupancy, betting gross win margins and active customer numbers, LivingWell membership numbers, employee numbers and more qualitative details on guest satisfaction. The suite will also support Hilton Group's move to IFRS, as the solution provides guidance and controls for global accounting and compliance standards.

"Our move to Cartesis Suite was driven by four key requirements: a need for a single view of the numbers; to increase reporting efficiency; to ease the burden of our move to IFRS, and finally, to facilitate delivery of relevant information to our managers around the world," said Philip Bowcock, Financial Controller, at Hilton International.

"What impressed us about the Cartesis Suite was not just its ability to deliver on our requirements, but the fact that both the design of the Cartesis solution and the Cartesis team are clearly driven by the same ethos - adaptable, flexible, commercially-minded and very much aware of our particular business requirements."

"Today's corporate enterprises are operating in a multi-lingual, multi-currency and multi-market environment. If they are to succeed, access to the right financial, and non-financial, information is vital. By 'right' we mean accurate, timely and relevant," added John Taylor, Managing Director at Cartesis UK. "Of course achieving this is challenging, but Hilton International is tackling the problem