Global Reporting With Rules Based Tagging
Global reporting for a world wide manufacturer did not allow for adequate reconciling, summarizing and analyzing transactions.
Problem Definition and Gap Analysis
A global manufacturer receives data from around the world from various ERP systems coded and classified incorrectly due to job and contract complexity. Reporting of this data does not allow for profitability analysis at a detailed level and straight forward commission calculations. The data from different systems is not consistent and a lot of manual work has been required to correctly classify the data.
Repeating this process for new accounts and transactions will be time and labor intensive.
Results and Benefits
A custom engineered SaaS solution was developed using the Baseology® Platform. The solution provides for online system availability and integration with onsite network security. More than 1,000 hours of manual processing saved annually as a result of automation. Accurate and more complete commission calculations are now available and utilized for payout based on annual sales revenue over $1B. Automated machine learning and decision trees provide data tagging which is much more accurate than manual processing and analytical review.
The significant visibility improvement now allows management to evaluate profitability at a detailed product level allowing for more informed proposals and adherence to a formal proposal policy. Leveraging a SaaS online approach with Baseology® has mitigated significant business risk due to reliance on a single individual for processing and reporting. Global reporting and meaningful dash boards allow for business units to have greater visibility to their sales, operations and profitability information. A built in connector for business areas allows them to perform end user driven business analysis using MS Excel and other authorized BI tools.
Per Diem Expense Tax Exposure
Logistics company uses a transportation system that does not adequately help track and report driver per diem information. Company faces significant tax exposure.
Problem Definition and Gap Analysis
The client is a logistics company that uses a very popular transportation management suite which integrates with their accounting system.
The purchased transportation system does not adequately help track and report driver per diem information. The company faces a significant and material tax exposure if a current per diem tax analysis cannot be performed. Additionally, ongoing tax risk cannot be managed using the existing data and systems.
Results and Benefits
A custom engineered SaaS solution was developed using the Baseology® Platform. Created a driver per diem tax application which leverages Google Maps to calculate driver per diems based on location, proximity to home and activity. The new solution is available for business management to maintain, track and report driver per diems. The per diem tracking application utilizes Google maps API to facilitate calculations. The company was able to support their tax basis and eliminate an $8M payroll tax exposure by accurately and completely tracking per diem related activity. The application provides a reasonable and objective basis for tax treatment by tracking activity, but also maximizes driver per diems based on over and under payments. The automated solution helps to ensure adherence to the company’s formal driver per diem policy.
Logical Access Reconciliation, Roles and SODs
Enterprise application does not support adequate restrictions of logical access, role based provisioning and segregation of duties.
Problem Definition and Gap Analysis
An enterprise application used to facilitate logistics did not have an adequate security model. The enterprise application’s security was not well documented and a total population of options (e.g. menus, users and groups) were unknown. When provided access, users were provided access to all resources by default and the enterprise application did not structure that information into meaningful business transactions and security roles. The process for setting up and provisioning security was manually intensive with hundreds of thousands of potential options.
Results and Benefits
A custom engineered SaaS solution was developed using the Baseology® Platform. The Access Reconciliation Database or ARD® promotes effective and practical logical security provisioning, monitoring, reporting and reconciliation. As part of ARD implementation, a logical security model was developed which turned security off by default and then defined security at the lowest levels which was then rolled into transactions. Each transaction was defined for least privilege and segregation of duties identification. The ARD is a web based application that makes it easier to provision security and maintain role based access information within various financial and ERP applications. By leveraging the latest technology, the application provides one of the most effective processes for implementing, documenting and maintaining adequate control over an application’s security.
ARD’s automation saves time while greatly simplifying the task of maintaining access documentation, provisioning access, validating security and reporting. It provides an effective way of maintaining logical access documentation, and then applying that documented and authorized access to the enterprise application’s environment in an automated fashion. Security setup in production can then be automatically validated against authorized and approved business roles and transactions.
The ARD leverages existing application security models including Microsoft’s Active Directory. The ARD maintains a method to formally document application transactions at all levels including modules, menus and fields. The solution helps align transactions with the business process via formal documentation and stakeholder acceptance and includes them in a central repository for “authorized” and “approved” roles. As part of documenting the business areas, the ARD helps identify, document and track Segregation of Duties (SOD) issues, provides business transaction documentation and role based reporting. The ARD allows security administrators to visually provision new and existing access for roles and transactions, facilitates reconciliation of user, third party, service and system accounts to active personnel and required accounts, and supports meaningful categorization and business purpose documentation for all accounts.
Gap Between Mobile Application and Internal Management System
Developed a mission critical API allowing a company’s 3rd party mobile application to interface with their onsite transportation management system.
Problem Definition and Gap Analysis
The transportation company was having difficulty syncing up business requirements, mobile application functionality and internal systems. An existing mobile application was in place which allowed for improved communications and enhancement of the driver’s experience. The existing mobile application provided various features like pre-plans, load assignments, instant messaging, document scanning, accident reporting, preventive maintenance, and safety videos. Many of the mobile application features required interfacing with the company’s onsite transportation management software.
Results and Benefits
A custom engineered SaaS solution was developed for the company. We created the middle ware that would allow the company’s mobile application to communication with internal resources / systems. The solution required consideration of various APIs, services and databases that were created to enable the flow of information between the mobile application and onsite systems. More than 3,000 drivers use the application in this mission critical environment.
The API solution include new services including the load messaging service which delivers load information to the mobile application provider. The information is then displayed on the driver’s phone. The load messaging service monitors for activity and sends the messages to the mobile application for the drivers. A free form messaging service was also developed for sending dispatch messages to the drivers. All API related services are monitored and consider how to handle failures in sending and receiving.
