Invaluable optimisation of time reporting and project management
Länsförsäkringar consists of 24 independent companies that make their own decisions on prices and which products are to be worked with, etc. Cooperation occurs within areas such as IT, business development, service functions, and brands via the common company Länsförsäkringar AB.
In 2003 Copernicus Pro was introduced for time reporting and project accounting within IT, life insurance, property insurance, and parts of the service operation. IT is today the largest user whose roughly 300 employees and subcontractors sell services within the LF Group for about 1.4 billion Swedish kronor per year.
The system is used on both development and administrative projects and has given line managers completely new possibilities to follow up things such as level of workload, costs and revenue, and not least which competencies are engaged in what project.
One has a comprehensive project operation, both internal projects and assignment or development projects that are continuously invoiced. The internal projects comprise among other things, administration of about 250 IT systems that are managed as separate projects.
– This means that we can follow up costs for every single system over their entire life cycle. All time worked even continuous operations, goes directly into Copernicus and is book kept on the respective project codes, says Kim Åström, system owner at Länsförsäkringar AB. There is even a connection for reading purchase transactions (everything from coffee bread to hardware and program licences) via our authorization system which thereafter is charged to expenses on the right project.
Before the introduction of Copernicus Pro the IT operation logged time in a self-developed mainframe computer system. Later a bookkeeping system was purchased that included certain time accounting functions. For different reasons no proper implementation was ever done, which lead to big differences in bookkeeping, etc.
Copernicus Pro was implemented in three different business areas where one works in three different ways. IT jobs, for example, with many projects and few types of work; the Property Division has fewer projects and many types of work, while the Life Division only reports time to its ABC-system.
– Copernicus Pro has worked as clear as a bell, we haven’t had any oddities at all, and least of all of the problems with differences in bookkeeping have disappeared completely, says Kim Åström. The most important effect perhaps is that we have reached a broad cost consciousness in the organization, a pretty big change in our operation where costs have traditionally not been the focus. Today there is a totally different understanding that everything that we do costs money, regardless of whether of one’s accord or with contracted labour.
Länsförsäkringar has in addition simplified it s internal flow where Copernicus is a central system with completely mechanical flow in the financial system. A clear advantage is fully traceable all the way back to the person who has keyed in the information somewhere, something that also applies to the operation related production flow.
– We are now busy introducing new analytical tools and a new financial system from Oracle. In connection with this we are placing even more of our internal follow-up and invoicing in Copernicus, says Kim Åström. Copernicus optimizes the handling of our time reporting and project management, while at the same time it, in a smooth way, divides costs to the final payer within the Group – to invaluable benefit for our operation.
Key points
- Effective time reporting, project follow-up, and internal debiting.
- Handle debiting of large volumes with material and purchasing.
- Integration with financial and salary systems.
- Very stable system for 1,500 users