Ports of Auckland (POAL) is New Zealand's largest import container port.
POAL provides container terminal handling services, including receipt, delivery, transit storage and shipment of a wide range of import and export cargos, a variety of cargo handling services, marine services including pilotage, towage, hydrography, and bunkering services, and provides services and facilities to support the cruise ship industry. It also maintains freight hubs in South Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and Manawatu.
Although 100% owned by Auckland Council, POAL is governed under the Port Companies Act 1988 and is not a council-controlled organisation (CCO).
The problem with reporting
Inconsistent reporting irked the detail-orientated POAL financial team and slowed down their monthly reporting processes. The reports differed in look and feel from one to another, and there was no surety that they all used the same set of correct information.
“We were looking for reporting consistency,” says James Kennedy, Group Financial Controller for POAL. “Our reporting was done in Excel and Word, which meant we were ending up with multiple versions, formatting inconsistencies – and not always one version of the truth! We also wanted to reduce time taken in the whole reporting process.”
As POAL has a long, well-established relationship with Fusion5’s Corporate Performance Management team going right back to their Mindfull days, Kennedy says they were the natural choice . “It was a logical extension to go to them – we didn’t feel the need to look elsewhere.”
CDM, here we come!
Fusion5 introduced POAL to CDM (Certent Disclosure Management), and Kennedy says it’s been an enormous success.
Fusion5 used CDM to create a secure and automated disclosure management process, with scalable reporting to fulfil POAL’s enterprise-level financial and regulatory reporting needs. The reporting cycle is streamlined, and report creation is automated by connecting content directly to source data – in this case - the POAL’s financial data. This has saved POAL time, stress, and money by managing book close, as well as the production, publication and filing of financial and regulatory statements and reports.
“We use CDM for our statutory reporting, budget presentation and monthly reporting to the executive and board, and we are now fully confident that the numbers are accurate. And the reports look great!
“Making changes is instantaneous. In the past, updating numbers was a tedious, time-consuming process of re-populating tables and re-cutting them into a Word document.”
And he’s delighted with the new era of accuracy. “I now have error-free reporting in a consistent Ports of Auckland format. I don’t have to worry about the accuracy of the numbers because I know they will be correct and consistent. Our reporting is spot-on, and I sleep better for knowing that.”
Kennedy says that with CDM, they’ve also saved a significant amount of time.
“On average, we save nearly three days per month in reporting effort with the introduction of CDM. It’s made a huge difference.”
What next?
Kennedy says that the experience of working with Fusion5’s CPM team was very positive and supportive. And given the success of CDM, he’s keen to see where else POAL can make time savings.
