Page 24 - Sphere No.11 (Apr 2004)

SPHERE
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C O V E R S T O R Y
Cheung, HWL’s Deputy Group Chief Accountant. “So we got
IBM and Oracle involved and began work on HARP (Hutchison
Accounts Reporting Package) — a customised solution built on
top of a standard Oracle financial system.”
The enormity of the task soon became
clear. Not only did the Group’s business
processes and financial systems require stan-
dardisation but the actual philosophy under-
pinning these systems would need to evolve.
“This was not just about systems but also
about the thinking underlying them,” notes
Cheung. “We were using world-class tech-
nology to change people’s thinking and meet
our objectives.”
PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING
The new EBIS software would not just
improve the technological infrastructure, but
would also enhance the processes behind the
systems — and the people behind the processes. By introducing
a standard consolidated system of data input across all business
groups, data integrity immediately improved, reporting became
more accurate and human errors could be traced to their point of
origin, creating a greater focus on individual accountability.
“The system is only as good as the information fed in,” says
Cheung.“EBIS certainly affected a shift in thinking and account-
ability, and removed human error to a large extent by automating
a large part of the more tedious manual tasks
previously required.”
This transition would not have been possi-
ble if the software did not exactly match the
needs of various Hutchison divisions in dif-
ferent countries. EBIS works by standardising
figures from disparate reporting structures,
making adjustments automatically and leav-
ing a clear audit trail.
To best understand the EBIS system’s
mechanics, it is helpful to consider a practical
example of how the results of Hutchison Port
Holdings’ (HPH) widespread operations get
consolidated into the Group results.
The results of an individual port, once
completed and verified, are automatically summarised in HPH’s
reporting format and then translated to Hong Kong dollars,
HWL’s reporting currency. A similar process occurs across all the
HPH operations, with consolidated information submitted from
“Top management
can now log on
securely anywhere
in the world”
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