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Infor

RSA Security Inc. Moves BeyondBudgeting to ComprehensivePerformance Management

RSA Security Inc. is the expert in protecting online identities and digital assets. The inventor of core security technologies for the Internet, the company leads the way in strong authentication, encryption and antifraud protection, bringing trust to millions of user identities and the transactions that they perform. With a strong reputation built on a 20-year history of ingenuity, leadership and proven technologies, RSA serves more than 21,000 customers – including financial institutions representing hundreds of millions of consumers around the globe – and interoperates with over 1,000 technology and integration partners.

When RSA decided to purchase a software solution in 1999 to enhance its budgeting process, the immediate need was to automate its outdated, manual system and eliminate the inherent problems: intensive man-hours, data entry errors, version control issues and lack of visibility into underlying data. Forecasting was done on an annual basis and had little value. Company executives needed more immediate, up-to-date information to enable smart and timely business decisions in the constantly changing technology sector. Beyond budgeting and forecasting, RSA wanted to fully leverage its potential in the marketplace by being able to access information, both financial and operational, that would give it the data transparency needed to stay a step ahead of competitors.

“Budgeting was our initial pain point, but we also wanted a software solution that could expand as the company grew,” said David Stack, vice president of financial planning for RSA Security. “We wanted it to encompass forecasting, reporting, financial modeling, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and strategic planning. In order to keep our edge in the marketplace against larger competitors, we felt it was critical to find a solution that would provide centralized, consistent, easily accessible data that could give us superior insight and the ability to respond quickly as opportunities were identified.”

After considering products from other corporate performance management vendors, RSA selected Infor™ PM Business Process Applications (BPAs). “We could have done a budget with any of the products we considered,” said Stack, “but Infor PM BPAs had the broad capabilities we would need going forward. We saw an opportunity to design a phased implementation that would improve our key financial processes while taking advantage of increased functionality and technical developments as they occurred for more strategic future initiatives.”

“We liked the fact that everyone would be working from the same data source,” continued Stack. “The Microsoft® Excel® interface was a key feature, too – we knew it would accelerate user acceptance and increase efficiency.”

By implementing product line P&L reporting to provide the underlying cost structure information, RSA also planned to empower line managers to help drive revenue growth by being able to model various scenarios and provide senior management with a broad list of alternatives and opportunities.

‘Tactical Tool’ Emerges as Strategic Solution

RSA implemented Infor PM BPAs on the Microsoft SQL Server platform. The initial budgeting functionality was rolled out to 30 users within 45 days. The project teams consisted of a project manager and technical consultants from Infor, as well as representatives of the finance, IT and operations groups at RSA.

Today 50 people, consisting of finance staff and key managers, access the Infor PM BPAs system on a regular basis. In addition to budgeting, the system helps deliver detailed monthly expense and headcount reports. The forecast is used for determining quarterly earnings-per-share guidance and has enabled foreign currency exchange analysis.

“Knowing that we had the Infor PM solution and a finely tuned financial process, we were confident each quarter that we could make acquisitions and give guidance to Wall Street and the external market regarding our profit- ability,” said Stack. “We had a high level of confidence that we would be able to deliver on the expectations we had communicated.”

RSA compares product line profit- ability and key operating metrics against major competitors. “The integrated product line P&L forecast is the basis for long-term financial models that take into account market growth rates and ROI analysis,” said Stack. “The resulting reports are used to determine the effectiveness of RSA’s strategic plan.”

Stack cited RSA’s offshoring initiative as one example of how the Infor PM solution has helped uncover critical information that has helped increase the company’s profitability. “We’ve used Infor PM BPAs over time to track profitability growth,” he said. “Using that information as a baseline and projecting forward, we started looking at some of the product lines where we had an opportunity to improve margins and did an analysis of how much moving offshore would reduce the resource cost to deliver those products. We were able to make some strategic decisions that allow us to effectively employ more engineers internationally to help speed up some of the development cycles and still save expense in the offshore facility, while maintaining a lot of our core development in the U.S.”

In 2006, RSA entered into a definitive merger agreement with EMC Corporation. “During the due diligence process, it was obvious that having the divisional and product line P&Ls was of tremendous value,” said Stack. Potential acquiring companies were able to model how different business units would either stand alone or complement their current structure. “Being able to easily model based on those different segments by product line and division helped them to come up with an accurate valuation for the company.”

RSA’s current focus with Infor PM BPAs is on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and future enhancements. The monthly forecast is being used as a control on financial data. Plans are in place to roll out digital signing capabilities for key managers who review and sign off on forecast versus plan variances. Additionally, RSA intends to fully automate their three-year financial models and integrate Infor’s strategic planning functionality.

“The Infor PM solution has moved from a tactical tool that enables us to accurately close our books, to a very strategic application that we use proactively in our process of building equity in the business,” said Stack. “We use the information from Infor PM BPAs to make strategic decisions to improve the company’s overall financial and market position.”