Customer Success: UBS

UBS AG is a client-focused financial services company that offers a combination of wealth management, asset management and investment banking services on a global and regional basis. UBS Wealth Management & Business Banking (UBS WM&BB) in Switzerland generates over 1 billion transactions per month, of which approximately 200 million accrue at the end of each month, requiring UBS to handle 10 million postings per hour, managing and reporting on 500 million account balances.

Automate and centralize IT and business processes to improve Business Intelligence (BI) and reduce costs

UBS needed a solution that could help the company coordinate and automate disparate technologies used in its core processing systems. This was necessary for smooth processing and timely reporting. UBS also needed to provide insight on exactly which products and services are profitable, as well as which business centers and market segments show signs of sustained future growth. UBS’s financial data lacked synchronization across 170 systems, with unnecessary and redundant processing. The organization also faced pressure to reduce the cost of IT systems involved in the accounting process.

Together with external partners, UBS created a new “GEAR” (Global Environment for Accounting & Reporting) system to unite financial and managerial accounting systems. The company used Cronacle™ by Redwood as the central process management solution. This enabled corporate managers to connect and coordinate all finance reporting. Redwood is the “glue” that holds the entire GEAR solution together.

The system processed more than 15 billion transactions in the first three quarters. More than 170 applications deliver their data every day, starting at 6 p.m. Cronacle enables UBS to process this data automatically, overnight. That way, complete, up-to-date reports are available in the morning. So far, UBS has seen a 30 percent reduction in total cost of ownership from their previous solutions. Industry experts attest that GEAR gives UBS a 5 year head start over their competition.

Centralized: One automation system replaced 16 applications, allowing a single, comprehensive view for improved Business Intelligence (BI) and risk management.

Economical: The total cost of IT process solution ownership decreased by 30 percent.

Efficient: UBS saw immediate time and cost savings for its accounting and reporting processes.

Fast: Their financial report production process time was cut almost in half--from nine to five days.