DRK Landesverband Nordrhein e.V.

What was your starting point?

Böhnke: We were unable to set up a comprehensive reporting structure because the financial controllers all worked in separate databases and developed their own reporting structures. Added to that were structural issues: too many accounting clients, inconsistent charts of accounts and a lack of transparency regarding allocations. Our aim was to introduce a uniform reporting system on various levels across the whole group – from the group overview to the cost centre analysis.

What were the highlights?

In the course of the implementation, we were most impressed by the creation of a uniform chart of accounts and the merging of all the data into one shared database. This helps us to produce evaluations for the entire group quickly. For me, the Corporate Planning solution’s highlights are the automatic report mailing with Report-Mailer, the interface with a drill-down function to the pre-system, and the internal account reconciliation. These features simplify and speed up our work enormously.

What lessons have you learned?

My advice for other organisations would be to define and optimise your processes before proceeding with digitisation. If you spare yourself this undeniably painstaking work at the start, you could soon find that, as a Telefónica Germany CEO once so pointedly put it: “If you digitise a shit process, you’ll have a shit digital process.” It’s important generally to set yourself realistic goals and then to implement them step by step.

 

About the German Red Cross North Rhine State Association

The North Rhine State German Red Cross Society is the umbrella association for its welfare organisations, the National Aid Society and the Youth Red Cross. With its district associations and local societies, it fulfils many vitally important social functions.