Challenges

• Eliminate inconsistencies arising from storing the same data (relating to cost centers, specialized banking staff for different branches, and general ledgers for various NAB businesses) in different finance and operational systems
• Ensure changes to data items (such as updates to a particular Australian cost center or account details) in one system are applied across other finance and business systems
• Establish a standard change control process, to prevent ad hoc, unjustified, and erroneous data updates that may result in financial misrepresentations or inaccurate data in regulatory reports, such as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or Basel III reports
• Address reporting issues, where one finance system—containing the bank’s multiple general ledgers, for example—produces financial results that are different from those produced by another finance system due to data inconsistencies between the two systems
• Replace an ageing, inflexible mainframe system used as a master data management tool with a more sophisticated master data management solution

Solutions

• Implemented Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management to better manage master data assets in 34 underlying finance and operational applications, including human resources, general ledger, planning, and an Oracle Hyperion Financial Management system
• Achieved a 200% return on investment
• Ensured cost center data consistency by establishing a formal, automated change control process, where updates to finance master data in the Oracle Hyperion master data system are fed into or applied to 34 other finance and operational systems
• Improved data quality from 90% to 99% by cleansing the source data and reducing the number of duplicate records when master data was migrated from the bank’s mainframe and other systems to Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management
• Guaranteed data accuracy in regulatory reports such as IFRS and Basel III, the new regulatory framework developed to improve supervision, transparency, and disclosure; and enhance risk management and governance practices in the Australian banking sector
• Enhanced management insight into the state of NAB financial operations worldwide, by providing a single, accurate view of finance master data
• Increased integrity of the bank’s enterprise reports, as improved data quality means fewer inaccuracies and anomalies

Why Oracle

NAB evaluated a number of master data management products, but only Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management offered the all around capability that the bank needed.

“It would have to be the best software product I have encountered―everything it says it can do, it does, and does well,” said David Gray, asset owner master data, finance asset & operations, National Australia Bank.

Implementation Process

To prepare for the Oracle Hyperion implementation, NAB spent a number of weeks gathering system requirements for interface designs.

“All the rules and validations of the source system must be replicated in the Oracle Hyperion system,” said Gray. “For example, if a cost center has a four-digit code, it must be the same in the Oracle Hyperion system.”

NAB conducted data reviews of each system to clearly define property configurations, such as system defaults, derivation logic, and verifications. The bank also opted for a centralized maintenance and governance approach, where one team looks after the master data.After these initial preparations, NAB began adding test data into the Oracle Hyperion system. According to Gray, data validation was a crucial step.

“If multiple sources had been maintaining the same data, there would be differences,” he said. “We had to choose the right data―or the right hierarchy of data―to validate and test. As this project was owned and driven by the Finance department, we deployed the data hierarchy for the management reporting line of business first, which includes the bank’s cost centers.”

The implementation team, comprising Gray as the project manager, two NAB team members, and a consultant from Oracle Consulting, took three months to deploy Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management.

The Oracle consultant provided initial training on the Oracle Hyperion product. The Oracle Hyperion master data management system went live in 2006.