Viacom Case

Is a leading American global media company, with pre eminent positions in broadcast and cable television, radio, outdoor advertising and online.

With programming that appeals to audiences in every demographic category across virtually all media, the company creates, promotes and distributes entertainment, news, sports and music.

• Viacom 1975-2005.• CBS Corporation-2006.• Head Quarters- New York, USA.• Chairman of the Board- Sumner M.

Redstone.• President, CEO, Director- Philippe P.

Dauman.• Industry – Cable TV, Motion Pictures.• Employees – 11500.

DIVISIONSDIVISIONS• Film Production and Distribution: Viacom

International, Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, Republic Pictures, MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies, Go Fish Pictures

• Television Networks: Comedy Central, Logo,BET, Spike, TV Land, Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon, Noggin, The N, Nick Jr., TEENick, MTV,VH1, MTV2, CMT, Palladia

• Television Production and Television Distribution: DreamWorks Television

• Video Gaming: Xfire, Harmonix, GameTrailers, Neopets

• New Media: MTV New Media

SYNOPSISSYNOPSIS• Viacom Intl plans to re engineer their

company• Finance dept inter twined with process of

other depts• Survey by Garner Group & Forrester

Research- top priority- finance• Finance dept

– Oldest dept and is in desperate need of redesign and re building

– To make decisions for business (marketing to new product development)

IMPORTANCE OF FIS???IMPORTANCE OF FIS???

• To handle financial reporting of its wholly subsidiaries (3 per year)

• Eliminate dependence of paper – re keying, re checking and accruals

• Gives more time for analysis rather than collecting data

Q 1: Identify 2 reasons why FIS are excellent tools for facilitating decision making.

• Financial transactions of the organization affect many other divisions such as sales, purchase and others. Salaries of the employeesSales and purchasesInventoryOther expensesDepositsMoveable and non-moveable assets

of the organizationSales tax, Income tax and other local

taxes.

• Cost is what is involved for any business activity and Viacom being such a big player in media the cost involved in marketing, promotions is very huge. Only depending on the financial position the level of promotions/marketing can be decided

Q 2: Explain why FIS were at the center of initiating change at Viacom.

• For an organization which is planning to reengineer the entire company the cost involved is very high.

• Desperate need to centralize and automate the data collection procedure for better data integrity

• Valuable analytical time can be saved rather than wasting on spreadsheet maintenance, data entry and validation.

CURRENT SYSTEMCURRENT SYSTEMAPPLIX TM1 SYSTEM

& REVELWOOD’S FINANCIAL CONSOLIDATION SUITE (FCS)

• Automated data collection that integrates easily into disparate divisions

• Improved reporting process and a complete audit trail

• Greater accounting visibility and more detailed analysis

Source: http://www.laproiq.com/images/ScreenShots/Reports6.jpg Source: http://www.laproiq.com/images/ScreenShots/Reports6.jpg

BUSINESS PROCESS

BUSINESS PROCESS

RE ENGINEERING

RE ENGINEERING

General PrinciplesSimplicity & Empowerment

Process DesignThink horizontally

Organizational StructureRemove barriers & Support business processes

Customer InterfacesWork from the customer perspective

AutomationAutomate to advantage

ADVANTAGESADVANTAGES

• Enable Workers to Make Decisions• Multiple Version Processes• Reduce Audits• Combine Several Jobs into One• Organize Around Processes• Provide Single Point of Contact

CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION

ULTIMATELY ANY ORGANIZATION IS PROGIT DRIVEN AND NOT CHARITY DRIVEN & HENCE FINANCIAL INFORMATION SYSTEM IS CRITICAL