Philips Electronics Ltd. Finds an Industrial Strength Financial Application with WorthIT Fixed Assets
Reprint from CONTROLLER Magazine July 1998

Until 1995, Philips Electronics was using a mainframe-based financial package to manage its fixed assets. ``We found it was not flexible enough for our purposes," says Joseph Ho, manager of corporate accounting. ``Very frequently we had to work after hours, and it had to be fully supported by our IT group - and that is not always possible.

Ho and Philips' general accounting supervisor of corporate accounting, Gulam Fazal, began investigating fixed assets management packages to run on the company's AS/400 and provide expanded reporting capabilities. ``We looked at a couple of packages," says Fazal.

But, Ho says they decided on WorthIT Fixed Assets by WorthIT Software because, ``they know fixed assets, and they were responsive to our questions."

An Industrial Strength Financial Application
Using three integrated tools, WorthIT Fixed Assets standardizes the management of fixed assets across multiple divisions or departments and across local, national and international affiliates.

The Depreciation Accounting and Financial Reporting System tool is the foundation of WorthIT Fixed Assets. It designs custom depreciation schedules, prorates costs, effects group transfers and disposals, tracks unlimited partial disposals, simulates disposal scenarios, compiles comprehensive reports and general ledger posting vouchers and more.

The Capital Expenditures Budgeting System tool projects future depreciation charges, monitors actuals against budgets, evaluates alternative plans using multiple budget scenarios and creates customizable reports and graphs. It also exports data to other applications.

The Management System tool handles asset location management, maintains service histories, monitors projects and work-in-progress expenditures and catalogues asset specifications. This tool builds a database of vital information using one or all four functions to help companies make timely and informative decisions about their fixed assets.

Complete, Flexible Fixed Assets Management
Ho and Fazal implemented WorthIT Fixed Assets throughout 10 divisions in January 1996. ``For budgeting purposes, we can generate a simulation of depreciation expenses for the future months or future years," explains Ho. ``So we can - at any time - ask for forecasted depreciation expenses."
``And it has the capabilities to generate user designed reports which can be run in hundreds of ways because it provides sorting, subtotal, category and data inclusion options.

The Power of WorthIT Fixed Assets
As one of the most powerful and flexible financial solutions on the market, WorthIT Fixed Assets has Assetbooks, which provides Philips with the option to run their multiple divisions in separate assetbooks if they so prefer.

In fact, Ho and Fazal have been so pleased with the results of the WorthIT Fixed Assets network version they've been using, that they are currently the key beta site for the multi-user version which is scheduled for release in the fall of 1998.

With WorthIT Fixed Assets' flexibility, power and reporting capabilities, Philips is ready to continue leading the electronics field into the millennium. Fazal says fixed asset management ``is easy for us now, and we are not dependent upon anybody else."