Company
Aspes Multiservizi provides for essential services to over 100.000 between families and companies: gas, water, refuse collection and their disposal, waters’ purification reflux, care of the public green. Besides this, other services have been added, for an area which is expanding: wiring in fibre optics, sale of recycled materials, production of mixtures for agriculture, public illumination, search of water escapes and other.
Aspes Multiservizi offers its' services to citizens of all the associated county councils: Pesaro, Cartoceto, Colbordolo, Gradara, Mombaroccio, Monteciccardo, Montelabbate, Montemaggiore, St. Costanzo, Sant'Angelo in Lizzola, Tavullia. Aspes Multiservizi is an industrial group whose ownership is distributed between the county council partners and Hera Spa, the Holding of Energy and the Environmental Resources of Emilia-Romagna. The supply of services takes place throughout different companies, of which Aspes Multiservizi holds shares:
- Aspes Gas: company of gas sale.
- Aspes Energy: trading and production of electric energy, consulting on energetic problems
- Acque: managements of civil purification plants.
- Aspes Più: management, maintenance, assistance and ready intervention on heating and conditioning systems.
- Markanet: Realization and management of web services on fiber optics.
- Ricicla: Marketing of materials resulting from the treatment of refusals.
History
1995 - The Fusion: on January 1° Aspes originated from the fusion of two public utility corporations: Amga (water and methane gas) and the Amanup (environmental hygiene and local road hulage).
1998 - Ten Towns councils: on January 1° the Aspes, having been a public corporation depending from the Pesaro town council, becomes a pool firm under ten (eventually twelve) provincial town councils, thus making an important jump in the management of integrated public utility on the territory.
1998 - AMI Transport: on October 1° the newly reorganized transport service is parcelled out and given to Ami S.p.A., which is constituted by the same Aspes and by the town council of Urbino. Thus is in function of gaining a single management of the public transports in the whole province.
2000 - The Spa: on September 1°, Aspes undertakes a modern juridical configuration and becomes a public joint-stock company.
2001 - Aspes division: on April 2 it is decided to separate propriety and management; there will be two companies with different tasks:
1. Aspes S.p.A., entirely public, manages the networks and the production facilities as well as the town.
2. Aspes Multiservizi S.p.A. undertakes the tasks of operational management and growth of trade services in the energy sector, in the integrated water cycle and in environment.
2002 - A Partner from the Emilia-Romagna: in July Aspes Multiservizi starts the privatization process with the entry in its structure of a new partner, Seabo S.p.A., who after which becomes Hera S.p.A.
2003 - Privatization: in June Aspes Multiservizi carries out a Public Offer sale of Ordinary Shares: a big success.
Management Intelligence in Aspes
The project of Management Intelligence in Aspes Multiservizi has been developed by a team of experts in Finance&Controlling of Aspes and SDG professionals. This is how the study was planned:
- Economic budget
- 3 Year Plan
- Forecast Cash Flow
- Investments Budget
- Property budget
- Ratio Analysis
- Economic-financial Booklet
- Consolidated prospectus
The new Intelligence setting introduces these perfected features:
- Systematic organization: information are collected, parametrizied and made available in their totality; flexibility of the structure allows a simple adaptation to changes in management in a competitive context.
- Availability: the access to the model is easily accessible and guarantees simplicity, transparency and univocity of information, as well as in the elaboration procedures, in the interpretation and sharing of the KPI.
- Simulation: the management of the whole process expects the users to have different simulation tools, that may allow to value the various relations of cause and effect in different cases of variability. At the same time it is possible to quantify the operating results on the different targets after our intervention.
The system therefore brings to: a better anticipation of future events as it is able to answer in the best of ways to the market demand; diffusion of specific targets working with the aim of creating channels of communications between process owners; efficient distribution of resources amongst different activities and/or users; adoption of possible corrective actions for a reinstatement in the attainment of targets.
Economic Planning
The process of Economic Planning is shown in figure.
The Economic Budget model is divided as follows:
- Sale Turnover
- Operational Costs
- Personnel Cost (Direct and Indirect)
- Technicals means expenses
- Structure Cost
The management is structured according:
- Month
- Cost Centre of first allocation
- Cost Centre of effective receiving
- Nature of Profit & Loss Account
- Insertion of Punctual Values: for every combination of Nature, Cost Centre, Month the punctual value can be managed. The total Profit & Loss Account will be given by the sum of all the elementary insertions.
- Percentage Insertion and United Values: for every combination of Nature, Cost Center, Month, a percentage of incidence will be associated. Inserting a value of synthesis (i.e. an annual total of a voice of cost) it will be allocated on every month and all the orders on the base of the inserted percentages.
The system guarantees, on the basis of shared drivers directly managed by the controller, the allocation of the costs sustained by centres of indirect responsibility towards the cost centres that receives the relative activities.
From the Proceeds Budget it is possible to determine the whole Forecast Economic Account with the exception of the financial and fiscal areas. The definition of the Direct Labour Cost takes place through the management of projections of the historical data, of the theoretical hours of work, of the STD cost by the hour and of the estimated hours, that are valued on the basis of the Service/Accounting Sector of affiliation (Water, Gas, Purification, Sewerages, Urban Hygiene, Public Green, Workshop). The definition of the Means Cost is calculated as a consequence of the preceding step, because the applied STD cost is function of the MOD cost. Consequently: management of the value of anticipated budget on the basis of the preceding steps and the historical data, theoretical indication times for the 11 Cost Centres involved, reaching the STD cost through the relationship between the two items described; the final increase of value is calculated on the basis of the total amount of hours of these means considering the STD structure to be given on the basis of the Use / Cost Centre calculated. The whole process described brings to the drawing up of the Allocation Charge Budget.
This result is the Frozen Budget and comes out from the initial management prospect which is coherent with the initial strategic plan. The budget proposal will be subsequently valued and it will be possible to intervene on the basis of the mentioned categories:
- Volume Turnover by Department (Water, Gas, Heat,…)
- Incidence Structure Costs
- Standard Means Cost
- Productive labour Costs
- .........
So an economic planning has been delined that includes specific variations of the Frozen Budget and produces a Scenery Budget. Such simulation can be overseen and updated at the discretion of the client, without limitations, until a final agreement is reached.
At the end, we will have the final document of the Approved Budget that represents the formal Budget of Aspes Multiservizi, official term of comparison with the final balance data which formed with the progress of work. Nevertheless it will be possible for the client to look upon the budget variance of the Requested Budget, or to examine one of the other alternative presented.
Once the Economic Budget has been approved, the controller proceeds to the definition of a 3 Year Plan using such level as an input for the medium-term planning. The client, on the basis of the Service/Accounting Sector of affiliation, manages percentage variations on the different natures to reach the definition of the year +1. The variations can be inserted, at the same time, both in positive and in negative in such way that, through the use of specifications notes of text, it can hold in consideration the oscillation of the value for different evaluations. The input for the year +2 can have been coming directly for the year +1 or, if there exist some contingent cyclicity, from the same Approved Budget.
Financial Planning
The Perspective Economic Account constitutes the propaedeutic step to the determination of the Cash Flows and the Statement of Assets and Liabilities in an optic of transformation of economic events in the relative monetary demonstrations and impacts on assets and liabilities. On the basis of the lead time of anticipated collection and payment, of the oscillation of such values on the basis of empirical evidence and of the shares of VAT applied to each item, Cash In and Cash Out determined coming from the operational management.
Determination of the Cash Flow contributes to form the Clean Financial Position, on which the financial charges/incomes that flow into the Economic Account are calculated, modifying the banking position. Once the Gross income has been reached through the calculation of the financial position, the amount of taxes of competence of the exercise it is quantified and the Net income is determined. Having calculated the flows, on the base of confluence and property rectifications without impact on the operational management, they update the beginning property situation and they determine the to the point, in matrixes base of confluence and property rectifications without impact on the operational management, adjourn the financial situation of beginning exercise and they determine the Financial Budget.
The system foresees the possibility to opportunely reclassify, if the Management think so, the Economic Account and the Statement of Assets and Liabilities, arriving to fix a series of indicators that will show the state of health of the company.
The Economic Account has been declassified using a Value Assistant scheme, that evidences the sum of some indicative results showing the total economic cycle of transformation of the company. It represents, on the one side, the wealth produced by the company in comparison to that acquired from the outside and, from the other, the ability of the company to reward, more adequately, the inside factors of production. The Statement of Assets and Liabilities has been reclassified through financial criteria that, in an alternative logic of managerial pertinence, foresees that activities and passivities are valued according to their attitude or less to become ready and payable within the twelve months from the editing of the budget, or over the twelve months.
Following the effected refilings the indicative principals have been built for a correct and initial identification of the component value-based:
Ratios: ROE, ROI, ROS, Financial Laverage, Fixed Assets laverage, Quick Ratio, Acid Test, Treasury Margin.
Consolidated Balance
The final model of analysis and economic-financial planning is able to represent the results of the companies that are part of the GROUP and, contemporarily, to underline the general course according to the principles of editing of consolidation. The objective is to get:
- Consolidated P&L and Statement of A&L
- Perimeter varying consolidation P&L and Statement of A&L
- Aggregate P&L and Statement of A&L
- Corporate P&L and Statement of A&L
Nevertheless, the incompleteness and not always available informations of such companies has limited, until now, the full intervention and an initial prospectus has been implemented, which schedules:
- Economic Budget Aspes Gas
- Consolidated Economic Budget of Gas Service
The management of the business related to the supply of gas is taken over by Aspes Multiservizi and Aspes Gas. This one deals with the sales activities, while Aspes Multiservizi handles the distribution; in both cases proceeds are given by the application of different rates, by progressive bands, on the basis to the consumption of m³ of gas.
So the main entrys for Aspes Gas are:
- Proceeds coming from sales in proportion to the utilized volumes
- Proceeds coming from the application of a fixed rate for each client on the basis of the band of affiliation
- Purchase cost of the gas
On the other hand Aspes Multiservizi's main task are the proceeds that come from distribution in proportion to the utilized volumes. Nevertheless, you may assume that Aspes Multiservizi can sustain a cost of purchase: during the phase of supply, it can happen that the counter indicates an inferior volume as to the quantity that has been introduced, which means a loss within the whole process of distribution. In such the Authority grants a quota of tolerance below which no consequence are seen; if the limits are passed, other gas must be bought, so Aspes Multiservizi is forced to sustain its' relative cost. Another voice of proceeds that we find in the economic planning of Aspes Multiservizi is the service standard that Aspes Gas liquidates, to which there is a corresponding voice of cost for the use of the support structures.
So we may say that in this case the entries suppress each other, as an intercompany, and there are the following profit/cost (according to which company we are considering):
- Distribution Profit / Loss
- Service Profit / Loss
Targets achieved
The undergone intervention has allowed the middle and top-management of Aspes Multiservizi to value in a flexible way the managing critical state. It has done so using a model of analysis that evidences the manifold determinants of the value created by the firm. The ability to trace the absorption of resources following the economic cycle at the right moment, quantifying and contextually analyzing the resultant trade-off from the relative financial choices, inspect the targets assigned to the different divisions/services given out and to harmonize them in processes, activities and responsibilities linked to the decisional organism. These are some of the principal targets achieved and they result being essential factors for an effective matching between management and the business-system seen in the evolution of its strategy.
Amongst the major critical states faced, it is necessary to remember the realization of the strategic course and the ability to foresee in the plan the conditions for its implementation. The main thing to do is to make sure that the planning is well connected to the business system. Such an approach consists in activating the inside mechanisms that strengthen the relation between the strategic orientation and the operational actions that are consequent. The final aim of the management, broadly reached, has therefore been the development of business values, skills, organizational responsibilities and managerial systems that connect the strategic decisional process and the operational process to all the hierarchical levels and that they may horizontally cross all the functional and business responsibilities in the company.