About the company
An international company that develops, delivers, and supports leading-edge aerospace and defence technology and systems, Cobham is organized into four core divisions: Mission Systems, Defense Systems, Avionics and Surveillance, and Aviation Services. Cobham’s products and services have been at the heart of sophisticated military and civil systems for more than 75 years. Based in Dorset in the UK with 11,000 employees across five continents, Cobham has 3 primary operating divisions, 9 strategic business units, and 55 operating companies, with customers and partners in more than 100 countries. To learn more, visit www.cobham.com.

Setting the strategy
The volume of entities owned by Cobham, combined with its plc status, mean that its senior executive team relies on consistent, timely access to management information to run the business and execute its strategy. Every month, Cobham's 55 operating companies report into the main holding company, but continued growth and expansion meant that during one recent year, the company reached a point whereby the capabilities of its previous reporting system were being stretched beyond system limits.

As a large plc organisation with a strategy to grow organically and through acquisition, the company had certain expectations of what its reports should look like, and what capabilities should be available in processing and disseminating company information. Therefore, it had to review its reporting processes and systems imminently.

At that stage, the company realized that a gap existed between its processes and its IT systems. To move forward successfully, it had to plug the gap. The management team needed a flexible approach to reporting, storing, understanding, and distributing company information, and a system that would facilitate high-quality reports.