About the client

Bombardier is a global leader in rail technology, contracted to build trains for both UK and international rail services. With multiple teams working on concurrent projects, effective financial forecasting and resource coordination are critical to their operations.

The challenge

Bombardier’s finance teams needed a secure and efficient system to:

• Forecast staff and manufacturing costs across multiple teams and projects.
• Support different budget scenarios for planning and analysis.
• Collect and review estimated timesheets from teams in a standardised format.
• Generate scenario-based reports for comparison and decision-making.
• Replace the existing Excel-based process, which was flexible but inconsistent and difficult to manage at scale.
• Ensure sensitive financial data was fully protected from external threats and unauthorised access.

The solution

Hero developed a secure online application to replicate and improve upon Bombardier’s Excel-based system. Key features included:

• Excel-like functionality: retaining familiar features such as column copying and total calculations, while standardising the format of submitted data.
• Data integration: importing information from three other internal systems to provide a consolidated view.
• Scenario-based reporting: enabling the finance team to compare forecasts across multiple budget scenarios.
• Global accessibility: providing a secure, web-based system accessible to staff worldwide.
• Robust security controls: restricting access to Bombardier staff via authenticated connections and firewalls, with role-based permissions ensuring users can only see data relevant to their role.
• Data integrity: comprehensive backup routines and restoration testing ensure the system could be fully recovered if required.
• Collaborative development: Hero’s Project Manager worked closely with Bombardier through face-to-face meetings, conference calls and weekly task-based updates to ensure requirements were met.

The impact

• A secure, robust and globally accessible forecasting system has been delivered.
• Efficiency has been improved by standardising submissions from multiple teams.
• Accurate comparison of budget scenarios has been enabled to support better financial decisions.
• The flexibility of Excel has been maintained, while eliminating inconsistencies and errors.
• Compliance and resilience with enterprise-grade security, role-based permissions and tested data recovery have been strengthened.