HITACHI AND PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP TEAM UP TO DELIVER ENHANCED XBRL TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS
BRISBANE, Calif., November 7, 2005 – Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP today announced a new strategic alliance, in which Hitachi’s new XBRL 2.1 compliant tool, Xinba™, will be used to provide end users the capability to port XBRL business information directly into PwC TeamMate™, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ audit management software, to support the audit and analysis process.
Xinba™, allows users to import, validate, and analyze XBRL documents easily, accurately and correctly. With Xinba™, end users can perform examination and analysis on XBRL business data and generate customized reports. Xinba™ uses Web Services to access the taxonomies and the instances which can either be stored locally, over a network, or on the Internet. Multiple analysis reports can be associated with a single XBRL document.
PwC TeamMate™, recognized as a leading audit management system, is used by over 36,000 auditors from over 1,000 organizations worldwide. When used in an integrated mode, Xinba™ serves as the core tool to support the examination and analysis process while PwC TeamMate™ serves as the audit management system storing both the audit procedures and documented results.
Auditors can look up the audit procedures in PwC TeamMate™ and perform the necessary steps on the stored information by using Xinba™ as the core analytic tool and XBRL data consumption tool. PwC TeamMate™ facilitates the documentation, review and reporting of the results of these audit procedures.
Information reported in the XBRL format can be simply exchanged, extracted and compared without human intervention. This capability allows for more efficient business reporting with increased transparency and data accuracy and lower costs by eliminating data re-entry. Information in XBRL is automatically readable by computers, which results in the ability to automate data analysis.
XBRL is rapidly becoming the de facto standard for defining, exchanging and storing business information by regulators, stock exchanges, statistical offices, banks, and corporations across the world. Many regulators will be introducing mandatory filing of financial statements and other regulatory reports in XBRL this year, including the FFIEC in the U.S.. Other regulators such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began accepting voluntary filing of XBRL documents in April 2005.
“With ever-increasing demands and responsibilities, auditors and examiners are now, more than ever, looking to technology to enhance the audit process. By coupling the power of PwC TeamMate™ with Xinba™, auditors now have a technology platform to drive significant efficiencies into all aspects of the audit process,” said Mike Gowell, managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"Hitachi is pleased to enter into this strategic alliance with PricewaterhouseCoopers. We are excited by the possibilities that this strategic alliance opens up for Xinba™. We also strongly believe that all existing PwC TeamMate™ users will find the capability to port XBRL data seamlessly both revolutionary and helpful. The alliance will also promote the two organizations’ ability to further expand their channels," said Toshimi Takahashi, vice president of the Information Division of Hitachi America, Ltd.
Hitachi and PricewaterhouseCoopers are both active members of XBRL International, an international non-profit consortium of more than 300 companies, organizations and government agencies responsible for developing and maintaining XBRL, and promoting its global adoption. Hitachi and PricewaterhouseCoopers are participating at the 12th XBRL International Conference, November 7-10 in Tokyo, Japan. Interested parties are invited to attend and learn more about XBRL from Hitachi and PricewaterhouseCoopers representatives. For more information on the conference, please go to http://www.xbrl.org/