Success Story

High performance BI solution from Phocas gives Russell Corp. the winning edge “ The managing director loves Sporting goods and apparel manufacturer/distributor, Russell Corporation, manages three of Phocas Australia’s leading sporting brands including Spalding (goods, shoes and clothing), Sherrin (makers of ” AFL footballs), and Russell Athletics (clothing). Their warehouse in Melbourne manages over 10,000 Jackie Read SKU items, distributing products made in Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan as well as North Operations Manager and South America. Russell Corp. The challenge: replace a slow and complicated reporting system Being such a large and diverse business managing a complex range of products and relationships, Russell Corp needed a business intelligence tool to help quickly identify sales opportunities and improve reporting efficiency. Jackie Read, Russell Corp Operations Manager, comments, “We use Microsoft AX for our transactional ERP system. The reporting that comes with AX is so complex our staff would need a university degree to manage data out of it. A previous reporting tool would take forever to generate the tables and reports that we needed. We went to market to find a solution that would make things much easier.” The solution:7 Phocas BI up and running in four weeks After evaluating a wide variety of solutions, including numerous options from AX partners, Russell Corporation selected Phocas BI due to its ease-of-use and speed to implement. It took just under four weeks for Russell to have their new reporting system up and running. Russell Corporation were truly impressed by the professionalism and expertise of the people they dealt with from Phocas. Read recalls that “at the very first sales meeting, Gary Warner, Operations Director for Phocas, understood our requirements instantly. In a matter of hours he had built a database and presented our own information back to us. From that point on we recognised the value Phocas would bring to our organisation.” Read explains that “we had made a number of customisations to our AX implementation which needed to be reflected in our reporting, particularly with our apparel matrix to track product style, colour and size with only one SKU code. A t-shirt may come in red blue and green and come in five different sizes for a particular product. We have one SKU code for the style then a matrix for whether COMPANY it’s small, medium or large or if it is red, green, blue or yellow.” Russell Corporation The Benefits: Efficiency and business visibility improved 100% WEBSITES www..russellathletic.com.au “In terms of efficiency and visibility into our business the improvements so far have been 100 per cent. www.spalding.com.au Reports that use to take hours now take minutes”. says Read. Russell Corporation operates as an www.sherrin.com.au indent business where their customers pre-book all their orders for delivery in six months. Russell Corporation then orders the products to be manufactured and shipped from the various factories. INDUSTRY Sporting goods and apparel “ In terms of efficiency and visibility into our business the PRODUCTS improvements so far have been 100 per cent Clothes, shoes, AFL footballs, Jackie Read - Operations Manager, Russell Corp.” basketballs, sporting equipment “The types of reports that I and the sales team look at”, says Read, “include sales and invoicing COUNTRIES USING PHOCAS reports as well as back order and forward order reports. We look at all our sales by customer group, by Australia territory, by item groups and market segments, and product types. We look at these reports to identify opportunities or missed sales. We also check outstanding orders, identifying delays or missed orders ERP SYSTEM from the warehouse before they become a problem.” Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Everybody loves it Almost everyone from the warehouse to the Managing Director and National Sales Manager use Phocas, and Read has observed, “The Managing Director loves it. Not being a technical person he now has an easy tool to pursue a particular train of thought or line of investigation, analysing whatever data he wants when he wants to.” What is Phocas? Phocas is a world leader in simple, results driven, Business Intelligence software. Established in 1999 by pioneers in the ERP sector, award winning Phocas has quietly established a global reputation with thousands of users throughout North America, Australia, Asia and Europe. Our philosophy is based on simplicity. We allow people who deal with huge volumes of data to make better, more informed decisions that drive efficiency and increased profitability. © 2013 Phocas Inc. All rights reserved. All product and company names mentioned herein are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. www.phocas.com.au.

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