Budgeting and Planning made easy How technology changes the game
PLANNING MADE EASY 1 BOARD EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW 3 BI and CPM all in one 3 The toolkit approach 4 User Self-service 4 Modern technological standards 4 International recognition 4
MULTI-DIMENSIONAL PLANNING AT A GLANCE 5
BOARD IN PLANNING: KEY FACTS 6
BOARD’S KEY ADVANTAGES IN BP&F 7 Single and integrated architecture for BI and CPM 7 Unmatched Data Entry Capabilities 8 Advanced mode data-entry 9 Integrated workfl ow management 10 Versioning 10 Drillability through different planning cycles 11 Multi-dimensional allocation 11 Flexible modeling and scenario management 11 Turnkey trends and forecast calculations 11 Time awareness 11 Extended information management at cell level 12 Multilanguage support for international planning cycles 12 Advanced Offi ce Integration 13 Effortless Data Integration and Standardisation 14
BOARD PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT FOOTPRINT 15
BOARD: KEY PLANNING PROJECTS 16
BTC SPECIALTY CHEMICAL DISTRIBUTION GMBH 16 NEC DISPLAY SOLUTIONS EUROPE GMBH 17 GRANAROLO 17 ABB AG 18 BAULI 19 SEPHORA AMERICA 19 GSK ITALY 20 BATA 21 HARVEY NICHOLS 21 MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC 22
WHERE TO FIND US 23
2 PLANNING MADE EASY BOARD executive overview
BI and CPM all in one
BOARD unifi es Business Intelligence and Performance Management in a single integrated environment, providing a seamless solution for the support, control and management of core processes such as:
• REPORTING • ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION • SCORECARDING AND DASHBOARDING • BUDGETING, PLANNING AND FORECASTING • PROFITABILITY MODELLING AND OPTIMISATION • STRATEGY MANAGEMENT
By integrating Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management in a single product, BOARD helps companies manage and control the entire decision-making process: from data collection to information analysis; from goal-setting to decision-making; from operational execution to results monitoring .
BOARD BI AND CPM ALL IN ONE
PLANNING MADE EASY 3 The toolkit approach
Thanks to its innovative toolkit approach, BOARD makes it possible to create customised Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management solutions without the need for any programming. From simple reports to the most sophisticated performance management applications, any analysis can be easily built using the drag and drop function and the confi guration of objects that are automatically synchronised with the data.
User Self-service
End-users have access to a full “self-service” information environment, which enables them to obtain immediate answers to their questions from a verifi ed, consistent, shared information source. Application administrators can effi ciently build and maintain applications, with a “Time to Solution” and “Total Cost of Ownership” unattainable by traditional BI and CPM solutions.
Modern technological standards
From a technological standpoint, BOARD is one of the most innovative solutions in the BI and CPM market, characterised by a unique combination of strengths:
• WINDOWS COMMUNICATION FOUNDATION • WINDOWS PRESENTATION FOUNDATION • SOA • BOARD WEB SERVICES • INTERACTIVE VISUALISATION • ADVANCED OFFICE 2007/2010 INTEGRATION • SILVERLIGHT WEB CLIENT • NATIVE 64-BIT, WITH 128-BIT CUBE ADDRESSING • IN-MEMORY CUBES
International recognition
BOARD quality has been widely recognised by end-users, competitors, IT analysts and clients:
• Voted “BEST PRODUCT FOR BUSINESS BENEFITS” in the BI SURVEY 9 (the world’s largest BI & CPM users inquiry)
• Winner of the MICROSOFT SWISS INNOVATION AWARD 2010
• Included in Gartner MAGIC QUADRANT FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE PLATFORMS 2011, and in MAGIC QUADRANT FOR CORPORATE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SUITES 2011
• Chosen by OVER 2500 ORGANISATIONS WORLDWIDE
4 PLANNING MADE EASY Multi-dimensional planning at a glance
‘Planning’ comes from a Latin word meaning ‘fl at’: the word essentially indicates the capability to translate and represent a complex and multi-dimensional reality into a simplifi ed, 2-dimensional “‘Planning’ comes from schema. Nowadays, technology has changed the game. a Latin word meaning Planning has moved from the typical Excel-like 2-dimensional representation of reality to a multi- ‘fl at’: the word essentially dimensional vision, which enables a deeper understanding and a better control of the events. indicates the capability to The key differences between a fl at and a multi-dimensional planning model are: translate and represent a complex and multi- • MULTI-DIMENSIONAL AND HIERARCHICAL ORGANISATION OF DATA. dimensional reality into a All the information (cubes) that are managed can be: simplifi ed, 2-dimensional A. analysed from different perspective (dimensions) to obtain a multi-dimensional view of schema. data (e.g. sales by channel, area, distributor, POS) as well as identifying and analysing Nowadays, technology any sub-set (e.g. sales by channel X, of product Y, for area Z, at time W) has changed the game. „ B. navigated from the highest level of aggregation, to the lowest level of details (e.g. Total Sales> Sales by division> Sales by Product Lines> Sales by Single Item).
• LOGICAL DATA-ENTRY. When used in the context of multi-dimensional planning systems, the word “logical data- entry” indicates the capability to automatically update data across dimensions (1.a) and hierarchies (1.b). In practice, users enter numeric data at any aggregation level (i.e. Sales by Product Lines) and the changes are automatically allocated up to the broadest outline (Total Sales) and down to lowest level of detail (Item code), across all the correlated dimensions (i.e once a user updates Sales by Product Lines, the changes will be also distributed across geographic areas, channels, customers etc). In a company where different people contribute to drawing up the budgets and forecasts this capability is crucial because it allows several individuals to work on the same process according to their specifi c perception of the business (i.e. the Sales Manager can make conjectures about the total sales by Channel while the Marketing Director might choose to enter data by Product Line) and data consistency is granted at all times, without having to run batch processes, allocation procedures or consolidating the variations brought about by one or the other. Furthermore, logical data-entry brings goal-seeking and what-if analysis to a further level, allowing multi-dimensional simulations, where the impact of “logical data-entry future events can be easily evaluated from different business perspectives. brings goal-seeking and what-if analysis to EXAMPLE OF LOGICAL DATA-ENTRY a further level, allowing multi-dimensional simulations, where the impact of future events can be easily evaluated from different business perspectives. „
A change into California sales data is automatically: 1 Rolled-up in the US total 2 Split down into the Californian cities, based on underlying value
PLANNING MADE EASY 5 BOARD in planning: key facts
With BOARD, everything that an enterprise needs to manage corporate planning processes is available in a single and integrated framework.
Thanks to its integrated BI and CPM environment, BOARD:
• Supports in a single environment: short term (daily, weekly, monthly time horizon) sales and operational planning (supply chain planning, open to buy, demand planning etc. ); middle term (quarterly, yearly time horizon) fi nancial planning (OPEX, CAPEX, P&L, Balance sheet); long term (3-5 years horizon) strategic/fi nancial planning (initiative management, merger and acquisition, etc.). • Allows organisations to unify S&OP, OPEX and CAPEX budgeting processes with fi nancial and strategic planning, seamlessly linking performance to strategic vision. • Provides a single, accurate, corporate view of key information, ensuring the consistency and relevance of plans and improving predictability. • Offers greater control and provides users with an insight that they can use throughout the budgeting cycle, while dramatically reducing the time required to complete the process. • Supports the simulation and testing of complex business scenarios and enable users to model fi nancial outcomes by varying the business driver assumptions - leveraging historical data or previous forecasts as a baseline. • Makes it possible to integrate the planning process with profi tability analysis, strategy management and fi nancial consolidation. • Enables effortless data integration from heterogeneous data sources.
A typical BOARD application model in the BP&F area is shown below:
BOARD: PLANNING MODEL EXAMPLE
6 PLANNING MADE EASY BOARD’s key advantages in BP&F
Single and integrated architecture for BI and CPM
In BOARD, the different components of a standard Business Intelligence platform are seamlessly integrated, not just between themselves, but also within the Corporate Performance Management “In BOARD, the application environment. different components of a standard Business The following fi ndings by Gartner analysts Rita Sallam and James Richardson (Critical Capabilities Intelligence platform for Business Intelligence Platform Integration, 29 December 2009) illustrate further details of are seamlessly BOARD’s level of integration: integrated, not just between themselves, Interoperability of Platform Components but also within the “...BOARD gets a perfect score for common authoring tools and a consistent UI” Corporate Performance Management application Security, Administration and Infrastructure environment. „ “BOARD is one of only four platforms in this report — the others being those of MicroStrategy, Tibco and QlikView (QlikTech) — to score 5 out of 5 for all security and administration criteria.”
Metadata “Fully shared metadata across the BOARD platform mean it rates very highly.” “its platform integration is very strong — indeed Product Viability: Outstanding it is the only vendor “For the subset of BI platform use cases that BOARD concentrates on, its platform integration rated that offers a is very strong — indeed it is the only vendor rated that offers a common architecture for common architecture BI and CPM. From a platform integration and metadata perspective, its product viability is for BI and CPM. „ outstanding.”
Business benefi ts of BI and CPM integration are:
• SHARED ENVIRONMENT FOR HISTORICAL, ACTUAL AND FORECAST DATA The coexistence of planned and historical data makes it possible to:
A. Effortlessly produce budget/variance analysis. B. Create immediate time comparisons and use them for planning and reporting through a set of time-based functions (previous year, yearly moving total, yearly moving average, previous period, period off-set, etc.). C. Easily create ad-hoc reports based on forecast and budgeting data.
D. Provide users with ad-hoc insights into planning data.
• PLANNING DATA AND PROCESSES CAN BE EASILY REPRESENTED. BI functionalities make it easy to effectively represent planning cycle statuses and objective achievements through dashboards and control panels.
• NATIVE SUPPORT FOR MANAGEMENT AND STATUTORY REPORTING.
A. Rules (Multi-dimensional calculation, selections, conditional branching, etc.). B. “Roll-up entities” for charts of accounts such as P&L statements, which often contain ragged hierarchies. The basic idea is that a single entity contains its own internal hierarchy, which defi nes the aggregations using rules. These roll-ups contain automatically defi ned summation rules. The reports display roll-up entities with indentions to indicate the hierarchy levels. C. Formatting options specifi cally for the creation of management reporting. D. Booklet creation through the Word add-in.
PLANNING MADE EASY 7 Unmatched Data Entry Capabilities
As illustrated in the introductory chapter “Multidimensional Planning at a Glance”, logical data entry is a key success factor in modern planning systems. BOARD’s logical data-entry combines a unique set of characteristics:
Concurrency: The BOARD engine is optimised to enable simultaneous data entry by a large number of users without affecting system performances and data reliability “BOARD’s Excel add- Validation: data entry can be easily controlled by defi ning a set of validation rules for any input in allows users to value (i.e. minimum price for a product) work without being connected to BOARD Role based security: the data visualised and/or enabled for data entry vary accordingly to and to synchronise data the role of the users automatically when they fi rst reconnect „ Real time or OFF-line: BOARD’s Excel add-in allows users to work without being connected to BOARD and to synchronise data automatically when they fi rst reconnect
Handling of calculated fi elds: a special function called “reverse algorithm” extends the capability to propagate changes across dimensions and hierarchies to the calculated fi elds (i.e. a change in a percentage value will be automatically refl ected in the quantities from which the percentage has been generated)
Cells freezing: BOARD allows the users to freeze the value of one or more cells, including “BOARD can subtotals or totals, and then distribute the data changes on non-locked cells only automatically write back the outcomes of any ERP database write-back: thanks to its relational engine, BOARD can automatically write budget/data-entry cycle back the outcomes of any budget/data-entry cycle directly into the ERP database, effectively directly into the ERP integrating transactional and planning systems database, effectively integrating transactional BOARD technology guarantees data validity and consistency, without the need to run batch and planning systems. processes for allocating and consolidating the changes made by each individual user. „
Calculated fi elds: how the reverse algorithm works The fi rst column (a) contains the Budget Quantity and has data entry enabled, to allow users to enter budget values.
The second column (b), Last Year Actual Sales, contains the sales value of last year: a reference value that helps the user defi ning the budget. Data entry is not allowed.
The third column (c) represents the percentage variance calculated with the columnar formula c=(a-b)/b*100.
The Reverse Algorithm consist of the capability to support data entry on the column C, allowing the user to key-in a percentage of variance and letting the system to derive the Budget Quantity corresponding to the given variance.
The budget quantity value will be derived by the system applying the reverse formula a=b*(c+100)/100. (i.e. in this case if a user changes the June variance from 5 to 10, the sales quantity will vary accordingly from 108.776 to 113.956)
8 PLANNING MADE EASY ADVANCED MODE DATA-ENTRY
When simulation or planning processes require allocating data changes not based just on underlying values, but also on more sophisticated criteria, BOARD offers a full set of advanced data-entry capabilities.
“BOARD’s advanced mode data entry allows users to easily make BOARD’s advanced mode data entry allows users to easily make a selection of ranges of cells a selection of ranges (contiguous or not), and either block them (to subsequently enter data on other non-locked cells), of cells (contiguous or or modify the selected cells using one of the several functions made available. not), and either block them (to subsequently As you may notice on the left of the panel (see image below), enter data on other the available data-entry functions are: non-locked cells), or modify the selected Total: displays the total value of the selected cells. Changing the total automatically reallocates cells using one of the the difference between the prior value and the new value proportionally to the underlying cells. several functions made available. „ Average: Displays the average value of the selected cells. Changing the average automatically reallocates the difference between the prior value and the new average value proportionally to the underlying cells.
Constant: sets all selected cells to the given value.
Add: adds the input value to all selected cells.
Subtract: deducts the input value to all selected cells.
Multiply: multiplies all selected cells by the value given.
Divide: divides all selected cells values by the value given
Linear growth: increases the values of the cells, while moving left to right, by a constant number.
Growth %: increases the values of cells, while moving left to right, by a fi xed percentage.
Copy from block: copies the values of the cell range from another block into the selected cells.
PLANNING MADE EASY 9 Integrated workfl ow management
BOARD provides an extensible workfl ow management, which natively includes conditional alerting and mailing, cell locking and triggered events, all driven through data audit and validation processes. Planning steps can be easily created and correlated to approval cycles according to the logic behind the process. Advanced functionality makes it possible to broadcast personalised Excel and Word based reports at scheduled times or when a specifi c event occurs. Unlike the reports from typical BI and CPM systems, BOARD analyses are completely interactive, and once received allow users to interact on-the-fl y with the data, according to their security profi les. Integration with BI guarantees a strong capability to monitor and represent workfl ow cycles, through interactive control panels and dashboards. The workfl ow process can include reconciliation of actual and forecast data, or the results of two rounds of planning, such as top down and bottom up. “The workfl ow process can include reconciliation of actual EXAMPLE OF A WORKFLOW CONTROL PANEL and forecast data, or the results of two rounds of planning, such as top down and bottom up. „
Versioning
BOARD allows for the generation of plans and budgets and versioning based on the analysis of historical data, providing full support to rolling forecasting and continuous planning. “BOARD allows for the Thanks to BOARD’s DUAL Engine (which supports both MOLAP and ROLAP cube modeling), generation of plans and audited versions can be pushed back and integrated onto an ad-hoc structure of the company’s budgets and versioning ERP System for prompt and full integration with the business cycle. based on the analysis of historical data, providing full support to rolling forecasting and continuous planning. „
10 PLANNING MADE EASY Drillability through different planning cycles
BOARD provides the ability to drill down from a pure fi nancial planning process into an operative planning process, ensuring a full alignment of the fi nancial perspective with the economic one “BOARD provides the and vice-versa. ability to drill down from Financial and operational budgets not only coexist but can also mutually interact: this a pure fi nancial planning interdependency ensures the integrity and coherence of the whole planning process from any process into an operative perspective (fi nancial, sales, assets etc.). planning process, ensuring a full alignment of the fi nancial perspective with the economic one and Multi-dimensional allocation vice-versa. „
BOARD MOLAP engine allows the user to utilise the natively available allocation criteria or to implement driver based processes, supporting the creation of models that enable users to obtain fi nancial outcomes by varying the business driver assumptions (and vice versa). For example, in a classic BOARD planning model, a change in the allocation of fi xed costs can be immediately refl ected in the calculation of EBIT (and in the related allocation to the various objects of calculation such as product, channel, customer) and vice versa.
Flexible modeling and scenario management
Thanks to the A.T.O. (Advanced Transaction Object), BOARD offers advanced users the ability to “A new business unit, directly modify the data model during the planning or forecasting process. a new product, a new A new business unit, a new product, a new market or a different investment can be inserted in market or a different a controlled way during a planning cycle, simulating the effect of a new scenario on the whole investment can be inserted business model. in a controlled way From a functional standpoint this capability has proved to be extremely important and useful, during a planning cycle, not just for operational and fi nancial planning, but also for initiative management and strategic simulating the effect of a planning. new scenario on the whole business model. „
Turnkey trends and forecast calculations
BOARD offers pre-built statistical models to calculate trends and forecasts. The trends calculation is based on a Moving Average model, while the forecasts, which take into account trends and seasonality, are determined based on three different statistical models: Exponential smoothing and moving average, ARIMA or Winters. BOARD automatically selects the most appropriate depending on the historical data series available.
Time awareness
Unlike many competitors who need extensive programming to handle time, BOARD provides a full array of time-based out of the box functions (previous year, previous periods, cycles, time “BOARD provides a full cumulated value, period moving total, period moving average, period offset), making it easy to array of time-based out of deploy on the fl y historical analysis, comparison and data contextualisation. the box functions making it easy to deploy on the fl y historical analysis, comparison and data contextualisation. „
PLANNING MADE EASY 11 Extended information management at cell level
BOARD enables any type of fi le (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, RTF, image fi les) to be associated with an individual cell, in order to qualify the numeric or textual information contained within it. A special type of cube, called a blob cube, enables each fi le to be treated like a piece of data, storing it and managing it in a Multi-dimensional way. From a functional standpoint, it is easy to see the importance of blob cubes for managing information at single cell level, both in planning, budget and consolidation processes (e.g. sharing of comments regarding data, explanations, Excel attachments, Word documents etc.) and, more generally, in cases where associating an image or text to the data can make it easier to understand or use.
COMMENTS , IMAGES, AND FILE ATTACHMENTS AT CELL LEVEL
BOARD enables any type of fi le (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, RTF, image fi les) to be associated with an individual cell.
This function can be combined with the use of the tool-tip: in this case the information will be automatically displayed at the mouse-over on the green corner of the cell
Multilanguage support for international planning cycles
BOARD makes it possible to display the same occurrences in different languages according to the user’s log-on language. For example, when reading an income statement, the item “income” will be displayed as “ricavi” for users who log on in Italian and as “ingresos” for users whose working language is Spanish.
12 PLANNING MADE EASY Advanced Offi ce Integration
BOARD offers the ability to access multi-dimensional data directly from its Excel add-in, providing users with the traditional OLAP analysis functions (drill-down, slice and dice, fi ltering, ad hoc- query). The BOARD Excel add-in provides a familiar environment for managing data collection processes and enables users to work both on-line and off-line.
The Word add-in allows users to easily merge multi-dimensional and dynamic data for the creation of “always updated” company statutory and management booklets.
The PowerPoint add-in allows users to meet advanced presentation needs and create slides including auto-updating BOARD charts, cockpits, bubble charts, and data view. BOARD users can drill-down, slice & dice and perform ad hoc queries within Word documents and PowerPoint presentations.
EXCEL ADD-IN
The Excel Add-In makes it possible to perform: • Data Entry Off-Line
while providing the key BOARD features, such as: • Drill-down • Self-Service Analysis and Reporting • Data Entry On-Line
Thanks to the capability to enter data both on and off-line, the Excel Add-In makes data collection processes more effi cient: users can always work without being connected to BOARD and synchronise data automatically when they fi rst reconnect. All of this is delivered without affecting the integrity, consistency and traceability of data.
CREATION OF AUTO-UPDATING BOOKLETS AND PRESENTATIONS: AN EXAMPLE
PLANNING MADE EASY 13 Effortless Data Integration and Standardisation
BOARD offers all of the features required for combining data from heterogeneous sources and provides the user with a unifi ed view of the information.
• DUAL ENGINE: ROLAP AND MOLAP In addition to providing a multi-dimensional integrated database, BOARD supports direct access to any relational database. Unlike other traditional CPM and BI software applications, BOARD’s Relational Engine supports data write-back on any database, allowing the exploitation of all native simulation “Unlike other traditional functions that have fuelled BOARD’s international success. CPM and BI software BOARD’s dual engine allows customers to combine the typical user self-service queries, applications, BOARD’s analysis and reporting capabilities of MOLAP, with the ability to handle huge amounts of Relational Engine data via ROLAP. supports data write- back on any database „ • BUILT-IN ETL BOARD integrates all of the capabilities required to handle data cleansing and standardisation processes, thus eliminating the need to use specifi c products for Extraction, Transformation and Loading (ETL). Thanks to BOARD’s integrated ETL environment, validation and transformation rules can be defi ned and automatically applied during upload processing, making it simple to consolidate data from multiple data sources for use in your BI and CPM applications. “BOARD integrates all of the capabilities • INTEGRATED ODBO ACCESS TO OLAP SERVERS required to handle data cleansing and Thanks to the OLE DB for OLAP (ODBO) integrated technology, BOARD provides customers standardisation with an industry standard method of accessing the most utilised multi-dimensional engines, such as Microsoft AS or Oracle EssBase. processes „
• BOARD CONNECTOR FOR USE WITH SAP The BOARD SAP Connector delivers high-speed access to SAP R/3, mySAP ERP or SAP BW, integrating SAP data into BOARD. Easily installable and confi gurable, BOARD SAP Connector allows mapping SAP data into BOARD databases, without writing any data extractions ABAP programs. BOARD SAP Connector creates a direct communication channel between BOARD and SAP and eliminates the need for detailed knowledge of SAP internal tables and views.
14 PLANNING MADE EASY BOARD Performance Management footprint
Thanks to BOARD’s native All-in-One approach and to BOARD’s unique adaptability, you will cover all your BI & CPM needs with a single product, a single technology and a single data environment. BOARD will help you to reach a single vision of your performance in a simple and extremely effective manner. Information originating from various sources is integrated into a virtual data repository shared by the entire organisation, thus providing business users with a customised but unitary vision. The native integration between the information base and applications ensures that changes made to applications are propagated to data, and vice versa. The end result is a full alignment of the Business Intelligence and Performance Management environment, which translates into a shared vision of corporate performances throughout the organisation. By adopting BOARD, you will have the potential to implement any BI &CPM solution at any point in time without the need to buy and integrate any other product. Below are some of the solutions that have been implemented with BOARD across our clients.
FINANCE AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING OPERATIONS Financial Top-Down/Bottom-Up Budgeting Capacity Planning P&L, BS, Cash Flow Planning and Forecasting Inventory Forecasting and Optimisation Statutory and Financial Consolidation Materials Management Intercompany Matching and Reconciliations Procurement Analysis Cost and Profi tability Analysis Production Forecast and Planning Activity Based Costing Supplier Rating Variance Analysis Credit Management (DSO, Ageing, Customer Score) Financial Reporting HR Fast Closing HR Performance Management Compliance HR planning, budgeting and forecasting Strategy Maps Employee Costs Monitoring Balanced Scorecard Benefi ts and Incentive planning Skills Mapping HR dashboard and KPIs
SALES SCM Sales Analysis (Customer, Area, Channel, Product, Line…) Demand Planning Rolling Top-Down and Bottom-Up Sales Budget and Cost to Serve Forecasting Integrated Capacity Planning Products, Channels, Customers Profi tability Daily & Weekly Workload Planning Shops, Chains, Channel P&L projections Financial insights across supply chain Variance Analysis (Price, Quantity, Mix) What-if and what-for analysis to forecast Brand Performance material and production line needs Cross-Selling Analysis Supply Chain dashboard and KPIs Loyalty Cards Management Loyalty and Retention Monitoring OTHER AREAS Merchandise Intelligence Markdowns and Promotions Optimisation Service Level Management Post-Sales Management (Maintenance and Spare Parts Optimisation) Customer Service Level Analysis Quality Intelligence IT Scorecard
PLANNING MADE EASY 15 BOARD: Key Planning Projects
BTC SPECIALTY CHEMICAL DISTRIBUTION GMBH
BTC Specialty Chemical Distribution is the European sales organisation that carries out the trading activities in specialty chemicals produced by the BASF Group. BTC, comprising nine BASF subsidiaries, is an expert in specialty chemicals, specifi cally refi ned chemicals and polymers. As a leader in the industry, responding to the demands and requirements of the market, BTC offers its customers customised system solutions that strongly increase their level of competitiveness.
Number of users 200
Applications deployed International planning tool for all 9 subsidiaries - Budgeting
Brief description of the Business Challenges: solution A. Gathering of planning data in Excel B. Complex consolidation C. High level of manual effort for IT and Controlling
D. Planning process 3 months
BOARD solution: When all the planning steps have been completed, the fi nal version of the top-down plan forms the basis for the subsequent bottom-up plan carried out by the sales directors. They start creating the budgets at the lowest level – by customer or product. The up-to-date product and customer overviews and the predefi ned input tables simplify the planning process. If for example, the volume, the price and the margin per product is revised for a certain customer, the turnover at all levels is automatically adjusted. Due to the multi-dimensional representation of all relevant data, the effects of certain planned values on other areas are immediately simulated and revised, if required.
Benefi ts:
A. More transparency and liability in planning
B. Utilisation of the existing systems Citrix Netzwerk and MS SQL Data Warehouse
C. Planning process shortened from 3 months to 3 weeks
D. Manual activities in controlling are signifi cantly reduced
Main data sources MBS Navision
Case Study http://www.board.com/business-intelligence/VICaseStudyALL/BTC-de
16 PLANNING MADE EASY NEC DISPLAY SOLUTIONS EUROPE GMBH
NEC Display Solutions is one of the leading manufacturers of display products and total display solutions. NEC Display Solutions Europe GmbH distributes the products Europe-wide via indirect sales channels.
Number of users 113 users in total, 80 users access the system at least once a week
Applications deployed • Forecasting Cycle : Price Guidelines, Actuals, Standard Costs • Controlling, Budgeting and Forecast • PSI (Purchasing) and BCS (Business Planning) • Decision Support, Reporting • Planned: Finance and Controlling
Brief description of the Aim was to develop a consistent reporting and planning solution across solution the group. The BOARD solution now in use enables a fl exible and extensive analysis of data coming from different operative systems. These data serve as provider of actuals and are completed by planning functions which allow active planning for the entire business at all required levels. Core of the application is the optimisation of synchronisation efforts, consistent and centralised data management and improvement of all processes in sales, purchasing and fi nancials.
Main data sources SAP R/3 Excel
Case Study http://www.board.com/business- intelligence/VICaseStudyALL/NEC-EN
GRANAROLO
Leading dairy supply chain in Italy (Over 30% of Italian milk production).
Number of users 120+ planners
Applications deployed • Sales BP&F • P&L planning • Sales Force Weekly Target and Forecast (utilised for organising weekly products distribution to the point of sales)
Brief description of the The Sales Force Weekly Target and Forecast is a “cutting edge” application in solution BP&F: every Monday morning in just 4 hours the product distribution for the whole week has to be defi ned. Peaks of 80/90 contemporary users rely heavily on the same mission critical application. (This can be compared to a system supporting between 1000 and 2000 users in a normal BP&F environment where connections happen at disparate time and date)
Main data sources SAP + DWH SQL
PLANNING MADE EASY 17 ABB AG
ABB AG, based in Mannheim, is a leader in energy and automation technology and enables its customers in energy supply and industry to improve their performance and at the same time reduce environmental pollution. ABB employs about 108,000 people in more than 100 countries throughout the world.
Number of users 60+
Applications deployed • Analysis • Planning • Reporting
Brief description of the The planning application enables the business to plan actively at different solution levels and provides reporting for the whole division as well as cost center planning. In the future management will consider further extending the use of BOARD for project controlling and sales control. The reporting and planning solution has given the commercial division management a system that enables them to analyse the relevant data from many different points of view with just a few clicks of the mouse. The information gained from this is the basis for quick, reliable decisions for the active control of the company.
Benefi t: Company A. System can easily be fi tted to company related or report related changes B. Less maintenance costs User C. Easy handling when creating new reports and navigating D. The user is guided through an integrated BI application E. Defi ned workfl ows for planning processes IT F. Little need for development and maintenance resources
Main data sources SAP + Lotus Notes
Case Study http://www.board.com/business-intelligence/VICaseStudyALL/ABB-AG
18 PLANNING MADE EASY BAULI
Bauli is the Italian leader in products for festive occasions and the Croissant industry.
Number of users 300 +
Applications deployed • BP&F • PMO • Strategy Management • FS&M Reporting
Brief description of the One of the oldest BOARD customers (early 90’s), Bauli makes extensive solution usage of the power of BOARD across the entire organisation. Every piece of information coming out of the ERP system is analysed with BOARD at departmental level and it is consolidated in models supporting all levels of planning. Bauli can simulate the impact of an increase of fl our purchasing price down to single customer P&L or up to Company level profi tability. Recent company acquisitions made by Bauli, were fi rst simulated and evaluated in BOARD models.
Main data sources ERP Formula + DB2
Case Study http://www.board.com/business-intelligence/VICaseStudyALL/Bauli
SEPHORA AMERICA
Owned by LVHM (world leading luxury product group), Sephora America operates more than 250 stores in the United States and Canada and the world’s top beauty website.
Number of users 200 +
Applications deployed • Top level plan • Brand plan • Monthly sales plan • Inventory plan • Open to buy plan
Brief description of the Thanks to BOARD, Sephora created a custom open-to-buy application that solution accommodates Sephora’s unique business structure and complex planning requirements.
Main data sources SAP + Oracle
PLANNING MADE EASY 19 GSK ITALY
GSK is the second largest pharmaceutical group in the world (3300 employees in Italy).
Number of users 1300 BI Users + 60 planning application users
Applications deployed • Sales Analysis and Reporting • Sales Planning • P&L Planning
Brief description of the Sales and P&L Planning solution From 3 to 5 times a year GSK starts a planning process aimed at preparing the next 48 month’s P&L projection. The Marketing Team, with the support of the Business Controlling Team, plans sales. Then the Business Controlling Team determines the direct costs of product and the fi xed costs, allocates them to the products and fi nally draw-up the P&L plan.
Monthly Profi t & Loss by Product Closing, through the following phases:
A. Retrieval of sales data from datawarehouse, with computation of cost of sales and other direct costs. B. Retrieval of accounts balance (costs) from SAP. Input of period adjustments, cost allocation on products. C. Management and Operational Reporting focused on the compari- son between actual monthly P&L and P&L budget and forecast.
GSK monthly closings must occur within the fi rst 5 days of the following month, because they have an obligation to send the results to the HQs. Thanks to BOARD, they now need only one solution for managing the monthly closing process. Consensus Forecast Process The Marketing Team, supported by the Business Controlling Team, acquires the quantitative data of GSK’s demand planning processes on a monthly basis. Those data are used to create a value and quantity forecast on a 48-month basis that includes a set of KPIs developed to compare the actual sales with the outcomes of the previous Consensus Forecast processes. The whole planning process is aimed at balancing and aligning Sales and Supply Chain needs
Sales Reporting Analysis and comparison of actual sales with the main plan or with revised plans, addressed to Product Managers and Controllers.
Undergoing project: Working Capital, Receivables and Payables Analysis
Main data sources SAP + Oracle DWH
20 PLANNING MADE EASY BATA
Bata is one of the world’s leading footwear retailers and manufacturers (1.000.000 pairs of shoes per day)
Number of users 150 +
Applications deployed Integrated Planning System operating in 3 main phases: • Operational Supply Chain Planning (sales, distribution, stock, purchases) • Economic Planning (margin, P&L) • Financial Planning (B&S, Cash fl ow)
Brief description of the Bata Italy implemented an integrated planning system across the whole solution organisation. From sales planning to brand, shop and company P&L forecast; from scenario simulation to cash fl ow forecast all the company performances are managed and controlled with BOARD. Thanks to its success, the project has already been extended to Spain and Switzerland and soon to all of Europe.
Main data sources AS/400 custom applications
Case Study http://www.board.com/business-intelligence/VICaseStudyALL/Bata
HARVEY NICHOLS
Harvey Nichols founded in 1813, is an up-market department store chain.
Number of users 100 +
Applications deployed Sales Reporting, Planning and Forecasting Finance Reporting and Budgeting
Brief description of the The core model is based around a very low level of data granularity. solution In the BOARD cubes each measure can be sliced from common Product groupings, styles etc… down to SKU level (> 1,000,000). These can be analysed in near real time (15 minute intervals) all the way down to which SKU’s sold through which POS, operator and method of payment.
The Planning is managed at style level for which there are >800,000 elements planned on a weekly basis.
Main data sources Retail Assist ERP + DB2
Case Study http://www.board.com/business-intelligence/VICaseStudyALL/HARVEY- NICHOLS
PLANNING MADE EASY 21 MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC
With $37 billion turnover and over 100.000 employees, Mitsubishi Electric is a world leader in in the manufacture and sales of electric and electronic equipment used in Energy and Electric Systems, Industrial Automation, Information and Communication Systems, Electronic Devices, and Home Appliances.
Number of users Around 400 BI users + 50 planning users
Applications deployed Integrated planning process including the following steps: • Units quantity planning for fi scal year • Units quantity defi nition for each month • Price and Cost Management • Sales Channel allocation • Discounts Management • Final Forecast/Budget and Reporting
Users can now allocate forecasts down to material level, manage prices and costs, allocate fi gures by sales channels, plan discounts and ultimately calculate P & L and general stock projections.
Brief description of the Having already implemented BOARD to provide integrated self service solution Business Intelligence in 5 European countries (UK, IR, FR, DE ,ES) Mitsubishi’s LES Division, realised that they need to apply a similarly integrated, easy to use approach to Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting. Previously a 3rd party tool was used to write the budget. Subsequently complicated and diffi cult to control spreadsheets were issued to each division. Divisional budgets would then be created, generating even more spreadsheets, before being loaded into the 3rd party software. The process was time-consuming, prone to error and could only be analysed at an aggregated level (Cost or Profi t Centre). The need for a solution which gave greater control, audit, accuracy and speed would provide immediate business benefi ts across the supply chain. BOARD provides Mitsubishi Electric with a fully integrated, fl exible, scalable and easy to use system which is reliable and synchronised daily with all relevant core business systems, such as SAP, CRM and other external data sources. This has enabled deep, cross business insight with rapid data integration. BOARD has ensured that Mitsubishi’s planning process is accurate and timely and centered around existing business processes, utilising BOARD’s in-built write-back and workfl ow functionality.
Main data sources SAP + SQL DWH
Case Study http://www.board.com/business-intelligence/VICaseStudyALL/Mitsubishi- budget http://www.board.com/business-intelligence/VICaseStudyALL/Mitsubishi- Electric
22 PLANNING MADE EASY About Professional Advantage
Professional Advantage focuses on providing technology and services that enable high-performance workplaces and organisations. Professional Advantage was established in 1989 and today employs more than 230 people in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, London and Fargo, USA.
The company is the largest provider of leading brand global business management systems, such as fi nancial management, ERP, CRM, retail, business intelligence, business process management, corporate performance management and portal solutions to midsize organisations in Australia, supporting over 800 clients nationally. Its multi-product offering is complemented by its development, systems integration, consulting, training, and support services.
Visit us at www.pa.com.au
Where to fi nd us
Sydney, Australia Melbourne, Australia Brisbane, Australia Level 16 Level 10 Level 7 124 Walker Street 500 Collins Street 102 Adelaide Street North Sydney NSW 2060 Melbourne Vic 3000 Brisbane QLD 4000 Tel: +61 2 9919 8900 Tel: +61 3 9613 0205 Tel: +61 7 3018 2400 Fax: +61 2 9923 1415 Fax: +61 3 9629 3471 Fax: +61 7 3018 2442
Perth, Australia Fargo, USA Suite 5 4820 56 Kings Park Road 30th Avenue South, Suite 201 West Perth, WA 6005 Fargo, ND 58104 Phone: +61 8 6267 7000 Phone: +1 701 235 2363 Fax: +61 8 6267 709 Fax: +1 701 235 2391
BOARD INTERNATIONAL BOARD AUSTRALIA Via Balestra 18 Suite 18, Level 12, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland 100 Walker Street Tel.: +41 91 911 6020 NSW 2060 North Sydney Fax: +41 91 911 6021 Tel.: +61 2 8904-9777 e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]
PLANNING MADE EASY 23 24 PLANNING MADE EASY