Compass Group is a subsidiary of the world’s largest corporate catering company. It uses SAP and various other systems and was unable to respond to inquiries from within the organization in a timely manner. Thanks to Alistar’s BI4SAP Live, the company now has access faster than ever to all the insights it needs to operate efficiently and implement improvements.
Compass Group
Compass Group PLC is the global market leader in food and support services. In the Dutch market, Compass Group operates its catering business under the Eurest brand, among others. “Eurest is a major player in corporate catering,” says Joris van de Rijt, chief financial officer of Compass Group. “We provide catering services to the government, the business sector, industry, colleges and universities, utility companies, and the healthcare sector. In addition, we are increasingly providing soft services such as maintenance, reception, and cleaning services.” In the Netherlands, Compass Group operates approximately 900 different locations.
The people at Alistar are much more than just techies who come to install a tool. They’re engaged, hands-on, and ask the right questions.
Joris van de Rijt, Chief Financial Officer of Compass Group
101 Data Questions
Van de Rijt leads a team of 25 people responsible for finance and IT at Compass Group.
He wants to have access to the right figures at any time. “We have 101 different data queries related to finance, HR, and operations. The answers to those questions help us manage our operations more efficiently and effectively.” Compass Group operates on a solid SAP foundation. The company uses various other (non-SAP) systems alongside it. To get the answers to those 101 data questions, exports from multiple systems were needed. Those figures were then processed manually in Excel. That could be very time-consuming. “For example, some clients want a certain percentage of the products in their company cafeteria to be sustainable. To determine whether you meet that requirement, you need to create a report showing everything you offer in such a company cafeteria and how sustainable all those products are. To do that, you have to combine information from all sorts of different sources. In the past, it took us quite a bit of effort to put together a report like that.”
Comprehensive BI Platform
There had to be a better way. That’s why Compass Group decided to make greater use of BI by consolidating data from SAP and all surrounding systems into a single BI environment. After a careful selection process, the company chose Alistar’s BI4SAP Live. BI4SAP Live is a complete ‘out-of-the-box’ BI platform. It provides insight into virtually all SAP ERP modules and adjacent systems—all within a single, well-organized environment. Alistar fully configured the system and built reports and dashboards centered on Compass Group’s 25 most important KPIs. In addition, Alistar’s BI experts trained eight key users. After completing the training, Compass Group’s staff were able to build their own reports, with some additional assistance from Alistar when needed.
Committed and hands-on
Van de Rijt looks back on the process with satisfaction. “The people at Alistar are much more than just techies who come to install a tool,” he says. “They’re engaged, hands-on, and ask the right questions. There’s much more focus now. Information requests are answered more quickly. Determining our margins has become easier. We can see at a glance which ten products are selling best today. That kind of information is extremely valuable for optimizing our product offering and steering our organization. In the past, we mainly looked back. Thanks to BI4SAP Live, it’s becoming easier and easier to look ahead as well.”
