Janssen set out to find a system that would eliminate the need to work with Excel. That would allow for faster work and reduce the risk of errors. “I put a lot of time into the preliminary research. It’s important to know exactly what you want beforehand, so you don’t run into any surprises during implementation.”
Don't program endlessly
Pure Ingredients has been using SAP ERP since 2004. “We chose SAP because it allows us to track products in the event of a recall. And because SAP is the only system that can effectively handle our flow of goods. After all, we operate across national borders, with production in Kaldenkirchen, Germany, and warehousing in Venlo. To take our automation to the next level, we wanted to get more out of SAP—so we could gain better visibility into our output. But we don’t want to spend endless hours programming. We’re not IT specialists. Our organization isn’t complex, our dataset isn’t large, and we only have 20 SAP users. SAP BW would be far too expensive and cumbersome for us. We need to be able to quickly generate decent reports with the limited knowledge and skills we have.”
Kind of like Excel
Through Google, Janssen found BI4SAP Live, a reporting and analytics solution from Alistar based on SAP BusinessObjects tools. Janssen: “With this SAP add-on, we have better access to our database and quick insight into the processes we carry out. It works much like Excel. If you can create pivot tables in Excel, you can also work with BI4SAP Live. You basically create the same formulas as in Excel, although the options for performing calculations are more extensive in BO. We have two heavy users who prepare ready-made standard reports, after which the other users can choose for themselves which overviews they want to extract from them. For example, they can compare all of 2017 with all of 2018, or May 2017 with May 2018, or view data for a specific customer, a customer group, or a country. This way, we don’t have to train many users to work with BI.”
Expanding Gradually
Alistar implemented BI4SAP Live in just 24 days, with a three-month implementation cycle at Pure Ingredients. “We started with invoice processing, since that’s where we spend the most time working in Excel. That step went relatively quickly. We now have a better understanding of how our invoicing works. With BI4SAP Live, we’ve also gained better insight into the age of our inventory. We weren’t able to do that with SAP. Now, every Monday, we see the inventory age data, after which our sales department can take action to prevent products from becoming too old. This tool also helps us with registering VAT numbers. For deliveries in Belgium, we need to have each customer’s VAT number. That’s something that sometimes gets forgotten. We used to have to search for the missing data at the end of each year. That took a lot of time. Now, BI4SAP Live reports every week which VAT numbers we’re missing. ”We’re gradually expanding to include other functionalities.” “Now we’re moving toward a single system for all our activities. In our CRM domain as well, we’re transitioning to Hybris Sales Cloud globally.”
A Better View of Output
With BI4SAP Live, Pure Ingredients now has a tool that also provides better insight into output. What is the customer value? How is productivity? “We can now collect information in a structured way and use smart filters to pull up detailed data. We operate in three submarkets: retail, wholesale, and supermarkets. All three have their own margin structures, so we can’t treat them as a single market. We want to gain insight into the different markets using the SAP database. With Excel, that was difficult, there was a high risk of errors, and it took a lot of time. With BI4SAP Live, it’s much easier, error-free, and faster.”
Everyone is satisfied with the Excel method. But that won't be enough to get us through in the future.
Wil Janssen, Finance Manager at Pure Ingredients
Still plenty of ideas
Pure Ingredients has been using BI4SAP Live for about four months now. “We’re still a long way from being done,” says Janssen. “The SAP database is large and complex. We have to formulate our information requests carefully to ensure we get the right answer. We still need to learn the techniques to do that. To achieve this, we need to adapt our organization, train our people, and gather knowledge. It also takes time for the organization to get used to the new way of working. But we still have plenty of ideas. For example, we currently can’t extract sufficient management information or comprehensive production reports from the database. As a result, we can’t establish benchmarks for production trends, for instance. Alistar’s tool is flexible and offers plenty of options for creating those kinds of reports. We’re already seeing the benefits of BI4SAP Live. We’re saving time, which allows employees to focus on important tasks. And the information is reliable because it no longer involves manual work. As I said, we need to automate as much as possible to keep up with our growth. And with BI4SAP Live, we’re able to do just that.”
Market leader in halal food
Pure Ingredients is the market leader in the halal food market. The company operates a pizza bakery in Venlo and a production facility for snacks (including frikandellen and hamburgers) in Kaldenkirchen, Germany. Its main brands are Mekkafood and Lekker&Anders. Pure Ingredients has annual revenue of approximately €32 million and employs 155 people. It sells its products primarily in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, but operates in more than 20 countries.
