Welding specialist Translas needed clear insights: revenue, new orders, accounts payable, accounts receivable, machine utilization, and so on. Thanks to Analytics4Business One, the company now has an up-to-date view of every key KPI from anywhere in the world. That insight brings peace of mind. “We work much less on an ad hoc basis.”
Translas is the only manufacturer in the Netherlands of MIG and TIG welding torches and welding equipment. Under the FORCE brand, Translas also markets products such as welding helmets, safety gloves, and welding goggles. The company develops and manufactures all of its products in-house and supplies its customers through a global dealer network spanning fifty countries.
Operations Manager Marcel Hamoen is responsible for the streamlined production of the products listed in the Translas catalog. “That’s more than 12,000 products. It’s quite a logistical challenge. That’s why we’ve been using SAP Business One for several years now.” Translas uses SAP’s ERP system for small and medium-sized businesses primarily to ensure that everything runs smoothly, both logistically and financially.
As part of an ISO certification process, Translans found itself in greater need of concrete insights and—above all—clear KPIs. It soon became clear that SAP Business One lacked sufficient built-in reporting functionality. Hamoen: “We didn’t have truly up-to-date insights. It also took us a lot of time to prepare reports.” That lack of insight resulted in a highly ad-hoc organization. “We took action based on the problems we heard about in the hallway. If you heard about something, you went ahead and did it.”
Predefined cubes
In its search for an expert at the intersection of SAP and analytics, Translas quickly turned to Alistar. “We had a few requirements. For example, we wanted the same insights available anywhere in the world. We also preferred a Microsoft solution.” Hamoen’s wishes were granted immediately. “We were actually immediately impressed by the great solutions Alistar showed us.” What really excited Hamoen and his colleagues were the pre-built cubes based on Microsoft SQL Server. “SAP contains a huge number of tables with data you need for your analyses. Alistar’s solution quickly and easily extracts that data from SAP Business One and presents all the variables with the descriptions we use ourselves. Then, with Power BI, you can easily perform your own analyses and build reports. That was truly new to us.”
I'm a very meticulous guy. It's nice to see how simple the software is.
Marcel Hamoen, Operations Manager at Translas
Three locations, one community
The collaboration with Alistar went smoothly. Initially, Alistar’s consultants worked closely with Translas to identify the insights and KPIs they needed. Based on those responses, Alistar optimized Translas’s technical infrastructure and set up the self-service BI environment. The software consolidates all data from Translas’ locations in the Netherlands, England, and Canada into a single environment. Alistar trained Translas on how to use the solution and assists Translas one day a month to help them get even more out of the system. Hamoen: “We want to keep making progress.”
Hamoen notices the impact of Analytics4Business One every day. “It puts your mind at ease,” he says. “Translas is subject to the ups and downs of the day. We can see right away whether our global order intake is on track with the forecast. The same goes for our machine utilization; in the past, if we saw a machine sitting idle, it caused immediate stress. Not anymore. If something’s wrong, you spot it early and can take immediate action.”
