Robust solutions that enable discrete and process manufacturers to improve coordination, execution, and performance.
Formed in 1996, our EEM (Electrical & Electronics Manufacturing) client is one of the largest of the 22 core companies branches across the globe and six operational divisions: Living Environmental Systems (LES), Factory Automation (FA), Visual Information Systems (VIS), and Mobile Solutions.
Having used the same SAP-based ERP system since 1998, our EEM client was on the lookout for an upgrade. Despite the addition of a user-friendly front-end that allowed users to upload data, manage stock, produce quotations, and process orders, the system still fell short in some areas, resulting in many inefficient manual processes which frustrated users.
Existing system was inflexible
Required manual data consolidation, and any changes to reporting had to be programmed manually.
Meant keeping up a continuous and expensive development program
Swallowed up hours - or even weeks - of third-party development resource per report.
With hundreds of different reports to generate, our EEM customer turned to spreadsheets to manipulate ERP data into the required format, leading to accuracy and version control issues, and a reduction in the company’s ability to respond quickly to emerging business needs.
The accounts department was also experiencing several pain points, including manual reconciliation processes that took up to several weeks for completion and complex budgeting processes which involved spreadsheets being sent back and forth to Divisions before being entered into a 3rd-party tool.
As part of a drive to continuously evolve internal operations and improve technologies and services throughout the business, our EEM Customer decided to invest in a single platform that would enable to the company to integrate data from multiple legacy systems into a single, service-rich environment.
The desire was to give users real-time access to
Accurate, multi-dimensional transactional data,
enable quick and self-sufficient reporting through analytical capabilities including dashboards and KPI analyses,
as well as the ability to conduct budgeting and forecasting.
To ease the burden on the IT department’s month-end productivity, the new system would also need to flex to new requirements and data while empowering users around the business to create their own reports, queries, and analysis.
After looking at several internal and vendor solutions including SAP, Cognos, and Crystal Reports, our EEM Customer chose the eProSoft decision-making platform for its ability to seamlessly combine BI and CPM as well as its speed, simplicity, and flexibility.
eProSoft’s ‘BI & A’ platform unifies Business Intelligence, Predictive Analytics, and Performance Management in a single integrated environment, so was able to deliver the full range of services our EEM Customer needed across its order management, accounting, and reporting processes, speeding up the delivery of information to the business from days to minutes or seconds.
eProSoft provided the implementation skills and industry knowledge needed to ensure the solution met a broad range of needs. We took a phased approach, beginning with a sales reporting system to provide performance reports from SAP, followed by a quoting system, a logistics system, and ending with a full end-to-end integration project that provides details on how a quote is created all the way to after-sales tracking.
These solutions include budgeting and forecasting capabilities that allows users to write back their forecasts directly into eProSoft’s ‘BI & A’ Platform, and an Executive Dashboard which provides vital information across multiple parameters and allows the management team to analyze figures as needed without any intervention from the IT department. Information could also be filtered by a wide range of categories, allowing users to extract the information they need at a granular level.
Using the ‘BI & A’ platform, our EEM Customer was able to streamline sales & order analysis to allow users to understand how many quotes were issued for each project, average win/loss rates, the accuracy of sales forecasts and accuracy for the next six months, customer purchase trends, sales cycles, and average discounts.
Our ‘BI & A’ also allowed our EEM Customer to record volumetric and weight information on materials so users could now see information such as stock values by quantity, volume, value, and
weight as well as the total volume of warehouse space currently being used. This could further be filtered and customized in a number of ways, and the “BI & A’ platform puts the power in the end users’ hands, taking the pressure away from other departments.
Our EEM Customer’s global offices had all adopted the eProSoft’s ‘BI & A’ platform and are experiencing experienced the following benefits:
Increased planning accuracy:Sales teams now have got the visibility of the whole sales process, from quote to delivery and beyond, thanks to accurate sales pipeline reporting which incorporates daily feedback to Salesforce via automated emailed reports. This information is empowering sales teams to identify trends and react to market needs more quickly.
Sales and Order analysis used to be a 10-hour process but can now be run in just few seconds.
Business units can now create and modify their own reports and aggregate data across global branches.
Rather than weeks, it now takes less than 15 mins to run a standard report and make it available to all divisional heads, who then have the flexibility to filter the information as required.
Invoices are now fully digital and reconciled within an hour, also highlighting any mismatches and inconsistencies for further analysis.
Users can now create forecasts at a granular rather than aggregate level, empowering greater flexibility and analysis.
eProSot’s ‘BI & A’ platform began to show results back to the business in just few weeks and has since helped maintain control and profitability of a business unit that has grown rapidly across the globe.
"This was one of the projects that got eProSoft noticed by the wider business, not only for implementing a technical solution based on the business need but for giving the business back the control and the ability to serve themselves and help drive their business forward" – SK, CEO, eProSoft.
