Alchemex Excel Reporting challenges traditional reporting solutions

RAP Products International (Pty) Ltd can be grouped among thousands of medium and small firms that recognise the value of BI yet do not have a clear path to satisfaction. Without a big corporate budget, most of the obvious solutions create a mismatch on spend. However, access to the information is crucial so the FD begins the crusade, typically a search for anyone, or any technology claiming to have the answers.

Specifically, in the case of RAP, Financial Director Mark Dunn had already invested in new technology to guarantee an efficient input process. Dunn recalls: "We had outgrown our accounting solution and selected SYSPRO, recognising its power and therefore the potential for us to call on its functionality as we progressed."

One year later, with the department`s processing side optimised, Dunn was now ready for the next stage in his crusade, to generate valuable information from all the input. His first requirement was to generate a sophisticated monthly pack to illustrate the health of a variety of areas of the business. This included analysis by branch and by product as well as a consolidated view.

Dunn recalls: "We failed in our first attempt, where we selected the traditional SYSPRO report writer, and realised the job was only really suitable for Excel." The second attempt, employing a software developer to automate Excel reports using VB, MSQuery and ODBC, also fell short. Dunn claims: "We were close but were missing the technology to create a clean integration between the SYSPRO database and Excel." Once again, Dunn searched and this time he found Alchemex.

Alchemex is an Excel-based reporting and integration solution aimed at converting Excel into the most practical choice for presenting data. Dunn says: "The solution already had a very tight integration into the SYSPRO data which facilitates fast-tracked delivery of reporting." A three-week lead time was required to deliver a fully automated pack, which is now available at the click of a button and replaces at least two days of manual work at month-end.

Alchemex also sets up a unique partnership between the IT department and the financial end-user, because both parties are skilled in Excel. Dunn`s contracted consultant Glenn Jennings explains: "Mark and myself were always on the same page during the design phase, because both parties knew exactly what was possible to extract from Excel. When using a tool like Crystal the end-user can not share his vision for the final report as easily."

The RAP business intelligence crusade is now well on its way and Dunn has decided to continue investing in the existing partnership. New projects include an asset register as well as an unallocated debtors report. RAP is now using Excel to deliver those reports not easily achieved utilising traditional reporting or the SYSPRO report writer. Dunn concludes: "Some reports simply make more sense delivered in Excel."