Johannesburg, 27 Mar 2009
National food manufacturer and distributor Bidfood Ingredients Group, a division of Bidvest, implemented a full business intelligence (BI) system in just three days using QlikView - and users have become so attached to the system that “if QlikView isn't available we have riots on our hands”, according to Bidfood's Martin van Staden.
“The accuracy and availability of data we enjoy now is phenomenal,” says van Staden. “Previously, managers used spreadsheets to get the information they needed out of our transactional system; but everyone wrote their own and so we were getting many different views of the truth. We needed a tool that would offer everyone the same information and the same answers to guide their decisions, and that's what QlikView has given us.”
Van Staden says Bidfood Ingredients Group looked at QlikView on the recommendation of a sister company in Bidvest. He was impressed with its ability to build a working demonstration model, based on the company's own data, in just three days. “We presented that model to the executive team and they made the decision that this was the right tool for us on the spot. After that it was just a matter of getting the paperwork done.”
The demonstration model not only convinced Bidfood Ingredients' executive team, it was also comprehensive enough to become the first of nine QlikView data models to be implemented at the company. “We took it live the day we got our licences,” says van Staden.
“We've been using QlikView for eighteen months now. We have 90 users in 20 business units working on nine data models, most of which we've developed ourselves after three days of training. Our original business case, based on using traditional BI tools, was to take eight to 12 months just to build the data structures we'd need. With QlikView, we were live within a month of making the first call.”
Van Staden said QlikView South Africa “know their product and understand what BI is about. They adapted to our business and data structures very quickly.”
Bidfood Ingredients branch managers and team leaders are now using QlikView daily. Van Staden says the next step is to roll out the product to the company's executives. “The ease of use has made it that much easier to accept - most users haven't even needed any training from QlikView's own teams, we could do it all ourselves. People learn how to use it incredibly fast, in a matter of hours.”
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