In any business, time to plan and strategise is priceless. Technology is making this possible, as Johannesburg-headquartered food manufacturer and supplier Petrow Food Ingredients discovered when a QlikView business intelligence software solution was implemented by Consilia Consult, on top of the company's SAP Business One accounting and ERP software system.
With operations also located in Durban and Cape Town, Petrow Food Ingredients director Riaan Vorster said the decision to use QlikView could not be faulted as it provided strategic, financial and operational information literally at a mouse click.
“We are able to get all of the information we need on operations in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban,” said Vorster. We receive divisional sales reports and regional sales reports and even area reports such as East Rand or West Rand. The drill down functionality is powerful to the point that we also have rapid access to highly detailed breakdowns of sales information.”
Petrow Food Ingredients uses QlikView to compare individual customer sales year-on-year and to detail all purchases per product, per warehouse.
Vorster said the end result is that the company has a lot more time to strategise the business with decisions being supported by accurate, up-to-the-minute information.
The QlikView solution was installed and commissioned within a week. “Seeing is believing,” said Vorster. “The proof of concept was very quick with key people within the organisation rapidly realising the value of what they were getting through the QlikView dashboards. The system was functional within a week and just one or two minor hiccups were experienced.”
The capability of QlikView to provide what Vorster calls “what if functionality” is of great interest to the company. This functionality, for example, reveals the impacts of a 10% increase in sales, identifying the impact this has on company expenses, for example.
Board reports used to take two days to prepare before the arrival of QlikView and, Vorster said, now take seconds or minutes, depending on what is required. “We are able to run QlikView as a presentation offering visual information to the board, which also has green benefits as it eliminates paper.”
The software provides answers to questions in seconds, and is particularly useful in dealing with the questions that companies generally are afraid to ask because of the huge volume of work required to obtain the answers by conventional means.
“The program is well named,” said Vorster. “It is genuinely a simple matter of clicking and then viewing, that's all there is to it. What we also find very useful is the capability to conduct feasibility studies on product management. This is a huge bonus as far as stock management is concerned.”
Consilia Consult general manager Tyron Scott said the QlikView capability to track all sales and stock movement provides a base for meaningful analysis and good decision-making. “This tracking functionality allows Petrow Food Ingredients to monitor quantity, quality, sales, gross profit and conduct analyses of customer preferences and product pricing trends.”
Scott added that the operation of QlikView with SAP Business One accounting and ERP software provides automatic updating of all business information on a daily basis, providing management with the ability to make informed decisions.
Vorster summed up the impact of QlikView in a nutshell: “Time is money. The value of the time-savings that accrue to management is incalculable. Knowledge is power and the software provides us with knowledge we never had before. We now have the information to run the business in the best way possible.”
Petrow Food Ingredients is the South African division of global supplier of spices, herbs, nuts and related food products, CJ Petrow International Limited. PFI's products are processed in a modern, atmosphere-controlled facility, which includes a liquid nitrogen cryogenic milling and blending plant at City Deep in Johannesburg. It is a major importer of a wide range of herbs and spices, desiccated coconut, cocoa powder and edible seeds and also distributes locally produced soy products. Its Spice Pod operation, based in Nelspruit, manufactures paprika powder for local and international markets.
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