The requirement

The client needed to modernise its systems. Initially, the first steps of the project were focused on the printing division. Previously, the Printing division of the company used a complex system of interlinked spreadsheets to produce their budget and management reporting analysis.

Even so, the depth of information required, and the ability of the business to react to a continuously evolving environment meant the current solution was unmanageable. A modern business intelligence (BI) tool was therefore a critical requirement.

The solution

Several vendors competed in a formal bid process. Each was invited to respond to series of questions based on how their product would handle the printing requirements of the client.

Following an extensive review process, the Printing division chose SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) ahead of the other BI tools.

As one of the leading SAP BPC consultancies with a proven track record in designing, building, and supporting successful applications, Decision Inc. UK was chosen to lead the design to ensure that the British publisher gets the best out of the SAP BPC product. Its role on the project would be to take control of the group-wide integrated application design and development of the applications, with support from internal resources and consulting partners.

Additionally, other businesses in the client organisational structure were also evaluating their BI requirements. The opportunity to integrate with the Printing business drove the expansion of the project. SAP BPC would now become the group-wide solution for management reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting and consolidation.

It was also decided to replace the outdated reporting system (FDC) of the group. SAP BPC would therefore need to take on a highly complex budgeting process while also be simple enough for users to perform their month-end reporting.

Fortunately, the strength and flexibility of the BPC platform enabled the business to create additional applications to encompass more business processes. These included waste and efficiency analysis, sales and pricing applications, and financial consolidation.

The result

Following the implementation, the client is benefiting from a fully integrated BI tool.

The regional and national publishers are now able to forecast and budget title volumes and newspaper characteristics that include paper type, size, and coloration, which the printing arm could now translate into accurate internal pricing costs. The accuracy is obtained from the BPC product which can perform complex, fast, and accurate calculations to generate, by newspaper title, direct material costs, waste, output and other factors.

This process used to take the business more than two months, with questionable accuracy. This has now been reduced to two weeks enabling the publisher to spend more time analysing the financial projections and less time working them out.

Decision Inc. UK continues to be engaged in both a support and in a design enhancement capacity, ensuring that the solution remains “future proof” and flexible to the changing requirements of the business.

About Decision Inc.

Decision Inc. is a global leader in information-driven transformation with a core focus on data, digital and performance intelligence. Our expertise in technology and industry specialisations have enabled us to help companies around the world make better decisions faster. Our emphasis on local excellence and global scale enables us to bring clients best of breed technology solutions that enable significant improvement whilst leveraging our Global Research and Innovation teams to accelerate the time to insight. Our local consulting teams are experts in the implementation, support and execution of these solutions and work with our clients to deliver real results and improvement.