“When our people have immediate access to the right information,” says Dale Roberts, vice president – corporate business of Fil-Pacific Apparel, “they can make more informed decisions. They don’t have to wait for orders or advice from someone above them in a hierarchy.

“And when they have the freedom to make decisions, and the ability to take action for themselves, they are more highly motivated, more creative and more flexible. iQ4bis provides all of this and more.”

Fil-Pacific is a rapidly growing enterprise, with ever more brands, business partners and information to manage. “We had just completed a major upgrade to standardise our data-processing operations within a Microsoft environment,” says Roberts, “but we still didn’t have the fingertip access to key information – in the right format – that we needed to make the right decisions for the future of our business. Then, at a Microsoft Dynamics User Group Conference, we heard about a rising star in the BI marketplace, iQ4bis that was optimised to operate in a Microsoft environment.

“We saw the demonstration and were very impressed. The fact that they were based in the Asia-Pacific region and had local representation was also advantageous from our point of view.”

“The team from iQ4bis, along with their local partner, SmartCubes, showed us the type of information we could pull out of our databases with just a few clicks of the mouse,” explains Roberts.

“We had been looking at competing BI systems and, frankly, iQ4bis was head and shoulders above them all. We made the decision to base our BI capabilities around iQ4bis shortly thereafter. It was one of the best IT purchase decisions we’ve made.” Fil-Pacific partnered with SmartCubes to install, configure, customise and support the iQ4bis solution.

Smooth implementation
Implementing iQ4bis at Fil-Pacific went very smoothly. “Because their data was very well-ordered, in a standard Microsoft Dynamics format, we were able to install the software, populate the databases and build a mixture of standard and customised ‘views’ quickly and easily,” says Darren Taylor, managing director of SmartCubes.

“Fil-Pacific’s business processes were also highly-developed and documented which gave us a blue-print upon which to base our overall information architecture. In effect, we reverse engineered their requirements, all the way through ERP, product development, project management and document management. In addition, we worked with them to take advantage of iQ4bis’ unique capabilities, developed new business processes and aligned them to their business performance requirements. The end result is that their data is accessible and visible, and they now have ‘a single version of the truth’ across their entire organisation.”

Fil-Pacific utilises the Microsoft line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions, including Dynamics NAV enterprise resource planning (ERP) and retail management system (RMS), Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint and Microsoft’s enterprise project management system.

The added capabilities of iQ4bis increase the visibility of the Fil-Pacific’s business data at an enterprise level, by providing managers with access to critical information, including finance and sales.

Positive impact
iQ4bis is already having a positive impact at Fil-Pacific.

In the fashion industry, trends emerge and evolve at a furious pace. iQ4bis provides a near ‘real-time’ view into key metrics that help managers stay ahead of the game.

Mylene Sybingco, vice president- MPIM Lee Brand, explains. “iQ4bis lets us look at how a particular style is selling in each outlet. We can see, almost immediately, if the style is moving in some and not in others.

With the information found within iQ4bis, we can react quickly to put together action plans, make adjustments and put a fix in place. The iQ4bis ‘sales view’ gives us immediate access to vital information in our planning meetings and allows us to fine-tune our inventory to capitalise on the rapidly changing fashion trends.”

This self-service approach to data from throughout the organisation empowers managers to perform their own analyses without having to call upon MIS to prepare reports. “Before we implemented iQ4bis, our reporting capabilities were traditional, structured, static and cumbersome,” says Jun Terrado, vice president – MIS.

“If a manager wanted anything out of the ordinary, or needed an immediate update, they would have to make a request and wait for the results. Any changes or clarifications required more time and consultation.

Now, with iQ4bis and the powerful built-in query and analysis features, end users can interact with business information and answer ad hoc questions immediately, from their desktops with only a few clicks of the mouse.”

Ranny Sanchez, chief financial officer at Fil-Pacific Apparel, sums it up concisely: “Our analysts now have time to do their jobs – analyse data! With iQ4bis they don’t have to spend most of their time collecting and formatting data. Now they can see the information – immediately – and use it to make more informed decisions.”

For more information

Asj Smith            
General Manager- APAC
iQ4bis Management Software Limited
+64 9 366 2635
Visit our website www.iQ4bis.com








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