Business Intelligence served piping hot
E.A. Sween needed a more flexible way to provide up-to-date information to its Deli Express management team. While its ERP system had been ideal for tracking transactions, it couldn't provide them with an overall view of the business. Enter iQ4bis…
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As a family-owned business with a strong focus on accountability, E.A. Sween’s management team is extremely hands-on. “We wanted a more flexible way to provide up-to-date information for our management team,” says Ron Myshka, vice president information services. “While we had massive amounts of data in our databases, pulling out information and preparing management reports wasn’t an easy task. Even simple reports, such as a breakdown of sales by state and by customer, took too much time and effort. So our department was tasked to find a more responsive business intelligence (BI) solution.” To help E.A. Sween manage its manufacturing, distribution and transactional processes and ensure steady growth, it has long been committed to excellence in information technology. It is a long-time user of the JD Edwards World ERP software and regularly records up to 17 million individual transactions per year. While the JD Edwards system was ideal for tracking transactions and managing the financial and human resource sides of the business, it wasn’t able to provide them with the type of overall view of the business that management required. “We had very specific requirements,” says Myshka. “The system we were looking for had to integrate cleanly with our JD Edwards ERP solution, be cost-effective and be easy enough to operate so that our management team could find the information they were looking for. We investigated some of the BI vendors such as Showcase and Cognos, but for one reason or another none of the solutions we found matched our needs.” “As we were investigating our BI options,” continues Myshka, “we came into contact with a Chicago-based consulting firm, Strategic Balance, who had a close relationship with BI vendor iQ4bis. After a few initial conversations we decided that iQ4bis was worth a very serious look.” “One of the things that really piqued our interest,” explains Myshka, “was that Strategic Balance said that they would be able to demonstrate iQ4bis to us using our own data. And not only could they show us the solution, but they said that they could do it in just a few weeks. I’ve been in the IT industry for years and have heard a lot of claims, some true and some not. This was a tall order, but we said, ‘sure, show us’.” “We received the E.A. Sween data at our California facility,” says Jeremy Dean, Senior Consultant for iQ4bis, “and were somewhat taken aback by the sheer volume of the databases. They were really going to test us. But the data itself was well-ordered and clean so we were able to quickly prepare our proof of concept (PoC) demonstration. In fact, iQ4bis is exceptionally fast so the volume of data, rather that being a challenge, turned out to be a major selling point.” “The PoC demonstration absolutely convinced us that iQ4bis was the solution we were looking for,” says Myshka. “I’ve never seen our management team speechless before, but when they saw their own data displayed so quickly and in such a easy-tounderstand format, they couldn’t believe it. Needless to say, the PoC was a huge success.” “One of the advantages of a tightly-held business is that decisions can be made very quickly when the opportunity arises,” says Myshka. “Once our management team saw what iQ4bis could do, the decision to purchase was made immediately. Strategic Balance made the process that much easier by packaging the sale as a fixed price / fixed timeframe initiative. So from our point of view, implementing iQ4bis was a guaranteed, low-risk option.” “After producing the PoC demo,” says Dean, “the actual implementation was extremely fast. We had the initial system installed inside of a week and by the end of the second week it was completely validated with all of the distribution mechanisms set up. We had also trained both the technical team and a few key end users. In many ways, E.A. Sween was an ideal customer for us. They had volumes of well-ordered data, they knew exactly what they wanted from the system and they had a team of highly-experienced and motivated IT people who could take immediate ownership of the project.” “Within one week some of our users had data in their hands,” says Myshka. “And now that we’ve rolled out iQ4bis across the organisation we are starting to see some very real benefits. Our sales team can now generate reports for their key customers that detail regional sales by time periods with just a few clicks of the mouse. In addition, the marketing department can now track product tests and introductions quickly and easily. We’ve also been able to straighten out some quality issues with our data that we hadn’t noticed before.” “We’ve been thrilled with the results from iQ4bis,” says Myshka. “I have one senior sales manager who’s been on the BI Team who keeps saying ‘this thing is great’ every time he sees me. Now that doesn’t sound like much, but he says it over and over and over all with an ear-to-ear grin!”
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August 2005
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