The Bell Tea Company has been a New Zealand favourite for more than 100 years. Being number one in the tea industry means it also has to be number one in logistics, distribution, marketing, sales and operational management. And to stay ahead of the game, the company has implemented the iQ4bis Business Intelligence solution and Microsoft Dynamics AX Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform.

“We’d just gone through a major revamp of our IT infrastructure, where we replaced our existing CBA ERP system with Microsoft Dynamics AX and upgraded our servers and network,” says Bell Tea financial controller David McKeown. “While we were happy with the flexibility, speed and database management capabilities that Axapta provided, we still needed a more responsive method of pulling vital information out of the system and using that information to support our business decisions.

“Under CBA we used Crystal Reports for flat file reporting. With Axapta, we had a vastly improved ERP system, but it was still a challenge for our managers to quickly and easily get the information they needed. I was the ‘go to guy’ whenever one of the team needed a new or modified report. I didn’t mind – after all, it was part of my job description to ensure that the team had the best and most up-to-date information – but it did impact my other responsibilities. There had to be a better way.”

After an initial meeting McKeown asked to attend a iQ4bis Software User Group meeting “to meet other people who were using iQ4bis and hear what they had to say.”

“It was very impressive,” he says. After a personal demonstration and a few more phone calls to other users, Bell Tea decided to participate in a ‘Proof of Concept’ exercise.

“We did a quick dump of our Axapta database to a CD and sent it over to the team at iQ4bis Software,” says McKeown. “In a matter of days they had processed the data through iQ4bis Data Server and were able to show us the power of iQ4bis Analysis Web with our own data. We could query the database, change parameters, drill-down, consolidate data and generate reports. They showed me how easy it was to run my own analyses.

“It was nothing short of superb. Based on the feedback we had received from current iQ4bis users and our satisfaction with the ‘Proof of Concept’ we decided there was no need to look at any other business intelligence software or talk with other vendors. We were sold on iQ4bis.”

Installing iQ4bis at Bell Tea went smoothly. “Because we run predominantly Microsoft software, iQ4bis was a perfect fit for us,” says McKeown.

“The team from iQ4bis loaded the software onto our servers, set up the links between iQ4bis, Axapta and SQL Server and that was it. We had two training sessions – a basic ‘how to’ for about ten people who would be casual users and a more focussed session for the ‘power users’. That was enough to get going. In fact, most of the current work we do with iQ4bis uses the views that the iQ4bis team set up for us as part of the Proof of Concept exercise.”

“I’d recommend iQ4bis to anyone,” says McKeown. “We’re just scratching the surface with what we can accomplish with iQ4bis. Already it’s saved me hours of report preparation time each month as our food services account manager can now do his own analyses instead of relying on me to write reports for him. Plus our accountant and national sales managers are using the capabilities of iQ4bis themselves to track trends and make adjustments as required. And when you add the incredible responsiveness and technical skill of the iQ4bis team, you have a definite winner.”

Andrew Ranson, strategic business and marketing manager Australasia at iQ4bis Software, says Axapta and iQ4bis build on each other’s strengths. “The combination of Axapta and iQ4bis has the potential to add sophisticated business intelligence capabilities to businesses of all sizes.”

Click here to register for free iQ4Bis Proof of Concept

For more information contact
Sunesh Samarasinghe
General Manager – Australasia
iQ4bis Software (NZ) Ltd
64 9 529 3767
sunesh@iq4bis.com

May 2006