Case Study:

How to Build an Integrated Enterprise Planning and Reporting Application at a Midsize Company

eBook

2Integrated Enterprise Planning

I. Introduction

Manual planning processes with ERP and Excel are outdated. A BI solution can help make planning and reporting more flexible and efficient.

This article documents a successful BI implementation at a midsize company. Alexander Bürkle, a supplier of wholesale electronics and technology services, replaced its previous planning system based on ERP and Excel with a BI platform from Jedox. The software’s program modules support the planning process through individual P&L positions for revenue and cost planning. It also addresses the unique requirements of wholesale or industrial companies with regard to cost of sales, gross margin, HR expenses, and material costs.

This case study explores the initial situation at the company, requirements for a new solution, implementation of the BI system, and the resulting changes in the planning process. It also examines the lessons learned during the project and the benefits of the new solution.

1. A need for change ...................................................................................................................................... 3

1.1 Dynamic midsize company

1.2 New demands on planning and reporting

2. A new approach to planning and reporting .......................................................................................... 4

2.1 Business Intelligence

2.2 Requirements for the new system

2.3 Selecting a suitable BI system

3. System implementation ..............................................................................................................................7

3.1 Feasible timeline

3.2 Connecting source systems

3.3 Comprehensive reporting

4. Decentralizing the planning process .....................................................................................................10

4.1 Planning modules for all P&L items

4.2 Top-down or bottom-up planning

4.3 Planning support for cost center managers

4.4 Collaborative planning process with workflow and approvals

4.5 Scenarios and simulations in sales planning

4.6 High user acceptance

5. Benefits of decentralized, integrated planning ................................................................................... 13

5.1 Advanced analytics provides new options

5.2 BI platform makes planning more effective

I. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2

Table of Contents

3eBook:Integrated Enterprise Planning

1. A need for change?

1.1 Dynamic midsize companyAlexander Bürkle is a leading wholesale electronics supplier and technology services provider.

The family owned and operated company based in Freiburg, Germany, has 700 employees with

annual revenues of € 300 million. The company supplies over 4,000 customers daily from a stock

list of 3.8 million products in the segments of building services, industrial engineering, renewable

energy, and consumer electronics.

1.2 New demands on planning and reporting The reporting and planning tools that were previously used at Alexander Bürkle could no longer

keep pace with the company’s growing requirements. The wholesale electronics supplier had just

integrated two affiliate companies, reorganized its business into four divisions, and wanted to build

its market positioning as a technology service provider.

The four corporate divisions were organized into regions with separate branch offices within these

regions. The company now had over 900 cost centers and 700 cost types along with a new system

for cost accounting.

Figure 1: Planning and reporting complexity grows after corporate restructuring

The wholesale electronics supplier used an industry-specific, SQL-based ERP system (eNVenta), a

merchandise management system, and Microsoft Excel for reporting and sales planning. Individual

reports were programmed by the IT department in the ERP system. In addition to being expensive

and time-consuming, reporting had very rigid structures with limited flexibility. Reports could only

display results for the company as a whole. The system also could not deliver the desired, detailed

analytics and forecasts by products or sales divisions.

This prompted the company to implement a new system for integrated enterprise planning and

reporting.

New planning

requirements

New corporate structure

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2. A new approach to planning and reporting

2.1 Business IntelligenceBusiness Intelligence (BI) has established itself as a good alternative to traditional reporting

and planning tools. BI supports high-performance, flexible usage scenarios through in-memory

architectures and web, mobile, and cloud technologies. Self-service BI empowers business users

to create reports and analyses on their own without needing IT support.

Reporting: A BI solution is much more agile and even automates standard documents such as

daily, monthly, or quarterly reports. The data from the ERP system can be flexibly combined with

information from any other source. Results are visualized as charts and graphics in a dashboard.

Figure 2: The BI and planning solution visualizes sales data

Planning: Conventional, highly manual planning processes with ERP systems and Excel are

outdated. Aside from being time-intensive, they are highly error-prone due to the complexity of

managing multiple Excel sheets in an unstructured planning process. The planning scenarios from

the ERP system itself have limited functionality and poor handling. Assigning access rights to the

planning objects is also difficult in complex organizations.

Alternative:

Business Intelligence

BI for standard reporting

Planning with ERP / Excel

is outdated

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2.2 Requirements for the new systemThe wholesale electronics supplier had four main requirements for the new system:

1. Integrated planning module The company’s main requirement for the new solution

was an integrated planning module. It should add

structure and transparency to the planning process

and support management, sales directors, and field

sales with separate permissions while reducing the

workload on the responsible controllers.

2. Self-service reporting The controllers at Alexander Bürkle wanted an easier,

more agile way to build, adapt, and automate detailed

reports. They also wanted to complete these tasks

on their own without the need for programming or

IT support. The system should also integrate with

Microsoft Office products.

3. Secure, web-enabled

BI system

All 22 branch offices should be able to access the

reports from any location or device. High security

standards and granular access rights were also

required.

4. Complex cost

allocation system

Due to its four-tiered corporate structure, Alexander

Bürkle had to implement twelve different cost allocation

keys with further subdivisions in both cost accounting

and the planning process.

Four main requirements

Reasons for choosing the

BI platform Jedox

2.3 Selecting a suitable BI systemA team of controllers, IT, and senior managers worked together to select a suitable BI system. After

narrowing down the list to four vendors and evaluating each solution based on the requirements,

the team chose Jedox. The solution from the German software vendor stood out for its integrated

planning module in the familiar look and feel of Excel.

The BI platform Jedox lays the groundwork for a uniform, predefined planning process. At

Alexander Bürkle, 100 cost center managers in the field receive their customer revenues as the

basis for sales planning. A data entry screen in the web interface of Jedox facilitates this process.

The field sales representatives have the option to conduct their planning based on the past year’s

numbers, generate forecast numbers, or modify the data from the previous year in absolute values

or percentages.

The solution supports the collaborative top-down and bottom-up planning process with workflow

and approval processes. The sales directors or controllers managing the process can see which

plans have been submitted or not at a glance. They can also view the planning numbers and adjust

them if necessary.

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Figure 3: Web-based solution boosts planning effi ciency at Alexander Bürkle

The system clearly shows which numbers have been modifi ed, checked, and approved. At the

end of the planning process, the fi nalized numbers are written back to the ERP system. Aside

from the annual planning cycle, the system also supports rolling forecasts and ongoing planning

adjustments.

Some typical planning processes that incorporate data from the ERP or merchandise management

system include:

l Cost center/cost type planning: Guidance and support for cost center managers

l Sales planning: Sales and operations planning, top-down and bottom-up planning, diff erent

specifi cations for individual regions, planning by articles, GAP planning, rolling forecast

l HR planning: Personnel expense planning, FTE planning, qualifi cation planning,

reorganization and extending the organizational structures (including creating the new

positions from Jedox in SAP)

l Materials management: Spend volume, procurement of non-production materials, number

of employees in the warehouse based on material movements

l Service and maintenance: Planning of guarantees and goodwill costs, simulation, process

improvements through log data analysis

Typical planning

processes

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3. System implementation

3.1 Feasible timeline

Figure 4: The reporting application was implemented within 3 months

With the support of a Jedox consultant, Alexander Bürkle implemented an integrated enterprise

reporting and planning system based on Jedox. The project kicked off with a feasibility workshop,

where the controllers and IT outlined a project schedule. This included key project steps and

milestones derived from a rough concept for the targeted reporting and planning system. During

the solution design, close attention was paid to the different modules and components of the

reporting and planning processes as well as the scalability of the architecture.

3.2 Connecting source systemsBuilding a suitable data model is a central task at the start of the ETL process. Which content is

included and how the data is linked depends on which information, metrics, and data sources

should be used for the reports. The data is then extracted and controlled to ensure it has been

transferred correctly without errors.

At Alexander Bürkle, data from individual tables of the ERP system's underlying Oracle database

is merged with the planning data, revenue data, and other information. An SQL query supplies

the data. Controlling duplicates, differentiating between customer and branch office numbers, and

interpreting date values correctly (for example, January as the first month of the year and the tenth

month in the fiscal year) are typical challenges in data extraction.

In the next step, the data is transformed into a format required by the BI system. The Jedox platform

supports the ETL process through helpful functions and plausibility checks. The BI system checks

the imported data for duplicates and incomplete entries. For “Revenues, Customers”, for example,

Jedox will give notification if data from individual customers or branch offices is missing.

Feasibility workshop with

project schedule

Building a data model

Extracting the data

Transforming the data

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The data must be marked with the right attribute and linked to the proper fields to enable in-

depth analyses in different hierarchies at a later time. If different plants supply a single customer,

for example, these locations can be assigned as individual customers of a main customer number

to ensure that the revenues are accessible for both the main customer and as individual customers

for the plant. If the customer receives a bonus, this information will be saved for the main customer

and automatically transferred to the individual customers.

Another requirement in the ETL process at Alexander Bürkle was assigning customers to individual

divisions, regions, branch offices, and field sales representatives. The data model and cube take

each of these dimensions into account so they can be used for analysis. Users can select this

information in Jedox through a graphical user interface.

A consultant from Jedox initially provided support in building a data cube and loading the data. By

the second project, the company's controllers were able to complete the bulk of the work on their

own.

3.3 Comprehensive reportingThe data is now ready for analysis and reporting in a web interface. The current version of the BI

platform offers pre-configured reports that can be adapted to individual requirements.

Since the web interface of Jedox has the look and feel of Excel, users can apply their existing

spreadsheet skills. Context menus from Excel – for example, “Paste contents” – can be accessed

in the BI system with a right click. Approximately 80% of Excel formulas, including VLOOKUP, IF

conditions, or SUMIF, can also be used 1:1 in the system. Users can also add rows and columns

just as they would in Excel. Jedox offers countless other design options including combination

boxes, hyperlinks, dynamic objects, and dynamic charts. Permissions for publishing reports can

be assigned on cell or member levels.

Figure 5: The user interface with the look and feel of Excel builds user acceptance for the new

reporting tool

Dimensions in the

data cube

Loading the data

Pre-configured reports

Reporting in a familiar

Excel environment

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The controllers have already built 80 regular reports for the management board, sales directors,

fields sales, inside sales, product management, human resources, logistics, procurement, and

financial accounting at Alexander Bürkle. Users can access the reports from any location through

the web interface of Jedox. The authorization system ensures that users can only receive

authorized data for their specific areas. The employees can further refine the reports using

pre-defined selection criteria such as areas or time periods.

The first phase of the project was implemented in just three months with the support of a Jedox

consultant. Within a short time, the controllers at Alexander Bürkle were able to develop and

maintain their reports on their own. After a six-month period, they had built up the skills and

knowledge to roll out the planning process in Jedox.

The solution also generates automated reports, which evaluate information from 500 data fields.

This data is also helpful for examining individual customers. With the software’s drill-down functions,

users can also examine individual cost centers down to level of individual documents.

The system also supports individual customer analyses. For example, it determines at which point

a collective invoice should be generated based on a threshold for the number of invoices within

a month. If the number of individual articles exceeds a certain amount, it pays to deliver them in a

larger bundle.

Figure 6: 80 reports for various target groups can be accessed from any location through the

web portal

BI implementation in

three months

Drill-down capabilities

Individual customer

analyses

Flexible access to reports

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4. Decentralizing the planning process

4.1 Planning modules for all P&L itemsIn the past, sales planning at Alexander Bürkle was conducted using the planning tools of the ERP

system and Excel tables. Since the new corporate divisions could not be mapped in the legacy

system, this was no longer an option. Planning in Excel alone would have been too complex and

time-consuming. It also lacks a status module to provide an overview of the current process. This

prompted the project team to completely redesign the planning process with Jedox.

The BI platform supports the planning process with special program modules to plan revenues and

costs for the individual P&L positions. It also accounts for the specific requirements of wholesale or

industrial companies with regard to cost of sales, gross margin, HR expenses, and material costs.

4.2 Top-down or bottom-up planningAt Alexander Bürkle, the managing directors kick off sales planning by setting the revenue targets

and specifications for the individual business divisions. The sales directors then discuss these

requirements with field sales, which translates these targets into planning numbers for their clients.

The controllers then make the data available for detailed planning through the planning module of

Jedox. Sales planning is based on the actuals from the previous year. A copy function then transfers

this data to the planning area. Technically speaking, it is a multidimensional data selection. All

customers, all products, or all branch offices can be transferred with a single command – regardless

of the amount of data. All seasonal fluctuations are transferred along with the historical data to the

new planning year. The planning module offers automatic modifications, for example, based on

how the holidays fall or the number of workdays in the month.

Approximately 100 field sales representatives from 22 branch offices now have 14 days to submit

planning numbers for their customers. They access the Jedox platform online and enter their

numbers through an input screen. The planning module of the BI system offers many different

functions such as ABC customer classifications, cost of sales planning, and gross margin planning

to support this process.

4.3 Planning support for cost center managers Field sales generates planning numbers for 200 customers on average. The actual sales numbers

from April to February and the planning numbers for March of the previous year form the basis

for planning. These numbers are differentiated by main product groups and region. The planning

module from Jedox provides different options to realize the defined company goals for their

customers.

Users now can conduct across-the-board planning or edit individual main product groups or

customers. They can also enter planning values for new customer.

l Options for across-the-board planning

With the BI system, users can transfer planning targets as a percentage revenue increase or

as an absolute value to the main product groups, gross margins, or individual customers with

the touch of a button. Afterwards, they can adjust the values for individual customers if desired.

New approach to planning

Planning for P&L items

Sales planning process

Planning module of the BI

system

Web input screen for

planners

Helpful support for

planners

11eBook:Integrated Enterprise Planning

l Planning for main product groups:

The field sales staff modifies the revenue numbers of individual main product groups by

entering the budget numbers as absolute values in euros and fine-tuning the results.

l Planning for individual customers:

Planners can modify the results for all customers (e.g. “A” customers) or individual ones to

address special opportunities, risks, or expected changes.

l Planning for new customers

Employees can also enter target values for new customers and flexibly define the data for

product groups in the planning module.

l Gross margin planning

Employees can enter gross margin figures as a percentage or absolute value. The system

automatically calculates the numbers.

l Driver-based planning

Specifications related to changes in quantities or prices provide an alternative to mere

revenue-based planning. Users can enter an anticipated drop in price to better plan the need to

compensate this effect through a higher number of items sold and corresponding

marketing activities.

l Other planning aids

⊲ Alexander Bürkle uses color-coding to highlight special customers. Green stands for new

customers, orange for those reassigned from other sales divisions, and red for customers

barred from deliveries of goods. Customers can also be grouped by an ABC classification.

In the future, the company intends to display the planning values from the previous year as

additional information in order to recognize variances between planned and actual revenues.

⊲ Field sales can enter additional notes, for example, to explain why they had entered higher

or lower revenues for a particular customer. These comments are saved in the database.

⊲ The planning module allows users to undo entered data, value for value, or to completely

reset the budget to the initial values. This makes it easier to test various scenarios for achieving

the defined goals. Systematic data entry errors can be fixed with a touch of a button. This is

possible because the actual numbers are accessible in the database for 12 full months.

4.4 Collaborative planning process with workflow and approvalsField sales representatives submit their data and close the data entry process with the touch of a

button. The system then locks these fields to protect the values from subsequent modifications.

The process status for the cost center now switches from red to yellow.

The responsible sales director now sees the modified processing status in the planning monitor. If

desired, the system can also send an automatic notification. The sales director checks the numbers

and confirms them. The status switches to green. If corrections are necessary, the sales director

reactivates the planning process for the individual field sales representative and the status turns

red. The responsible employee can access these numbers again and make the desired changes.

Color-coding and

comments

Undo function

Submitting entries

Different planning

options

Planning monitor for

sales directors

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The planning monitor shows the current status of the planning process at all times. The sales director

knows which individuals still have to complete their planning and when they have submitted their

proposals. If necessary, an automatic reminder mail can be sent at a scheduled date. The managing

directors can check the planning status for the entire company, the numbers for individual divisions,

or the status for specific regions in more detail.

Once the planning process has been closed, Jedox writes back the budget values into the

merchandise management system. In this phase, the ETL process runs in the opposite direction.

The system first saves the data to interim tables where they can be checked for completeness.

Figure 7: Workflow support and automatic data validation add transparency to planning

processes

4.5 Scenarios and simulations in sales planningThe BI platform offers capabilities for running what-if scenarios and analyzing trends. Typical uses

for scenarios include new revenue segments, branch offices, customers, or organization of sales

regions. Users can test any number of variants.

These variants can be calculated using absolute numbers or percentages. Planners can also start

with historical data to apply past experiences to new customers or product groups. This ensures

that a realistic revenue development is used as a planning variant. The data models support

simulations in any number of parallel data hierarchies, for example, individual postal regions. Users

can then compare, evaluate, and reduce the different variants to a preferred model.

4.6 High user acceptanceApproximately 200 employees from the managing board to financial accounting, procurement,

product management, human resources, and field sales work with the reporting and planning tools

from Jedox at Alexander Bürkle. Employees with good skills in Excel quickly felt comfortable in

the familiar Excel environment of the BI system. Others, including several employees with limited

IT skills, received training through internal courses and targeted support. The flexible options for

working with the system independently created strong acceptance among the users.

Closing the planning

process

What-if scenarios

Running simulations

in varying levels of

complexity

Strong user acceptance

through Excel environment

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5. Benefits of decentralized, integrated planning

Due to the underlying BI platform, planning can flexibly follow P&L items. Jedox unites reporting

and planning on a single platform. The identical user interface simplifies handling for employees in

comparison to separate planning tools that are only used once a year. The common pool of data

also ensures a sound, reliable foundation for planning and reporting. Plan-actual comparisons are

available at any time with a touch of a button. The system also supports what-if simulations and

trend analysis.

Business Intelligence Performance Management

Dashboards

Balanced ScorecardsVisualization

Scenario Analysis

KPIsSales Forecasting

Standard Queries

Budgeting Ad-hoc Queries

Integrated Financial Planning

Data Preparation

Driver-based Planning

Data Integration Predictive Analysis

Planning & Reporting Cycle

Actual-budget comparison

Strategy planning

Resource eciency

StrategyPlanning

Budgets & Forecasts

Trends & Future Data

DecisionSupport

Reporting& Analysis

Actual &Historical Data

Consolidation

Rolling ForecastPerformance analysis

Cost optimization

Figure 8: Integrated enterprise planning concept

5.1 Advanced analytics provides new optionsThere are many benefits to annual planning based on highly granular, multidimensional data. The

greatest advantage – namely, the vast options for in-depth variance analysis (exception reporting)

– first becomes apparent the following year.

The BI system clearly visualizes variances so users can spot possible trends with just a glance. If the

system shows variances for a main product group, they can click to view more details - even down

to individual product levels.

Users can utilize the findings from the variance analysis to calculate monthly forecasts. Jedox

supports this process with year-to-go elements to calculate new forecast scenarios for the current

year. Known trends are transferred with a command to the planning data of the remaining months,

for example, as a percentage increase in revenues.

With these capabilities, the controllers can evolve the primarily descriptive, historical analyses into

evaluative, predictive analytics.

Exception reporting

One platform for reporting

and planning

Monthly forecast

calculations

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5.2 BI platform makes planning more effective The planning module from Jedox has made revenue planning at Alexander Bürkle much more

effective:

5.2.1 Flexible planning optionsPlanning includes both top-down and bottom-up elements. The system is able to account for

special requirements or requests from different regions and branch offices. Planning processes are

conducted across all departments and divisions.

User concepts are one example of how Jedox makes the planning processes more effective.

Instead of assigning permissions to each individual employee, the system administrators define

user roles in groups. When a new field sales representative is hired, that individual receives the

permissions defined for this group with a single click.

5.2.2 Simplified planning processPlanning variants with across-the-board increases in revenue or differentiations by main product

groups or individual customers facilitate the planning process because the system instantly

calculates all modifications and shows the bottom-line effects.

Its integrated planning tools, optional comment fields, and color-coding simplify data entry tasks

and reduce the work involved. Time-consuming manual consolidations are no longer necessary.

Employees can now respond to the questions or requirements of the managing directors without

delay.

With a planning tool that is primarily based on pure Excel, any modifications to products or sales

divisions involve a great deal of manual work and adjustments. The BI system from Jedox, in

contrast, automatically modifies all planning documents. This eliminates the cumbersome task of

consolidating multiple individual Excel sheets once and for all.

5.2.3 High-performance planning systemThrough the BI system's structure with its central database, uniform planning logic, and calculation

rules, users at Alexander Bürkle can instantly see how individual actions affect the big picture. The

company utilizes 9 million data records in planning. Despite this relatively large amount of data, the

system processes ad hoc queries quickly. Revenue simulations for thousands of customers are also

calculated within seconds.

5.2.4 Modern toolsEmployees at Alexander Bürkle can flexibly access all reporting and planning applications on the

road from a variety of mobile devices, including laptops, tablets, or smartphones through a secure

VPN connection. The displayed reports are identical and can be read on every device.

AuthorsAngelika Grom, Head Controller at Alexander Bürkle GmbH & Co. KG, a midsize electronic

wholesales company based in Freiburg, Germany

Norbert Grimm, Vice President Global Customer Success at Jedox. As a senior consultant, Grimm

has over 25 years of experience in integrated enterprise planning, reporting, and Corporate

Performance Management.

Optional planning variants

are immediately visible

Ad hoc queries on millions

of data records

Mobile and secure

Top-down/bottom-up

capabilities, user concepts

About Jedox:

Jedox simplifies planning, analysis, and reporting

with one unified cloud-based software suite. Jedox

empowers decision makers and business users across

all departments to help them work smarter, streamline

business collaboration, and make insight-based decisions

with confidence.

Over 2,000 organizations use Jedox in 127 countries for

real-time planning on the web, in the cloud, and on any

device. Independent analysts Gartner, Howard Dresner

and BARC recognize Jedox for its leading enterprise

planning solutions.

Europe: +49 (0) 761 15147 0France: +33 1 47 23 00 22

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E-Mail: info@jedox.com

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