CUSTOMER CASE STUDY Oracle E-Business Suite

Reporting and Analysis Made Easy: Tiger Brands Deploys GL Wand

“There were other tools available to us, but none of these would have been able to achieve what GL Wand did, let alone do it in such a short space of time.” - Jan van der Merwe,

Senior Business Analyst at Tiger Brands

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY

Both the reporting and analysis tasks in complex organisations can prove to be major obstacles for the relevant personnel in a large enterprise. While each of these tasks can be described as being crucial to the company’s wellbeing, the often cumbersome nature of the process can either slow down or completely impede the employees’ ability to fulfil their duties. This was the case at Tiger Brands, up until the company chose to implement GL Wand from Excel4apps solution, which removed these headaches and instead created an automated, flexible and easily executed process.Tiger Brands Limited is a Top 40 JSE Limited company, with a footprint that extends across the African continent and beyond. It is one of the largest manufacturers and marketers of FMCG products in Southern Africa, focusing on a broad basket of categories that spans food, home and personal care as well as baby products. Tiger Brands is a world–class operation that maintains its position through constant investment in people, brands, technology, efficiency, quality and sustainability.

Tiger Brands chose to implement GL Wand as part of a long term, company-wide strategic shift towards adopting Oracle E-Business Suite technology. This shift has been successful, with the company currently utilising E-Business Suite version 12.

Jan van der Merwe, a senior business analyst at Tiger Brands, explains that with the organisation’s growth over the years, its IT environment ended up looking a bit like a ‘fruit salad’, with multiple different enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions in place across the various divisions. It was this that led to the desire for a strategic shift to an Oracle-only environment.

“Our first use of the GL Wand tool came about in 2006, when we were busy with an implementation project for one of the divisions that was not using Oracle at the time. We were put under pressure by the time constraints with regard to getting the necessary reporting requirements in place, as these were extremely tight,” says van der Merwe.

“Obviously, these users were inexperienced with Oracle, so in order to address the requirements of this particular user community and to get them up and running within the tight timeframes we were given; we implemented the GL Wand tool from Excel4apps. This enabled us to quickly and efficiently address the requirements of that business unit.”

He points out that the company was especially impressed with how easily the tool enabled the users to adapt to the new Oracle environment, and how simple it was to get the employees up to a level of self-sufficiency, thanks to the rapid transfer of knowledge.

“The other tools we had available to us would never have been able to achieve this, let alone achieve it in such a short space of time.”

“ GL Wand offers Tiger Brands two key pillars, namely those of reporting and analysis.”

- Jan van der Merwe, Senior Business Analyst at Tiger Brands

GL Wand for Oracle shown

In 2006, Tiger Brands took a strategic decision to consolidate its ERP environment into an Oracle-only one. Tiger Brands is currently using Oracle E-Business Suite version 12. GL Wand was initially implemented to assist in transitioning one of the divisions that had not been using Oracle prior to the consolidation exercise. Recognising how easily the tool enabled the users to adapt to the new Oracle environment, and how simple it was to get the employees up to a level of self-sufficiency, Tiger Brands has begun using the GL Wand across the Group. Today, the company benefits extensively from both the reporting and analysis functionality built into the tool.

After many years of use, GL Wand continues to exceed expectations and Tiger Brands continues to increase the number of licences it purchases.

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Van der Merwe explains that subsequent to this rollout, Tiger Brands expanded the use of the Excel4apps software to other divisions that were already using Oracle, adding that since then, all new implementations have followed the self-same route.“With the original GL Wand implementation, when we first demonstrated exactly what this tool could do from both a reporting and analysis point of view, the users were impressed. Since then, every single time we show it to new users of Oracle, we get exactly the same reaction.”

“The effectiveness of GL Wand is probably best indicated by simple numbers – with the original implementation in 2006, we purchased six licences. Today, that number has increased by more than a factor of 20, with the Tiger Brands Group currently utilising over 130 licences,” he continues.

These users are spread across the entire country, he says, adding that while he cannot say if every single user utilises the tool to its fullest extent, he has come across many instances of users doing wonderful things with it.

“Perhaps the biggest single benefit we obtain from GL Wand – and this goes for every single user – is the incredible time savings that are achieved. With the other tools we used in the past, it took much longer to produce a report because the information had to first be ported to an outside source, and also due to the fact that the cosmetic appearance of the report had to be redone every time. With GL Wand, you are able to design the look of the report first and then simply insert the latest information and populate the values as you require. This means it is quicker to produce and you are always assured that the final product will look the same.”

Reporting and Analysis Benefits According to van der Merwe, GL Wand offers Tiger Brands two key pillars, namely those of reporting and analysis. He says that from an analysis perspective, the company has no other tool that is able to offer

what GL Wand does in pure functionality terms. This coupled with the ability to drill down to a granular level, means that whatever level of analysis is required, the tool can do it.

“In terms of reporting, we obtain a final product that is more quickly put together, offers less chance for human error to creep in and is delivered in an effective and presentable format.”

“It is particularly useful for our financial people, most of whom come from an environment where they

“In terms of reporting, we obtain a final product that is more quickly put together, offers less chance for human error to creep in and is delivered in an effective and presentable format.”

- Jan van der Merwe, Senior Business Analyst at Tiger Brands

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“The effectiveness of GL Wand is probably best indicated by simple numbers – with the original implementation in 2006, we purchased six licences. Today, that number has increased by more than a factor of 20.”

- Jan van der Merwe, Senior Business Analyst at Tiger Brands

www.excel4apps.com/oracle

Excel4apps is a best-in-class provider of Excel-based reporting, inquiry, and budget-loading software for Oracle and SAP. Designed for finance professionals, its award-winning GL Wand, Reports Wand and Budget Wand products easily and securely deliver real-time ERP data using Microsoft Excel® to save reporting time and effort. Excel4apps serves over 23,000 Oracle and SAP users in 67 countries, with offices in Australia, the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and South Africa.

already use Excel a lot. Thus, they are comfortable with the tool and recognise that it enables them to do their jobs better. Also, the fact that these users already know the Excel environment meant that very little training was required here, and they took to the tool like a fish to water. This, of course, was beneficial both to the Tiger Brands IT department and the users themselves.”

Asked whether GL Wand had a positive effect on month-end, van der Merwe is more circumspect. He explains that there are a multitude of issues that affect the reporting lifecycle.

“For example, our head office has recently shrunk the cut-off dates for month-end reports, which has really shaken up the reporting process across the Group. One thing I am positive of is that GL Wand has enabled our financial people to deal with these stricter dates more easily than they would have been able to without it.”

ConclusionIt is clear that from a reporting perspective, GL Wand ensures that users at Tiger Brands have access to more trustworthy data. This, says van der Merwe, is due to the fact that spreadsheets are

linked to the Group’s database, meaning they are updated automatically when changes are saved. This, he states, really improves the quality of the data.

“On the analysis side, the drill down functionality built into the tool gives our people exactly what they need in terms of accessing relevant information. Although there are definitely other methods they can use to obtain such analysis data, the GL Wand tool is quite obviously the quickest, easiest and most effective method.”

And would he consider telling other companies about this tool?

“Actually, I have already recommended GL Wand to a number of other organisations. After all, it really is an amazing tool, so I don’t see why I should have any qualms about endorsing it.”

“Internally, everyone to whom we have demonstrated it has seen the value of the tool in their environment as well, proving just how good an investment this has been. I think it is safe to say that the success of GL Wand within the Tiger Brands Group has been such that I genuinely couldn’t picture the organisation’s Oracle environment without it,” he concludes.