Saint-Gobain Denmark builds a sophisticated, flexible planning solution

To read a Danish version of this case study, click here.

Saint-Gobain Distribution Denmark, part of the Saint-Gobain group, is a specialist in the wholesale distribution of equipment and tools for the Danish construction and plumbing industries. The company has its headquarters in Brondby, employs 1,400 people, and operates 60 sales outlets and 10 warehouses across the country.

The company has a relatively complex organisational structure, with more than 300 departments handling different aspects of the business. Each department is assigned a budget, which it manages independently.

Planning challenges
“To monitor the progress of each department and ensure that the company is making the most effective use of its capital, we produce regular forecasts and revisions,” explains Lars Andreassen, Chief Controller at Saint-Gobain Distribution Denmark. “Until recently, this was a slow and painful process: we had to collect data from hundreds of spreadsheets from all the different departments, validate it, and consolidate it into a single set of results. The whole process could take up to a month, and it was extremely labour-intensive and time-consuming.”

Saint-Gobain had been using IBM Cognos Business Intelligence software for many years, and appreciated its ability to collect, analyse and present business data rapidly, with minimal need for manual intervention. Encouraged by its positive experience of the Cognos software, the company decided to extend the solution to handle budgeting and forecasting processes by integrating IBM Cognos Planning into the environment.

“Many of the business intelligence tools on the market are good for historical analysis, but are not so strong in terms of forward-looking processes such as financial planning and forecasting,” comments Lars Andreassen. “By contrast, IBM Cognos Planning is a mature and well-respected solution, and it integrates easily with IBM Cognos Business Intelligence to provide a comprehensive analytics solution.”

Getting expert help
The Saint-Gobain IT team was already busy with several other projects, and decided to ask Kapacity, an IBM Business Partner that specialises in business intelligence and performance management solutions, to help with the implementation.

“Kapacity has been one of our most trusted technology partners for several years, and we are very satisfied with their support during this project,” says Jesper Clausen, IT Director. “Their approach to project management is very effective and ensured that the IBM Cognos Planning solution was implemented quickly – even when our in-house team was focusing on other projects.”

Accelerating planning processes
With the new solution in place, Saint-Gobain has been able to phase out hundreds of spreadsheets and eliminate the majority of the manual work required to create budgets and forecasts. The length of the forecasting process has been cut from one month down to just a couple of days – which enables the company to create four rolling forecasts per year.

“Quarterly forecasts give us much greater control over departmental budgets, because we can revise them with the most current data,” explains Lars Andreassen. “If there are significant variances between planned and actual expenditure, we can identify the problems quickly and take action to get things back on track.”

Boosting flexibility
Another benefit is flexibility. Previously, if there were organisational changes within the company during the period when the planning team was setting the annual budget, the whole process had to be started again from scratch. With IBM Cognos Planning, it is much easier to make alterations to the budget, so the planning team can be much more dynamic in responding to business changes.

Lars Andreassen concludes: “IBM Cognos Planning gives us a single, reliable solution for financial planning that accelerates our planning and budgeting processes, and enables us to gain tighter control of our costs. Kapacity did an excellent job, helping us create a solution that integrates seamlessly with our existing business intelligence landscape and gives us the flexibility to react quickly to changing conditions in the market and within the business.”

About Kapacity
Kapacity is a Danish consultancy firm and IBM Business Partner focusing on business intelligence and data warehouse solutions. Kapacity believes that experience is the key to successful projects, and greatly emphasises its ability to support its dedicated core competences with many years of both technical expertise and business experience. Kapacity’s consultants have great experience in working with IBM Cognos solutions in numerous industries, including professional services, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications and the public sector.

About IBM Business Analytics
IBM Business Analytics software delivers complete, consistent and accurate information that decision-makers trust to improve business performance. A comprehensive portfolio of business intelligence, predictive analytics, financial performance and strategy management, and analytic applications provides clear, immediate and actionable insights into current performance and the ability to predict future outcomes.

Combined with rich industry solutions, proven practices and professional services, organisations of every size can drive the highest productivity, confidently automate decisions and deliver better results.