SEE HOW REPORTING EMPOWERS TWIN CITY FOODS

Adena Ray, Director of IT, Twin City FoodsJames Thomas, VP Volume Business Unit, SAP

Turn data into powerful information

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Information is not reaching decisions makers

Base: 675 US and European business executives and managersSource: BusinessWeek Research Services

Gut Feel Decisions

All of the time

75% of the time

50% of the time

25% of the time

Never

Aware of bad decisions managers have made due to insufficient information

“Gut Feel” used by >60% of people, >50% of the time

Information available for important business decisions

Always just the right amount (rare)

Usually too much

41% 22%

38%

Usually too little 77%

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IT under pressure… now more than ever

Twin City Foods Success StoryAdena Ray, Director IT

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Twin City FoodsOverview

Private label frozen vegetable packers (manufacturing)

Privately held, over 60 years old

Aged systems and technology “Home Grown” applications Owners recognized the need to modernize

and “action-ize” our information systems Nearly all information was paper-based Produced “after the fact” from summarized

information Could not typically be reproduced for ad-hoc

analysis Undertook a multi-year project to bring

technology forward New ERP system Introduced Crystal Reports

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A radical transformationThe need for a better reporting system

Situation

Paper-based decision making, “rear view mirror” only

No “big picture” view of information

Decisions isolated due to segmented information view

Information not actionable

Goal

Proactive information dissemination

Leadership role for information

Information should guide the reader to appropriate action

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Deliver actionable information

What we did

Began by initially developing reports to mimic the existing ones Developed in excess of 1000 reports

After user acceptance, we then began expanding reports to include appropriate actions

For example, Sales Order reports began including notification of late shipments, short shipments

Included costs on reports such as “Unearned Discounts”

Added Crystal Reports Server to begin pushing reports to the appropriate people at the appropriate times

Launched an Executive Information Portal that contains key executive management reports

Began sending automatic notifications to customers and brokers Developed reports that do accounting reconciliations and identify areas for review Proactively scan the corporate information for areas that require decisions/action

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Making information a key asset for all users

What we are doing today

Focus on moving users away from paper-based decisions to information-based decisions

Requires users to think on a larger scale – how their decisions/actions impact other in the organization

Requires extra thought in the design of reports

Focus on LEADERSHIP Lead the users into decisions by gathering the associated

information and providing it to them

Currently deploy reports in multiple methods Standard requested report Scheduled email (push information to the user)

Also used for customers/brokers Scheduled publish at Intranet site

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360-degree view of our business Executive Information Portal

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Measuring our success

Metrics Increased profitability Reduced/redeployed head count Reduced time to conduct mock recall Overall organizational effectiveness

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What’s next?

Retraining/education continues to evolve the organization

Expansion of the Executive Information Portal

Addition of departmental portals

No doubt that it we will continue to grow on the Crystal Reports foundation that we’ve built

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Crystal Reports and Xcelsius System Friendly, Budget Friendly Solutions

Crystal Reports

Easy to Implement & use

Safe investmentBudget friendly

Comprehensive & integrated

Crystal Reports Server

Why Crystal Reports and Xcelsius solutions?

Complements existing technologies to maximize your IT investments

Simple to use and easy to deploy in any environment

Make information pervasive in your organization and reduce IT cost

Safe investment in a leading technology ready to support your business growth

Best value for reporting and visualization on the market today

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Xcelsius Present

Xcelsius Engage / Server

Bring success to your organization…

Improve decision making with interactive reports and dashboards

Deliver information that is easy to understand and use

Manage your business by the numbers

Reduce IT costs

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More information

Visit www.sap.com/americasClick on SAP BusinessObjects Portfolio and find FREE TRIALS

Contact us: 1-888-229-2276

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Questions?

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Thank you!