Alden Merrell Fine Desserts, a US-based premium frozen-dessert manufacturer and division of HJ Heinz, has deployed CA`s CleverPath Portal and CleverPath OLAP software.
The implementation is designed to make critical business information rapidly and easily available to key headquarters staff, line managers and to front-line personnel to facilitate more effective business relationships with distributors and business partners.
To propel growth in its market space, Alden Merrell was looking to dramatically improve information-delivery time - internally and externally - without increasing staff. Decision-makers needed instant analysis of real-time data.
Alden Merrell chose CA`s CleverPath eBusiness intelligence management software because of the completeness and integration of the solutions. "Many vendors make OLAP servers, but not a lot of them have robust client software," said Fred Schonberger, information systems manager at Alden Merrell.
The company`s decision to couple the CleverPath Portal with the CleverPath OLAP server was based largely on the resulting ease-of-use. "CleverPath Portal is very intuitive," said Schonberger. "During the proof-of-design stage, we demonstrated the software to our sales representatives who have different technology skill sets. They immediately began creating queries and telling me how to navigate through the interface."
These CA solutions were live three months later. "We had expected a much longer product evaluation time, but the people who would be using the CA software saw its `glimmer` right away," said Schonberger. He attributes the rapid deployment to involving key end-users from the beginning of the evaluation process and to the knowledge and professionalism of CA Services.
Alden Merrell expects the CA software to be equally beneficial inside and outside the company. Internally, staff will be able to make more informed business decisions by dynamically exploring data and executing analysis.
The ability to receive sophisticated real-time analyses in custom-report form, with all pertinent data fully integrated, will be of particular benefit to its sales, marketing and finance operations. Employees will be able to draw on a vast amount of data to track and analyse key business indicators at any level of detail, including sales and marketing trends, instant budget versus actual comparisons and profitability by multiple variables, among others.
"Initially our internal customers, including our Field Sales Force, can `come and get it` by logging on through the portal and getting whatever they need in a timely manner," said Schonberger.
While currently paper delivery of reports is costly and time-consuming, the portal will ease the physical distribution of sales analysis reports to a geographically dispersed sales force.
The portal will make it easier to establish and nurture e-business partnerships by making the most current information instantly available to key partners. Food-service brokers, for example, will be able to download support materials, such as product specifications and promotional information.
Dramatically improving information-delivery time without increasing staff are key benefits for Alden Merrell. "We`ll be getting reports in two or three minutes that used to take two or three hours," Schonberger said. An added benefit is that the CleverPath OLAP server easily integrated data from Alden Merrell`s older technology into one easily accessible repository.
With CleverPath OLAP assuring the quality of the information and CleverPath Portal seamlessly assuring quick personalised access, these CA software solutions easily meet Alden Merrell`s requirements for a reliable, fast and flexible means of making information available in-house and over the Web.
Share
Editorial contacts