SAPPI, the world`s largest producer of the coated woodfree paper has embarked on a process of consolidating the company`s global financial data with Hyperion Enterprise from Global Technology Business Intelligence (GBI).
Sappi boasts manufacturing operations on three continents, in eight countries and customers in over 150 countries. The group produced annual net sales reaching R22.7 billion for 1998 and boasts total assets exceeding R37 billion. Sappi is listed on the Johannesburg, London, Frankfurt, Paris and New York Stock Exchanges, and employs 24 000 people worldwide.
Laurence Newman, Sappi`s group financial controller, says the group wanted to be able to provide a drill down facility into the group`s consolidated worldwide financial data. The information will automatically be downloaded into a central database and consolidated from there. This makes the company`s consolidated journal, with entries from across the world, available to any authorised manager, anywhere in the world.
Wouter van den Heever, Sappi`s group systems accountant adds that Hyperion will help Sappi`s management to be able to see the status of any of the branches from an easy-to-use interface.
GBI`s business development manager, Mandy Leonard adds that Hyperion Enterprise made a strong case at Sappi because of its global acceptance in 60% of Fortune 500 companies and 40% of the FT Top 100 companies.
"Used by more than 3 000 organisations across the globe, Hyperion Enterprise simplifies the collection, consolidation and reporting of financial results in a global environment, reduces the time organisations spend on these activities and greatly enhances financial analysis and planning capabilities," says Leonard. It integrates with and complements all General Ledger and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems (like Sappi`s SAP installation), to provide a flexible analysis environment, which provides a common view across multiple data sources."
Van Den Heever adds that Hyperion`s analysis and reporting tools also helped to sway the company in Hyperion`s favour, especially the Spider-Man Web interface. The Web interface is important as Sappi is an international company with executives in various places needing access to the data. Van Den Heever notes that using the product only requires that executives know how to use a mouse.
According to GBI`s Hyperion product manager, Willie Arnold, Hyperion`s Spider-Man Web Application "extends Hyperion Reporting to the Web, enabling users to access and analyse information managed by Hyperion Enterprise. It delivers information access, analysis, and production quality printing over intranets, extranets, and the Internet."
The results of the implementation, which will be rolled-down to mill-level over time, will be quicker financial reporting overall, with the process visible to all reporting entities, says Newman. It will also provide quicker and easier access to financial data as well as more value-added analysis as users will be able to drill down from macro to micro levels with ease.
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