Swiss project for Synergy proves SA's claim as provider of affordable global IT skills

South Africa's potential as a provider of low-cost, highly skilled, resources for the development of international IT solutions, has once again been highlighted by the recent success of a local company, commissioned by a Swiss-based company, for the development of a business solution embracing data collected from 84 subsidiaries and regional offices distributed globally.

Synergy Computing, the 25-year-old business intelligence (BI) solutions specialist, was selected by the Baar, Switzerland-based Sika Group, a global company with a worldwide network of subsidiaries supplying speciality chemicals for construction and industry, to develop a customised operational reporting system that gives managers an up-to-date and at-a-glance view of the group's business performance.

"We were commissioned to design and develop an extensively customised Executive Cockpit system for Sika's global operations, following the completion of a number of successful projects for its Durban-based South African operation," says Steve Phaup, Branch Manager of Synergy Durban, which has been involved in other international BI development and training projects.

"Our local relationship with the company, our expertise in this field and the low cost of developing a solution, clinched the business. It illustrates the potential that South African businesses have of meeting the IT development needs of global companies."

The project formed part of Sika's global implementation of a Cognos-based multi-metric operational reporting system that enabled the company to create balanced scorecards to drive its businesses. The customised Executive Cockpit developed by Synergy enables key performance indicators (KPI) to be displayed on managers' PC screens.

"When you have so many global operations, it's essential for executives to see at a glance what's happening at specific companies and to be able to delve rapidly into any areas of concern," he adds.

The project consisted of creating customised data capture screens whereby the 84 regional companies capture their operational data on a monthly and annual basis.

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The data consists of 166 operational KPIs, derived from factory, sales and financial data provided by each of the 84 Sika companies, located in more than 60 countries. These are locally captured into an Access database by each company. After capture, each company's financial controller can view the numbers using Cognos Visualizer and PowerPlay.

Once the local controller is satisfied that the numbers are correct, the data is automatically transmitted to head office. Here a simple process aggregates the data from 84 companies and converts local currencies to Swiss Francs.

Synergy's Priscilla Doig, a recipient of the Cognos SA End User Trainer of the Year award, and Steve Phaup, manager of Synergy's Durban office, completed the training of over 100 Sika managers from around the world, at a World Controllers Meeting held in Lucerne, Switzerland in December 2002.

Management at head office are now able to view everything the local company has transmitted, but has the additional capability of viewing the company's numbers aggregated into areas, regions and total company. Monetary amounts can be viewed in local currencies or in Swiss Francs.

The project was executed using a phased approach, thus allowing the entire development to be broken up into manageable chunks that could be completed and implemented while allowing for a constant return on investment.

The benefits to Sika include being able to benchmark each group company's performance and more effective management of the group's working capital.

"At certain times some companies will be borrowing from their banks while others will have cash in their local bank. This is now clearly visible at head office, who can effect huge savings by better management of cash within the Sika group," says Phaup.