
Contribution margin and sales reporting with Power BI and Snowflake, corporate planning with Jedox
Client
edding AG
Category
Private sector
Date
Since 2021
Technical solution overview
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Reporting and planningMS Power BI (Reporting and explorative analysis) Jedox (Planning)
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Data WarehouseSnowflake incl. Data Lake
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ETL ToolsApache Hop (Hop Orchestration Platform)
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Operative pre-systemsSAP (Module: FI, COPA), SAP Monthly Reporting Package for non-SAP companies (SIR)
With the company-wide reorganisation, the question of a suitable BI strategy was to be asked once again. Together with linkFISH, edding AG then designed a unique, future-proof BI solution that fits its new needs along the six BI strategy pieces of the puzzle for a successful BI strategy: control and planning processes, reporting and planning products, BI architecture, software selection, roles and processes, and data governance. The choice fell on a reporting solution with Microsoft Power BI in combination with planning using Jedox. These BI tools were to be fed by a flexible DWH/data lake in Snowflake. It was also important for the future BI solution to be easy to access across companies and countries in order to replace manually created reports that are sent monthly as PDFs. In terms of content, the aim was to offer both the CFO and the BU managers extensive data-based control options using transparent KPIs. Find out in the study how this was achieved.
Reporting | Contribution Margin Reporting | KPI System | Planning
Impressions
Company profile
500 marks in start-up capital and a simple typewriter: that's all it took for the two founders Carl-Wilhelm Edding and Volker Detlef Ledermann to lay the foundations for today's edding AG in 1960. The only product at the time and an immediate number one hit: the “edding No. 1”. The success of edding AG has continued ever since and the company has grown continuously. Today, edding AG is a globally active and listed company with over 700 employees and a consolidated turnover of around 160 million euros per year. The product range now includes countless articles. However, the best-selling permanent marker remains the well-known “edding 3000”.
Starting position
edding's sales reporting was previously based on SAP BW. The data from this was processed manually monthly using an Excel add-in for the reports. For technical reasons, however, this was only possible for a subset of the company's data (SAP COPA only). Data from other sources could not be processed. The financial data, on the other hand, was processed in LucaNet and mapped the monthly BWA.
The coronavirus pandemic has shown that markets can change surprisingly quickly. Sustainable companies must be able to recognise such changes at an early stage and act proactively. edding AG also recognised this. True to the motto “change before you have to”, edding developed a company-wide strategy to adapt its organisational structures to the challenges of today's economy. The biggest change here was that the three business units “Writing and Marking”, “Visual Communication” and “Technological Solutions” were split into six individual business units (BU). With this change, it became clear that the business intelligence solution and the corresponding evaluation logic had to be rethought in addition to the organisational structures. With the current reporting - both in SAP and in LucaNet - it was only possible to analyse and plan turnover at BU level. All other key figures could not be evaluated from a “BU perspective”.
Objective
With the company-wide reorganisation, the question of a suitable BI strategy was to be asked as well. Together with linkFISH, edding AG then designed a unique, future-proof BI solution which fits its new needs along the six BI strategy pieces of the puzzle for a successful BI strategy: control and planning processes, reporting and planning products, BI architecture, software selection, roles and processes, and data governance.
The choice fell on a reporting solution with Microsoft Power BI in combination with planning using Jedox. These BI tools were to be fed by a flexible DWH/data lake in Snowflake. It was also important for the future BI solution to be easy to access across companies and countries in order to replace manually created reports that are sent out monthly as PDFs.
In terms of content, the aim was to provide both the CFO and the BU managers with comprehensive data-based control options using transparent KPIs.
Die Wahl fiel dabei auf eine Reporting-Lösung mit Microsoft Power BI in Kombination mit einer Planung mittels Jedox. Gespeist werden sollten diese BI-Tools durch ein flexibles DWH/Data Lake in Snowflake. Zusätzlich war wichtig, dass die zukünftige BI-Lösung perspektivisch einfach und gesellschafts- sowie damit auch länderübergreifend abrufbar ist, um händisch erstellte Reports, die monatlich per PDF versendet werden, aufzulösen.
Inhaltlich war das Ziel, dass sowohl dem Finanzvorstand als auch den BU-Leiter:innen umfangreiche datenbasierte Steuerungsmöglichkeiten mittels transparenter KPIs zur Verfügung stehen sollten.
Client solution
The final BI solution is comprehensive and trendsetting, which is also recognisable from the name: COMPASS. This stands for Controlling, Monitoring, Planning, Analysing and Steering Solution. A new definition of the mapped business logic and cost allocations was necessary to set up the data model. During this development process, complex issues had to be resolved, such as “which logics map the allocation of data to the BUs?” or “what does the transition of external and internal reporting look like?”.
Based on the new cost allocations developed, it is now possible for every BU management to view and analyse various key financial figures down to BU EBIT level (level of all directly attributable costs). Controlling, the entire executive board and the supervisory board also benefit from this in-depth data transparency.
Sales reporting in Power BI includes current actual figures as well as product, customer and country analyses. CM reporting is also integrated into Power BI, offering actual and planned figures as well as corresponding variance analyses. All reports offer the filter option of selecting an individual BU view and/or legal entity view. The next planned expansion stage of the COMPASS environment is the implementation of a company-wide planning solution using Jedox.
Customer benefits
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Multi-level contribution margin accounting improves the management of BU and legal entity results with the help of a cause-based allocation of sales and costs. The DB calculation also includes a reconciliation to the consolidated group result.
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Due to the exclusively web-based application, all reports can be accessed at any time and from anywhere. An established “single point of truth” creates data transparency and decision-making security.
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Due to the extensive “self-service” functionalities of the individual BI tools, users will be able to carry out planning themselves and find answers to urgent analytical questions.
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140 users already use the modules regularly
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Organisational issues that had not been decided internally for a long time were clarified and implemented as part of the holistic restructuring of company-wide BI. This has also made a significant contribution to data quality
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In future, decision-makers will be able to make well-founded, data-driven assessments and can therefore make decisions and control processes earlier, better and faster. Proactive action in the market will also be possible in the long term.
We have set up a system that provides us with a meaningful BU EBIT, we are able to show the group result and at the same time the local result. The COMPASS team has produced a very good result so far!