Focused Business Intelligence For Mergers and Acquisitions

A merger of two aggressive manufacturers in the United States and Canada formed a company that brought unique value to the agricultural, construction, materials handling and transportation industries.

This new multinational company had undergone mergers and acquisitions in the past and had several different IT systems. There were looking for ways to enable access to consolidated information to better serve customers across the globe.

Further compounding the problem was a disparity in business models of the merged entities. Dealing with multiple systems was causing confusion and tremendous overhead on their employees. Not to mention the reduction in quality of service provided to their customers.

To the Rescue – A BI Bridge and Gasket Solution

The client was surprised to learn how datacubes could be used to ‘bridge’ data from their various ERP systems and other sources including Excel. Business users would then have access to a consolidated view of sales and profits across divisions and regions.

The datacubes dramatically reduced the IT reports backlog and accelerated the ability to create complex one-off analysis required in competitive and dynamic international markets. This is the Gasket.

Discovery of Outdated Business Practices

A manager in the call center overheard an agent taking an order and discounting the price of a popular item. On a hunch, he ran a query against one of the datacubes and found that this happened quite frequently. Customers ordering online always paid the full price, so a decision was made to minimize the discounts on certain items. This simple change reduced the volume of incoming calls as more customers ordered online while improving margins in the call center.

China Sourcing and Business Model Reversal

The sales forecasting process in use for some time depended on Sales reps and managers forecasting based on product sales history plus traditional criteria such as product class and customer group. But this approach didn’t factor in an increase in the number of comparable products offered by the company’s Chinese manufacturers.

Today the company sources roughly one third of its supply from North America and up to two thirds internationally. Of about a dozen suppliers, as many as half might be Chinese. And going forward, four of those suppliers might be replaced by three, four or five different Chinese suppliers which provide similar but not identical products to be sold.

Over time the business model had changed. It was becoming more product driven and less customer driven. Price and quality options resulted in more competition and supplier substitution. The forecasting model was now obsolete.

A unique approach was adapted to their growing problem of dealing with product driven business models and forecasts. Yet another way a perspective-driven business intelligence approach increases margins and drives profits for companies in aggressive industries.

Focused business analytics for mergers or acquisitions can go a long way toward helping your company survive the confusion of an additional entity. Visit our website and see how our zero-risk BI Road Map Accelerator can help get you there in a matter of weeks.