Better insights into data creates a better overview
Schades used an old on-premise Business Intelligence solution, which they needed to replace when transitioning from their old ERP solution to a new cloud-based Dynamics 365 Supply Chain.
With 9A Smart Insigths, Schades now has a better overview of the company and insights into its various departments.
While the sales department particularly benefits from the new capabilities, by extending 9A Smart Insights to all departments, Schades has gained a reporting solution that provides a better overview across the entire company.
Schades's challenges before the implementation
In the old BI system, users felt they lacked the ability to customize data according to their specific needs in the department.
Schades finds it easier to navigate 9A Smart Insights, providing good customization options and increased user-friendliness compared to the previous solution.
Schades wanted their BI setup to integrate more seamlessly with their overall IT-setup, primarily consisting of Microsoft systems.
Kirsti Kristensen
Marketing Manager
The benefits of the collaboration
With the new 9A Smart Insights solution, sales representatives at Schades can quickly identify an order, for example created with a too low price, missing price, or similar. This allows the sales representative to correct the order before shipment and invoicing.
Increased complexity in production reporting means that Schades now has even better insight into how they can optimize production processes.
Kirsti Kristensen
Marketing Manager
9A Smart Insights for all departments
At Schades, it's not just the management that uses 9A Smart Insights to get an overview of the company's various departments. By granting different departments varying user rights to view their own reports and dashboards, team leaders can check the numbers themselves and ensure that everything is going smoothly—or intervene when necessary.
Kirsti says, "Sales is definitely the biggest area we have on 9A Smart Insights with different reports, but we also have reporting in production, in the warehouse, and in customer service."
She elaborates, "The first thing the salespeople do when they come in the morning is look at the numbers from yesterday: What was invoiced, what was the coverage ratio, what orders came in, and does everything look as it should?"
"For example, we have orders that are not shipped immediately, and we have set up various criteria. So if, for example, there is set a too low price or there is a missing cost price, the system will flag that order, and then we can correct it before invoicing. Previously, we had to issue a credit note and contact the customer to say there was an error. Now, we can address any problems and challenges before they escalate."
Improved user-friendliness
When Schades faced the task of replacing their old on-premise BI solution with a new cloud-based solution, one of their goals was to enhance user-friendliness, allowing more people in the company to analyze the same data and work from a common truth.
"What makes the difference, for me and for our employees who work with 9A Smart Insights, is that it's more user-friendly than our old solution. It's easier to navigate, and it has become significantly easier for the person creating the reports to build calculations in the 9A Smart Insights solution," says Kirsti Kristensen, Marketing Manager at Schades.
She elaborates:
"There are several things in 9A Smart Insights that are more user-friendly. There is a common thread in 9A Smart Insights to our company data that wasn't really present in the solution we had before."
The collaboration with 9altitudes
When Schades needed to transition to a cloud-based BI solution due to their ERP transitioning to D365FO, which they also implemented in collaboration with 9altitudes, the choice naturally fell on 9A Smart Insights. The solution seamlessly integrates with the new ERP solution and the rest of the Microsoft platform that Schades also utilizes.
Regarding the choice of 9altitudes, Kirsti Kristensen from Schades says, "We already had a good collaboration with 9altitudes and knew the people in advance, so the choice of 9altitudes was a natural one when we needed to switch BI solutions."
About Schades:
Schades is a leading manufacturer of paper rolls and self-adhesive labels for the entire European market. They have production facilities in Poland, Germany, France, and England, producing over 250 million paper rolls and 75 million square meters of labels annually.
Headquartered in Skive, Denmark, Schades has offices in seven different countries and is represented worldwide, primarily in Europe.
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