“Riiiiiicola” – There is hardly anyone who doesn’t know this signature sound from the Swiss company’s commercials. For Ricola, a long-established manufacturer of herbal sweets and teas, quality has always been a top priority. The company processes a total of 13 herbs, whose flowers, leaves, roots and stems provide the basis for all products. All herbs are grown exclusively in Switzerland, so they can be freshly processed immediately after harvesting. The whole production is based on a smooth, coherent concept. To ensure that the processes for business planning, reporting, forecasting and risk management are just as smooth and coherent, Ricola required an integrated solution. They had been using a system for several years but it proved highly complex and costly and they needed the help of external consultants. As a result, the most important requirement for the new system was to allow users to work as independently as possible, without having to call on consultants for support. In addition, ease of use and rapid implementation were also among the top priorities as were simple, fast input masks, drill-downs, customizable data cubes and easy reports. Swiss Company Ricola benefits from integrated business planning and risk management with Unit4 Prevero RICOLA We are now about 50% faster in our business planning. In terms of risk management, we have also become faster and – more importantly – much more accurate. As our integrated system provides us with a single point of truth, we have more confidence in our numbers and know we can rely on them 100%. Norbert Hirtz, Head of Controlling at Ricola AG “ ”
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
1 Unit4 Business World On!
“Riiiiiicola” – There is hardly anyone who doesn’t know this signature sound from the Swiss company’s commercials. For Ricola, a long-established manufacturer of herbal sweets and teas, quality has always been a top priority. The company processes a total of 13 herbs, whose flowers, leaves, roots and stems provide the basis for all products. All herbs are grown exclusively in Switzerland, so they can be freshly processed immediately after harvesting. The whole production is based on a smooth, coherent concept.
To ensure that the processes for business planning, reporting, forecasting and risk management are just as smooth and coherent, Ricola required an integrated solution. They had been using a system for several years but it proved highly complex and costly and they needed the help of external consultants. As a result, the most important requirement for the new system was to allow users to work as independently as possible, without having to call on consultants for support. In addition, ease of use and rapid implementation were also among the top priorities as were simple, fast input masks, drill-downs, customizable data cubes and easy reports.
Swiss Company Ricola benefits from integrated business planning and risk management with Unit4 Prevero
RICOLA
We are now about 50% faster in our business planning. In terms of risk
management, we have also become faster and – more importantly – much
more accurate. As our integrated system provides us with a single point of truth,
we have more confidence in our numbers and know we can rely on them 100%.
Norbert Hirtz, Head of Controlling at Ricola AG
“
”
In the selection process, three vendors were shortlisted. After various meetings and a proof of concept, Ricola chose Unit4 Prevero, a leading Business Intelligence (BI) and Corporate Performance Management (CPM) solution. Among other things, Ricola was impressed with the solution’s great flexibility and intuitive handling.
“The new system must support our conceptual approach”Norbert Hirtz, Head of Controlling at Ricola AG, said: “We started with business planning and reporting, both of which are very important to us. We took a very close look at the old processes and decided to make a number of changes and improvements.” Ricola not only changed their system but also their logic, conception and processes – not because Unit4 Prevero required them to, but because they realized there was ample room for improvement. “Our new tool allows us to work with a much higher degree of automation. As a result, users can record their figures much faster and have to enter less data than in the old system,’’ Norbert added. ‘’One of the most vital aspects was the system’s capability to support our new conceptual approach. We realized something that turned out to be a major factor during the entire transformation process. While it is very important to find a new tool, it is even more important to make the right conceptual decisions to ensure our work is effective and our employees enjoy what they are doing. This is exactly the approach we wanted the new system to support.”
Transparent business developmentThe current planning setup meets those requirements perfectly. Norbert said: “Firstly we enter a year, then we define the seasonality directly in the input mask, which is then distributed to the individual accounts.” This has made the entire process much faster. In the old system, figures couldn’t be compared without opening a second input screen first. “Now we enter the previous year’s figures as well as the budget and planning figures for each period into the same columns in the same report. This gives us an excellent overview of all developments.”
According to Norbert, there have also been considerable improvements in terms of data reliability. Users transfer data from SAP, can always see the data source and are able to review and compare the data at any time. “We are immediately aware of any inconsistencies and we can check the tables directly in the data cubes – everything is very transparent”. Another important aspect is Unit4 Prevero’s self-service approach, which allows decentralized data input for all employees: “This is particularly important when it comes to the budget. All cost center and marketing managers can now enter their figures themselves. Since our users are spread across different locations in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and the USA, this is vital as it allows them to work completely independently.” This has made the day-to-day work of 90 users a lot easier.
unit4.comE [email protected]
Copyright © Unit4 N.V. All rights reserved. The information contained in this document is intended for general information only, as it is summary in nature and subject to change. Any third-party brand names and/or trademarks referenced are either registered or unregistered trademarks of their respective owners.CS181008INT
Integrated risk managementAnother important issue is risk management. The Ricola risk management committee defined 45 risks including, data loss, the loss of major customers or a shortage of human resources.
Ricola’s risk management process is carefully structured. Indeed, for each risk, there is a risk owner who defines the risk, takes responsibility for it and determines what needs to be done to minimize it. In addition, they have to analyze the risk including likelihood and extent of damage. Norbert explained: “If the probability of damage to our business is high, a detailed assessment is provided with regard to risk points and also to the Swiss franc. Based on this, the extent of the company’s loss of reputation can be evaluated.”
Risk assessment is carried out twice a year with the help of a workflow process. Any changes to the assessments must be explained. In the new system, past and future measures can be recorded and tracked in an input mask, which also allows users to attach relevant documents. Once a year, all these steps must be revised in detail by the respective risk managers. Additionally, they need to determine whether the measures are still active and evaluate their consequences.
Working more proactively“We created several reports in Unit4 Prevero. One of them contains a matrix that shows how risks have changed, if they are rated higher or lower, whether the associated measures have been updated and how effective they are,’’ said Norbert. ‘’In addition, we can add a workflow that requires risk owners to confirm they revised the respective risks accordingly. On top of this, there’s a risk committee who assesses the overall risk situation twice a year.”
Does the new risk management system make Ricola more aware of certain risks? Does it help them identify more risks than before? Norbert is certain of that: “Our approach has become much more active in this respect. We used to have one Excel sheet for each risk, which we gave a quick once-over. Now we can work much more proactively, which is a tremendous advantage for us.”
Time savings of 50% and a single point of truthWhen asked about his overall impression of the cooperation with Unit4 Prevero, Norbert said: “We are very satisfied. We were able to implement exactly what we had in mind.” This does not only apply to the great independence during the implementation of individual projects but also to the conceptual tasks the system supported: “We are now about 50% faster in our business planning. In terms of risk management, we have also become faster and – more importantly – much more accurate. As our integrated system provides us with a single point of truth, we have more confidence in our numbers and know we can rely on them 100%.”
Related Documents
