IDL-News

Independent reporting through coaching

An innovative introduction concept by IDL enables Novoferm to develop know-how on-site.

With a headcount of more than 2,000 employees, the Novoferm Group is among the biggest system suppliers for doors, gates, frames and drives for private, commercial and industrial applications. Novoferm was acquired by the industry leader, the Japanese Sanwa Shutter Corporation, in 2003.

The company structure imposes special challenges on the controlling department. Individual consolidated and non-consolidated companies and the reporting to the Japanese parent company result in a large number of monthly reports. "These reports however were filed at various locations, making cross-company analyses a time-consuming and sumptuous task," says Janine Wesemann from the holding controlling department. Asja Hegmanns, controller from the business economics department of Novoferm GmbH adds: "The situation was quite similar from an economic point of view: We had numerous data sources, SAP BW and Excel, which had to be consolidated manually in a monthly report, which implied an enormous time effort and also was potentially error-prone."

The Group therefore searched for a solution to harmonise and standardise the reporting activities and provide a seamless connection of the various data sources. The Group opted for IDLplus, the comprehensive business performance management solution by vendor IDL from Schmitten near Frankfurt.

The IDLplus components IDLCOCKPIT for analysis and reporting as well as IDLIMPORTER and IDLCONNECTOR for data integration were implemented in close cooperation with IDL. The system was introduced by a consultant within no more than 20 coaching days and both controllers were able to develop cubes with IDLIMPORTER and create new reports in IDLCOCKPIT independently. "The software proved to be easily comprehensible - even for business economists like us with only little IT knowledge," says Wesemann, and Hegmanns adds: "The coaching approach was an ideal solution for us. A system like this is dynamical - it lives. Therefore, we want to and/or must react dynamically as well."


Clarity is essential

Wesemann and Hegmanns are convinced that deploying the new solution will reduce the effort in their departments significantly, which, in their opinion is already noticeably. "While we previously used to collect the various companies' key indicators separately, we are now able to present the latter flexibly and in a format that allows for an evaluation in no time by consolidating the dimensions. The standardised layout and the ability for the management to view and print-out the reports, if required, is an additional benefit. We have to prepare extremely complex presentations for Japan every three months, which will equally be facilitated significantly by using the new solution," Wesemann explains. "The speed and flexibility afforded by IDLplus are likewise huge benefits for our monthly reporting and in particular for long-term analyses," Hegmanns adds. "We are planning to integrate the cost centre calculation and sales planning into the system in the future." Both controllers are confident that this task will also be completed easily, requiring only little assistance from IDL.