Balkan Services has successfully implemented one of its largest Business Intelligence (BI) projects in the financial and retail sector.
The Qlik Sense* business intelligence system went live at the preferred distribution, logistics, and marketing partner in the FMCG sector, Axxon Bulgaria.
The project encompasses all the reports across the wholesale company's Sales, Finance, Logistics, and Marketing departments, as well as a corporate dashboard produced for strategic purposes and covering key metrics from the different areas in one place.
Prior to the implementation of the BI solution, Axxon Bulgaria operated an ERP system as well as logistics software. Due to the nature of the work and as the company's business grew, there was a need for additional and more diverse reports.
Over the course of several months, the Axxon Bulgaria team researched the BI market by consulting with various trusted business partners.
"We were recommended Qlik from many places as the most affordable system, and Balkan Services as the most cooperative and easy to work with the consultant," says Iliana Simeonova, IT manager at Axxon Bulgaria.
According to her, these positive impressions were confirmed during the preliminary meetings between the two teams.
"From the impressive presentations that Balkan Services made for us, it became clear that the team of this consulting company is great and we get along with just "one" word," says Ivaylo Krystanov, Sales Manager at Axxon Bulgaria.
Iliana Simeonova adds that the long experience of the Balkan Services team could be felt in the work process:
"They were very delicate in guiding us to the things that would be useful for us."
The project was launched
with a detailed business sales analysis. At this stage, the main focus of the implementation team is the automation of reporting.
Subsequently, the functionality for generating the annual financial statements in accordance with Bulgarian standards was also created.
Accounting reports such as general ledger, turnover sheet, account history, balance sheet, and profit and loss account (P&L) were also implemented according to Bulgarian standards.
The following are two complex stages of the project. One involves the creation of a functional P&L. Through it, the Axxon Bulgaria team can now define for itself how P&L is to be accounted for, and how revenue covers expenses.
The other covers the creation of a cash flow statement, which has specifics and differs from the statement legal in accounting systems.
"The key with this part of the project was to see how the cash was moving. The challenge here was to generate reports at the cash flow level," says Balkan Services' senior managing BI consultant Dimitar Prodanov.
As a next stage, a dashboard was developed for the management.
"In it, we generated over 100 key performance indicators that came from already implemented parts of the project - accounting, sales, finance, and logistics. We brought the combination of these four main areas together on a single dashboard that is designed for the management and shows the different perspectives in one place," explains Dimitar Prodanov.
Key Indicators,
which the sales department of Axon Bulgaria monitors on a daily basis using Qlik Sense is turnover by product group, proactive customers, and the open credit the company has in the market.
It is also easier to track the average discount that Axxon Bulgaria is working with different customers, for a certain period, for a certain category, and for a certain product group.
From a marketing perspective, through its new BI system, Axxon Bulgaria easily understands how discounts affect sales.
The company can also easily get information about stock levels, peak periods, and how long it takes to process an order.
Axxon Bulgaria's general accountant now has a timesheet and general ledger with two clicks in the BI system.
An important success factor for the project
is the hard work of both teams.
"The Akson team was motivated to implement the system successfully and in the process responded willingly," says Dimitar Prodanov. And Ivaylo Krastanov adds that he believes the ease with which the Balkan Services team was easy to work was the basis for the success of the project.
The immediate benefits,
that all users of the new software receive (senior management, sales, finance, accounting, logistics, and IT departments, managers of regional offices) are the reliability and credibility of the data in it.
"When we negotiate with some of the largest retail chains in the country, our data is "iron" and corresponds one-to-one to what is invoiced," Ivaylo Krastanov is adamant.
The system provides speed to the company. Before the software was implemented, requests had to be sent to the IT department to generate reports by customer, turnover, outlets, dealers, referrals, and number of active customers. Thus, receiving just one report could take a whole day. After the implementation of the BI system, such reports are now done by any authorized employee with just a few clicks.
BI software also helps in better control of scrap and its reduction.
In addition to all this, the system allows to compare past periods for up to 20 years back in time very quickly.
In summary, Qlik Sense saves time and gives flexibility to Axxon Bulgaria, becoming the most frequently used software development for the company.
* A next-generation BI solution from our partner Qlik, recognized as a leader among Analytics and Business Intelligence platforms according to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for 13 consecutive years.
