Unlock your competitive advantage

Within the food-industry the registration of datapoints are usually fragmented across various applications and levels within an organization and not used efficiently. Now is the time to unlock your competitive advantage!

Why does the food industry register so much data points?

Registration of these datapoints is done for quality purposes, including tracking and tracing of customer specific needs or other external parties. However, almost none of these registered datapoints are currently being leveraged to gain a competitive advantage. Now is the time!

Since the registration of datapoints is in place for over twenty years there is also a lot of historical information available. Usually, the usage of Business Intelligence (BI) and subsequently dashboarding is initiated by the controlling-department, which implies a strong focus on financial data (e.g. open line items / working capital). It might also be used by the sales-department to visualize information. In both cases it is actually another interpretation of an Excel sheet.

The food industry has decades of data registration, its utilization is limited both functionally and from a source perspective. Data can be used on all levels within the organization, strategical, tactical, and operational respectively.

What are the common data sources in the food industry?

Within a typical organization within the food-industry data is available within multiple sources e.g.:

• Financial accounting;
• HR (including time writing);
• ERP (sales, purchase, planning, quality);
• MES (stock movement including reception, production and shipping of goods);
• PLC (machine data).

Multiple sources can also be applicable to each domain if the Financial accounting application differs per business unit (e.g. for some units it’s SAP, and others it’s Exact). However, collecting, connecting, and visualizing data from fragmented applications limit you in reaching your competitive advantage.

What are the common challenges with data for the food industry?

Currently reports and dashboards are bound to operate on isolated data per application, lacking consolidation across various applications within the same functional data domain. Food For Analytics’ vision is to have all data available, in a scalable, flexible, and robust environment, in order to provide your organization a competitive advantage!

What if we could have all your internal data in one place?

We would like to extend the usability of the data, a short example with sales data, which is available in the ERP application (order data, shipping data) as well as the financial accounting application (invoice data, payment data, open line items).

Extracting sales data from the financial accounting application provides insights into postings per invoice and payment item, enhancing detailed analysis. However, this is on an aggregated level (invoice) and the level of detail is limited as sales-journal postings are almost always consolidated on general ledger (GL) account level. It provides some level of insights. However, we don’t have all the insights that are possible, there is so much more!

What if we could enrich your internal data with external data?

What if we enrich the data with sales data from the ERP-application, providing us with insights on the lowest level of registered datapoints. So not only the invoice address, but the various delivery addresses. Next, providing the order date, shipment date and delivery date in addition to the invoice date. And not only the total gross sales, but insights in the volumes and prices per order line. This includes possible promotions with the adjusted prices and the extended volumes per customer. Just a few examples on how you can enrich your data and get to a totally new level of insights.

The food industry anticipates peak seasons like Easter and Christmas, yet combining internal data with external sources like bank holidays, weather, and events enhances year-round sales activities. Just think about the competitive advantage that you will achieve by combining both internal- and external -data sources!

How does Food For Analytics help?

We provide an out-of-the-box data & analytics-platform with all necessary data, not restricted to a specific source application. Combining SAP and Exact financial data made easy. Providing a comprehensive overview of your organization's financial position, eliminating blind spots effectively. Which makes additional Excel sheets obsolete.

When the source data is clear we need to visualize this information, we can help you out by setting up the reports and dashboards. Providing you with actionable insights and a competitive advantage.

Conclusion

This blog covers sources and insights, emphasizing the importance of combining and aligning information needs across different organizational levels effectively. Tactically, present information in dashboards with site-specific KPIs per location or geographical area for precise insights and decision-making. Strategically, aggregate information needs and KPIs across all sources and locations, presenting in the desired format for comprehensive insights.

Do you want your competitive advantage yesterday?! Reach out to us!