Vicaima – Industria de Madeira e Derivados, S.A. is a leading European manufacturer of interior doors. Not only is it the market leader in Portugal, but it also extends its presence to Spain, Morocco, and the United Kingdom. Vicaima’s commitment to quality raw materials and innovative product design has positioned it as a prominent player in the industry. Impressively, around 92% of Vicaima’s production is exported worldwide.
Challenge
Operating in a fiercely competitive market, Vicaima recognized the critical importance of efficiency in its daily operations. Decision-makers required timely and accurate information to make informed choices. Previously, Vicaima used SAP BW to extract data from SAP, enabling the creation of daily reports on sales, orders, and production. However, this process was not without challenges:
- Time-Consuming Reporting: Creating daily reports from SAP data took approximately 60 minutes. Data was initially exported to Excel, where manual operations and formulas were applied to generate reports. This manual process introduced delays and increased the potential for errors.
- Dependency on IT: Whenever changes were needed in the reports, Vicaima had to involve IT personnel, causing further delays. IT interventions took one to two days, which, while relatively efficient, was not ideal for a fast-paced industry.
Solution
To address these challenges, Vicaima chose ALLOS to streamline its reporting processes. ALLOS offered the following key advantages:
- Time Efficiency: ALLOS allowed Vicaima to create sales, orders, and production reports directly in Excel, eliminating the need for data export and manual calculations. This resulted in significantly reduced report preparation time.
- Seamless Integration: ALLOS was seamlessly integrated with the existing IT infrastructure, including SAP, without the need for system disruptions or additional hardware purchases.
- User Empowerment: Vicaima empowered its own team to build and modify reports using ALLOS, minimizing their dependency on IT personnel for report changes.
Results
The implementation of ALLOS had a profound impact on Vicaima’s reporting processes, leading to impressive results:
- Rapid Reporting: Reports that once took an hour to prepare were reduced to just 20 minutes. ALLOS’s custom Excel formulas and direct SAP data retrieval streamlined the entire process.
- User Autonomy: The need to involve IT for report modifications was eliminated. Vicaima’s team could independently adjust report layouts and structures directly in Excel.
- Real-Time Adaptability: ALLOS ensured that changes in the SAP data, such as new markets or products, were automatically reflected in the Excel reports, further reducing manual intervention.
Conclusion Vicaima’s partnership with ALLOS revolutionized its reporting processes, making them more efficient, adaptable, and user-friendly. By seamlessly integrating ALLOS with their existing systems, Vicaima was able to drastically reduce reporting times and enhance data accuracy. This empowered their team to be self-sufficient in report creation and modification, ultimately contributing to better decision-making and a more competitive position in their market.
“For Vicaima, ALLOS is synonymous with flexibility, complete flexibility.” | “Any changes to the existing templates used to take 1 or 2 days to implement. Only after this, it was possible to generate reports again with all the necessary data. These changes could occur at any time and would delay the production of daily reports.
