Custom Reporting System
Welland Company’s Custom Reporting System Gives HEXPOL a Step Up in the Marketplace
HEXPOL is a world-leading polymers group with strong global market positions in advanced polymer compounds (Compounding), gaskets for plate heat exchangers (Gaskets) and wheels made of plastic and rubber materials for forklifts and castor wheel applications (Wheels).
Customers are primarily system suppliers to the global automotive and engineering industries, the energy, oil and gas sector, medical equipment manufacturers and OEM manufacturers of plate heat exchangers and forklifts.
HEXPOL’s North American division (which specializes in Rubber Compounding and Performance Additives) had run into several obstacles in providing accurate and timely reporting to the organization across its business units. One of the main challenges was being able to create consolidated reporting from all plants throughout the North America (NAFTA) division, while also isolating information and reporting to specific plants, customers, sales teams, etc. In addition, the data that was being captured at the source locations were in different formats, multiple database types and several applications. HEXPOL also wanted to be able to have various ways to access the data, including direct access via the user’s desktop, mobile access from devices such as smartphones and iPads, and the ability to push reports or analysis to user group emails.
Welland Company was brought in to develop a customized solution for these complicated challenges. They began the process by having discussions with HEXPOL to determine the highest priority of the business and what data/information was most important.
It was determined that the solution needed to provide reporting for sales data, sales order fulfillment, net proceeds, delta information and sales team performance. Additionally, it was essential to include an executive dashboard to allow for a quick look at Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at a high level.
Once these priorities were established, Welland began developing a solution to ensure HEXPOL’s needs would be met. Key HEXPOL team members were included in the development stage so adjustments and improvements could be made along the way.
The end product is cloud based and uses mainstream technologies. SQL Integration Services are running within HEXPOL’s infrastructure to gather information across North American and combine each plants data onto a single server. SSIS is also running on the cloud to provide services to move data up to the cloud, normalize data and build a single data warehouse and SSAS cubes for the Business Intelligence (BI) solution to run against.
In addition to the SSIS processes, Microsoft multi-dimensional cubes have been built and deployed to provide quick access to critical data required by all levels of management within the organization. Over 60 users within the management team have access to this data from their desktops, laptops and mobile devices. The management team meets regularly to refine data presented to the user base and to add additional functionality and additional KPIs as they move forward with this corporate reporting strategy.
All of these improvements have resulted in better business operations, consistent reporting and communication, and significant time and cost savings for HEXPOL.
To learn more about Welland’s product offerings, please contact Mike Mapes at 206-484-2156 or mmapes@welland.com.