Fresh food sales planning on a day-to-day basis for Andros

Andros Germany has been growing, and with success came the need to future-proof its reporting, replacing the outdated legacy system. The organization wanted to continue to use SAP as its main data source for new planning and reporting, and wanted to organize its sales planning based on rolling forecasts.

Thanks to the many planning features connected to SAP, Andros opted for the Jedox software solution to implement this. With a cloud-ready system boasting powerful, multidimensional analysis, simple application design for departments, and mobile data access, Jedox met all of Andros’s requirements.

The new reporting setup’s main data pool is a staging area based on a Microsoft SQL server that integrates all relevant SAP data via an interface (implemented using Microsoft SSIS and elements of Theobald software). Data from this pool is not just fed into the Jedox application but also into the French parent group’s BI system. In a parallel project, HRCIE implemented a separate interface to enable this new group reporting setup.

The Jedox solution comprises extensive standard reporting capabilities, various analysis cockpits, and sales planning based on forecasts. Actual data and structures from SAP are updated on the system every day. Forecasts are entered online using diverse input screens. For example, Jedox automatically allocates advertising expenses, logistics costs, and any costs associated with the German recycling scheme to whoever incurred them (by customer, item, month, and quarter). This results in complete plans with minimum effort that are immediately available for reporting.

Daily forecast of up to 99 weeks

Every night, the latest version of the forecast is transmitted to SAP Demand Planning – a necessary frequency given the Andros product range. For example, the Chilled business unit includes fresh products such as milk or yogurt, spanning a number of brands and requiring decision-making at very short notice. Conversely, the Ambient business unit features conserved fruit, putting the focus more on long-term forecasts for resource procurement and medium-term data for production and logistics. The detailed forecast covers 99 weeks and the different planning horizons of both business units.

Agile project with new working methods

The project team started off by setting up sales forecasts and production demand planning. They went on to map sales reporting, including operating results and month-end closing in Jedox, backed by essential data quality assurance in SAP and the mapping of group reporting structures. To empower the team to acquire the necessary BI know-how to manage the solution independently, Andros set up an interdisciplinary BI team and arranged training for power users in the departments where the system was implemented. Change management measures ensured that teams embraced the new IT solution.

The project overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic and was almost exclusively completed online, successfully leveraging new forms of collaboration with agile methods and innovative project tools.

Andros Germany is now the proud owner of a powerful reporting platform for group-wide reporting and detailed sales planning. Around 60 users from sales, marketing, controlling, and supply chain management currently work with the solution. Standard day-to-day reporting is based on consistent numbers, including revenue and sales reporting using DB3 analysis, aggregated results, and month-end closing. Demand planning in SAP, resource procurement, and logistics can rely on the planning figures from the rolling forecast. This enables Andros to plan delivery quotas with great accuracy and respond to short-term market developments.

A very important factor for Andros Germany is that it now has access to one central data pool feeding both the detailed sales planning of the German entity and the group reporting. The modern system structure supports closed-loop data exchange with SAP and is flexible enough to be scaled, something that has already paid off following the acquisition of Spreewaldhof. Andros found it easy to integrate the new organization into its reporting, extending the benefits of the powerful Jedox platform.