VITA automates global reporting and sales forecasting

VITA Zahnfabrik supplies dental laboratories and dentist’s offices in more than 150 countries with innovative solutions for dental prosthetics. The organization’s sophisticated sales forecasting and controlling had outgrown its BI solution, which also lacked potential for future development of new use cases. This is why the BI team decided it was time for a change, opting to install a modern, future-proof system controlling solution.

After conducting extensive research into products available on the market, the project team selected the Jedox platform. The combination of the adaptability of the Jedox platform with Advanced Applications as the implementation partner made the choice easy for Vita. “Jedox is just customer-centered as our organization,” explains Stefan Ewel, Head of Controlling. “What’s more, the SAP and BI experts at Advanced Applications understand our needs – we don’t have to explain much to them, which makes our collaboration very efficient.”

Focus on global sales forecasting and controlling during ERP implementation

The sales controlling system required urgent change and the simultaneous introduction of SAP S4/HANA made this conversion project a major undertaking which required a smooth transition. Close integration with SAP as the main data source and a high degree of reporting standardization would lay the foundation for extensive hyperautomation and easy scalability.

Implementation a solution that would work for both the U.S. and German entities was important to eliminate the high manual effort required for internal reporting and reporting to the German parent company.

VITA Zahnfabrik utilized the standardized BI Ready to Run modules for Jedox and SAP from Advanced Applications to implement the project. The first step was to set up extensive sales reporting, based on BI Ready to Run SD, followed by customization. As a result, the finance department was able to produce a detailed sales forecast process in just a day and a half. Among other things, the team found the Jedox platform’ssplashing functionalityfor automatic customer bonus distribution to be very helpful.

In preparation for the implementation, the project team collated the master data in the SAP feeder system. The master data maintenance and administration of data objects such as customers, regions, or products were located directly in SAP. Once the single source of truth had been created for all companies, Jedox went live at the VITA North America branch office. The Ready to Run modules, which can be customized and adapted, proved advantageous for the quick and standardized international rollout.

Self-service reporting portal established in one day

Sales and Finance data are now available in Jedox across the organization. As part of a continued effort to expand the use of Jedox in planning and analysis throughout VITA Zahnfabrik, the finance team will also integrate inventory, procurement, production, quality management, complaints, and maintenance into the reporting environment via additional Ready to Run modules.

The project managers consider the creation of a central, self-service reporting portal, which gives access to all the ZITA-branded reporting modules to be a key milestone. In collaboration with Advanced Applications, the ZITA BI team set up the central reporting homepage in just one day. The internal team can now store its own reports and planning masks in the designated specialist modules. This will allow them to expand the reporting portal across the organization at their own pace in a self-sufficient manner.

In terms of collaboration, the BI team found Advanced Applications’ coaching model to be particularly effective. Change management expertise is critical to adoption, and during the project, under the guidance of Advanced Applications, VITA Zahnfabrik’s BI experts learned how set up data models and reports themselves, and acquired the expertise for system operation, maintenance, and evolution. Now, Advanced Applications are contacted on a needs basis to provide effective clarification on individual matters, or where advice is needed on how best to evolve the solution.

With the close integration of the SAP and the Jedox Cloud architecture, VITA Zahnfabrik has created an integrated system that can be used to manage and develop the planning, forecasting, budgeting, and analysis function. The BI managers particularly stress the intuitiveness of the Jedox Integrator, which allows them to create reports and dashboards quickly via a clear visualization of Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) processes. This makes the management of data streams easy to understand, and the results immediately visible.

Traceable metrics through effective master data management

The clean master data management and the high degree of standardization create the conditions for automated reporting and the simple scalability of the Jedox EPM solution. The Finance team benefits from the high data quality and reliable metrics. Any deviations can be cleared up easily and data flows can also be traced back to the respective department in SAP through Jedox drill anywhere capabilities. The Head of Controlling emphasizes improved transparency discussions about the data are advanced and specialized instead of tracing issues with IT.

Utilizing the Ready to Run modules available for each SAP module, the Finance team can gradually expand the desired cross-divisional reporting. In addition to the existing sales forecast, the plan is to establish forecasts for production and inventories, amongst others. New key performance indicators (KPIs) already provide valuable approaches for optimizing cooperation between departments to identify areas to gain further efficiency.

“Jedox makes all data streams traceable and transparent. We understand the correlations and also feel secure when we make changes to the system.”

Manuel Strittmatter, Team Leader IT Applications, VITA Zahnfabrik, H. Rauter GmbH & Co. KG

Single source of truth, and greater communication through automation

Standard reporting is now available to a wider user group within the organization. Jedox reporting portal makes dynamic and up-to-date reports available to many more users across the U.S. and German entities. The solution also produces an automatic daily product turnover report which is distributed automatically to stakeholders across the business.

There has been a considerable efficiency gain at the U.S. location which is now integrated into the corporate reporting system based on a single source of truth. Finance professionals in the U.S. can access appropriate and required data directly, and daily reporting is generated fully automatically. This saves the U.S. business unit a considerable amount of time and effort each day for manual data preparation, internal report creation, and reporting to the German parent company.