us, but none of these would have been able to achieve what GL Wand did, let alone do it in such a short space of time.” - J an van der Merwe, Senior Business Analyst at Tiger Brands CUSTOMER CASE STUDY
Both the reporting and analysis Tiger Brands chose to implement GL Wand as part of a long term, company-wide strategic shift towards tasks in complex organisations adopting Oracle E-Business Suite technology. This can prove to be major obstacles shift has been successful, with the company currently utilising E-Business Suite version 12. for the relevant personnel in a large enterprise. While each of Jan van der Merwe, a senior business analyst at Tiger Brands, explains that with the organisation’s these tasks can be described as growth over the years, its IT environment ended up being crucial to the company’s looking a bit like a ‘fruit salad’, with multiple different enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions in wellbeing, the often cumbersome place across the various divisions. It was this that led nature of the process can either to the desire for a strategic shift to an Oracle-only environment. slow down or completely impede the employees’ ability to fulfil their “Our first use of the GL Wand tool came about in 2006, when we were busy with an implementation duties. This was the case at Tiger project for one of the divisions that was not using Brands, up until the company Oracle at the time. We were put under pressure by the time constraints with regard to getting the chose to implement GL Wand necessary reporting requirements in place, as these from Excel4apps solution, which were extremely tight,” says van der Merwe.
removed these headaches and “Obviously, these users were inexperienced with instead created an automated, Oracle, so in order to address the requirements of this particular user community and to get them flexible and easily executed up and running within the tight timeframes we process. were given; we implemented the GL Wand tool from Excel4apps. This enabled us to quickly and efficiently address the requirements of that business Tiger Brands Limited is a Top 40 JSE Limited company, unit.” with a footprint that extends across the African continent and beyond. It is one of the largest He points out that the company was especially manufacturers and marketers of FMCG products impressed with how easily the tool enabled the in Southern Africa, focusing on a broad basket of users to adapt to the new Oracle environment, categories that spans food, home and personal care and how simple it was to get the employees up to a as well as baby products. Tiger Brands is a world–class level of self-sufficiency, thanks to the rapid transfer operation that maintains its position through constant of knowledge. investment in people, brands, technology, efficiency, quality and sustainability. “The other tools we had available to us would never have been able to achieve this, let alone achieve it in such a short space of time.”
“GL Wand offers Tiger Brands
two key pillars, namely those of reporting and analysis.” - Jan van der Merwe, Senior Business Analyst at Tiger Brands
GL Wand for Oracle shown
www.excel4apps.com/oracle
“In terms of reporting, we obtain a final product that is more quickly
put together, offers less chance for human error to creep in and is delivered in an effective and presentable format.” - Jan van der Merwe, Senior Business Analyst at Tiger Brands Van der Merwe explains that subsequent to this rollout, Tiger Brands expanded the use of the Excel4apps software to other divisions that were In 2006, Tiger Brands took a strategic decision already using Oracle, adding that since then, all to consolidate its ERP environment into an new implementations have followed the self-same Oracle-only one. route. “With the original GL Wand implementation, when Tiger Brands is currently using Oracle we first demonstrated exactly what this tool could E-Business Suite version 12. do from both a reporting and analysis point of view, the users were impressed. Since then, every GL Wand was initially implemented to assist in single time we show it to new users of Oracle, we transitioning one of the divisions that had not get exactly the same reaction.” been using Oracle prior to the consolidation exercise. “The effectiveness of GL Wand is probably best indicated by simple numbers – with the original Recognising how easily the tool enabled implementation in 2006, we purchased six licences. the users to adapt to the new Oracle Today, that number has increased by more than a environment, and how simple it was to get factor of 20, with the Tiger Brands Group currently the employees up to a level of self-sufficiency, utilising over 130 licences,” he continues. Tiger Brands has begun using the GL Wand across the Group. These users are spread across the entire country, he says, adding that while he cannot say if every Today, the company benefits extensively from single user utilises the tool to its fullest extent, he both the reporting and analysis functionality has come across many instances of users doing built into the tool. wonderful things with it. After many years of use, GL Wand continues “Perhaps the biggest single benefit we obtain from to exceed expectations and Tiger Brands GL Wand – and this goes for every single user – is the continues to increase the number of licences incredible time savings that are achieved. With the it purchases. other tools we used in the past, it took much longer to produce a report because the information had to first be ported to an outside source, and also due to the fact that the cosmetic appearance of the report had to be redone every time. With GL what GL Wand does in pure functionality terms. This Wand, you are able to design the look of the report coupled with the ability to drill down to a granular first and then simply insert the latest information level, means that whatever level of analysis is and populate the values as you require. This means required, the tool can do it. it is quicker to produce and you are always assured that the final product will look the same.” “In terms of reporting, we obtain a final product that is more quickly put together, offers less chance for human error to creep in and is delivered in an Reporting and Analysis Benefits effective and presentable format.” According to van der Merwe, GL Wand offers Tiger “It is particularly useful for our financial people, most Brands two key pillars, namely those of reporting and of whom come from an environment where they analysis. He says that from an analysis perspective, the company has no other tool that is able to offer www.excel4apps.com/oracle
“The effectiveness of GL Wand is probably best indicated by simple
numbers – with the original implementation in 2006, we purchased six licences. Today, that number has increased by more than a factor of 20.” - Jan van der Merwe, Senior Business Analyst at Tiger Brands already use Excel a lot. Thus, they are comfortable linked to the Group’s database, meaning they are with the tool and recognise that it enables them to updated automatically when changes are saved. do their jobs better. Also, the fact that these users This, he states, really improves the quality of the data. already know the Excel environment meant that very little training was required here, and they took “On the analysis side, the drill down functionality built to the tool like a fish to water. This, of course, was into the tool gives our people exactly what they need beneficial both to the Tiger Brands IT department in terms of accessing relevant information. Although and the users themselves.” there are definitely other methods they can use to obtain such analysis data, the GL Wand tool is quite Asked whether GL Wand had a positive effect on obviously the quickest, easiest and most effective month-end, van der Merwe is more circumspect. method.” He explains that there are a multitude of issues that affect the reporting lifecycle. And would he consider telling other companies about this tool? “For example, our head office has recently shrunk the cut-off dates for month-end reports, which has “Actually, I have already recommended GL Wand really shaken up the reporting process across the to a number of other organisations. After all, it really Group. One thing I am positive of is that GL Wand is an amazing tool, so I don’t see why I should have has enabled our financial people to deal with any qualms about endorsing it.” these stricter dates more easily than they would have been able to without it.” “Internally, everyone to whom we have demonstrated it has seen the value of the tool in their environment as well, proving just how good an investment this has Conclusion been. I think it is safe to say that the success of GL Wand within the Tiger Brands Group has been such It is clear that from a reporting perspective, GL that I genuinely couldn’t picture the organisation’s Wand ensures that users at Tiger Brands have Oracle environment without it,” he concludes. access to more trustworthy data. This, says van der Merwe, is due to the fact that spreadsheets are
