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MABE, a
subsidiary of U.S-based General Electric, is using Hyperion
software to understand customer and product
profitability, integrate financial and planning systems with
ERP applications and deliver detailed financial
reports.
MABE is one of Central and South America's leading
manufacturers of home appliances. With its diverse product
line, a highly segmented sales channel
and a vast geographical reach for its products, MABE faced a
formidable challenge in gaining visibility into which
customers and products were responsible for the company's
highest profit margins.
"The Hyperion solution helped us get a clear picture of our
profitability," said Salvador Vasquez, credit and collection
director at MABE. "Before the implementation, there was no
way to model our business profitability and perform in-depth
financial analysis. Clearly, we needed these capabilities to
make the types of business decisions that would enable us to
become the market leader in Latin America."
To achieve this insight into profitability, MABE uses
Hyperion software to perform detailed "what-if" analysis and
generate 7,000 detailed, analytic reports, segmented
by customer, product and region. The reports, which users
view online or via Excel spreadsheets, combine product
details with financial statements for the clearest possible
view of MABE's business.
That information is used to make informed planning
decisions. Knowing which products are responsible for the
biggest sales, for example, enables the company to allocate
its promotional dollars to its best advantage and to map its
sales commission structure to net revenues. In fact, the
information from Hyperion Business Modeling led to a
restructuring of the entire sales organization. Armed with
insights from the Hyperion system, MABE executives realigned
sales staff to be near consumers instead of focusing on
retailers, wholesales or department stores.
Among the most significant changes enabled by the Hyperion
solution has been a reduction in freight expenses for the
company. MABE used the creation of best possible logistic
and distribution scenarios in Hyperion Business Modeling to
reduce shipping expenditures by consolidating shipments,
ultimately saving approximately $1.5 million in freight
costs.
MABE also relies on Hyperion software for its budgeting
and reporting functions. The company uses Hyperion
Planning to formulate all of its budgets, profit and
loss statements and balance sheets, which it reports to
General Electric in the United States to create an operating
budget for General Electric executives. Another solution, Hyperion
Enterprise, is used to consolidate MABE's financial
data, enabling it to meet Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.
"Gaining visibility into customer and product profitability
has helped to reduce operating costs and maximize profits
for MABE," said Rich Clayton, vice president of product
marketing for Hyperion. "The detail provided by Hyperion
software has enabled managers company-wide to understand
MABE's overall profitability and make informed decisions
about manufacturing, purchasing, marketing and shipping that
can significantly improve financial results."
*******
Two Hyperion customers have been named to the InfoWorld 100,
an annual award that honors IT projects that demonstrate the
most creative use of cutting-edge technologies to further
business goals. Broward County School District, the sixth
largest school district in the United States, and
Spectra-Physics, a leading global manufacturer and
distributor of optical technology solutions to researchers,
scientists, and manufacturers, both won for innovatively
leveraging Hyperion business intelligence.
Spectra-Physics was recognized for its Business
Performance Management solution that leverages
Hyperion's easy-to-build and easy-to-implement dashboards,
as well as production reports. The company is currently
using more than 120 Hyperion reports, most of which are
delivered daily, while others are viewed monthly, weekly or
even hourly.
"Hyperion empowers our small IT team with a rapid
development tool that delivers dashboards that otherwise
wouldn't be possible," said Mark Rowell, director of
information technology, Spectra-Physics. "The iteration time
from design to delivery has been reduced enormously. We
would not attempt to develop a dashboard without Hyperion.
It just wouldn't be viable."
*******
SAP AG is acquiring privately held Khimetrics, Inc.,
a leading U.S.-based provider of enterprise software
solutions that allow retailers to analyze how to price
and position items to boost margins and optimize demand,
deliver accurate profitability forecasts and implement
long-term sales strategies that promote customer retention.
The acquisition of Khimetrics comes in the wake of SAP's
recent acquisition of Triversity - the leading North
American provider of customer- centric, point-of-sale
software solutions -- demonstrating continuing evidence of
SAP's strategy to acquire narrowly-focused solutions that
enhance its offerings and address specific customers'
business challenges. The advanced analytical pricing and
forecasting technologies from Khimetrics complement SAP's
recently added in-store solution and will build on SAP's
market-leading retail offering, which extends from the
enterprise back office through the retail supply chain and
to the store. With more than 2,900 retailers worldwide
leveraging SAP software, SAP is the leading provider of
enterprise software solutions to the global retail market.
*******
Information Builders, the enterprise business
intelligence (BI) standard of choice for organizations
around the world, today announced a new "Platform Solution
Provider" alliance program targeted at IBM systems
resellers. The program is designed to promote BI on the new
IBM System z9, as well as IBM
eServer zSeries, iSeries, BladeCenter, and pSeries running
Linux. Information Builders has inked new relationships with
CMA, Cornerstone Systems, Jeskell, Mainline Information
Systems, MSI, NoviPro, Sirius Systems, Vicom Infinity, and
Yorel.
"The BI market is growing at exceptional rates," says Dan
Nassif, Vice President of zSeries Solutions at MSI
*******
Responding to Independent Software Vendors, Oracle
is running a series of seminars on Oracle(R) Database 10g
and Oracle Fusion Middleware 10g specifically tailored to
the ISV community. Beginning in North America and moving
into the EMEA, LAD and APAC regions in 2006, the sessions
are designed to provide ISVs with the knowledge and skills
they need to utilize Oracle technology, with content ranging
from high-level overviews to in-depth technical training
sessions.
*******
Cognos appoints Claudio Silvestri as chief
information officer, effective December 5, 2005. Mr.
Silvestri's responsibilities will include leadership of
Cognos worldwide information systems and infrastructure.
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