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How Yellowfin helps a leading agri-food company recognise the ‘why’, not just the ‘what’ of its business performance
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
- Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
- Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Applicable Industries
- Food & Beverage
- Agriculture
Applicable Functions
- Sales & Marketing
- Business Operation
Services
- System Integration
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
The Challenge
Several years ago, Rivalea decided to implement a company-wide enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. While the chosen solution delivered reporting functionality, General Manager for Sales and Marketing, Mark McKenzie, found the group needed a better and faster understanding of business performance. He wanted to see business analytics as well as reporting, so the company decided to investigate business intelligence (BI) platforms. After reviewing a few options, Rivalea opted to go with the Yellowfin Cloud BI solution, supplied and supported by local Yellowfin business partner, Toustone. “We knew we didn’t have the inhouse resource within the group,” said McKenzie, “so we needed some guidance and we felt we couldn’t go wrong with Toustone. It helps that they are local, as we know we can rely on their ongoing support”.
About The Customer
Rivalea is one of Australia’s leading agri-food businesses, located in Corowa, on the New South Wales bank of the Murray River. The company’s unique, highly-integrated production, processing, and distribution system enables it to offer a range of premium pork products to major retailers, wholesalers, food service companies, and export customers; along with a range of animal nutrition products for livestock producers. Rivalea processes and distributes around 17% of the country’s premium pork products. The company also supplies a range of animal nutrition products for livestock producers.
The Solution
Rivalea utilises Yellowfin’s reporting capability to monitor sales through key product and customer channels, enabling the sales team to spot sales issues and take corrective action before targets are missed. That report information is also used to identify the activities of high-value customers and ensure they are closely managed to optimise the relationship, and equally to identify lost or slipping customers so they can be targeted. While accurate and easy-to-digest reporting is useful, it’s only part of the picture as far as McKenzie is concerned. For him, the focus is on accountability – at both a functional and individual level. If sales data doesn’t match forecasts, the business and those responsible need to know quickly if it relates to a sales issue or a production issue, so that actions can be implemented. The Yellowfin Cloud BI solution delivers a degree of analysis that enables better business decisions because it means McKenzie and his team can take corrective action as soon as a problem is identified. Its intuitive and easy-to-use interface also means that any person inside the organisation can drill down into reports and data to answer any queries that may arise. Many of the team have cross-functional responsibilities, so having access to real-time accurate data, presented in an easy-to-digest visual format allows them to better understand the business on a day-to-day basis. That accountability extends across sales and expenditure, with key sales and marketing personnel having access to timely expense reporting versus budget, specific to their cost centre, ensuring the process is properly managed and that available budget is being utilised.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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