Success Story Starrag AG: Management Cockpit
- Success stories
- Analytics, automation, data science, modelling, SAC, visualization
- 3 min reading time
Patricia Ahrend
Navigating to success with a clear view: Design and implementation of a management cockpit using the SAP Analyitcs Cloud (SAC)
Starrag AG was faced with the challenge of automating manual processes in the finance department, in particular the time-consuming preparation of monthly reporting. The decision was made to implement the SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), supported by the expertise of s-peers AG.
With the help of SAC, various models were created for the income statement, balance sheet, HR data and more by importing master data and transaction data from SAP S/4 Simple Finance. A comprehensive management cockpit was developed that enables a standardized presentation and export options to PowerPoint.
The result: The Management Cockpit meets the requirements of the CFO of Starrag AG and provides a quick overview of important key figures for actual, budget and forecast. Detailed analyses of sales, EBIT, incoming orders, key personnel figures and more are now possible.
Challenges and starting point for the project
The finance department of Starrag AG launched a finance transformation project in 2022. Among other things, manual processes were to be automated as far as possible. One important process is the preparation of monthly reporting. This requires a lot of data from various sources, such as financial, HR and order data. Previously, this data was laboriously downloaded from SAP and other upstream systems, imported into Excel, processed there and finally prepared with tables and graphics. This was very time-consuming. In order to spend this valuable time analyzing the data rather than preparing it, reporting was to be switched to a new system. The decision was made in favor of the SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). Knowing that there were no internal resources available to cover this area, s-peers AG was called in to provide technological and specialist support.
The implemented solution - A comprehensive management cockpit
All this data was brought together in a comprehensive management cockpit. A template was defined for this so that all pages are structured in the same way and export to PowerPoint can be guaranteed later. In addition, s-peers AG advised Starrag AG on the concept of IBCS (International Business Communication Standards), which was also incorporated into the report. This helps to prepare a report clearly and to be able to analyze the key figures quickly.
Results achieved through the implemented Management Cockpit
s-peers AG was able to create the Management Cockpit within the agreed time frame to the complete satisfaction of the CFO of Starrag AG, Thomas Erne. All desired data could be prepared according to the requirements. The most important key figures for actual, budget and forecast are displayed on a dashboard together with the respective deviations for an initial overview.
The following pages provide further details on net sales and EBIT, order intake and order backlog, FTE (key personnel figures), accounts receivable and inventories. The figures are broken down into individual months, business units, regions and market segments. Depending on availability, budget, forecast and previous year are also displayed for the detailed data, and the respective deviations are calculated and displayed.
The controllers in the plants and the global controlling department can now export the Management Cockpit to PowerPoint at the touch of a button and also comment on their analysis of the data there.
Benefits of the solution
- Possibility of continuous analysis of the figures, starting in the SAC and ending with the posting document
- Time savings through automated processes
- High transparency for business managers
- Good comparability of the business units' results
- Consistent and clear presentation of data through clear visualization, which self-explanatorily directs the focus to deviations
- Integration and merging of data from different sources
Technologies used in this project
