In order to achieve reporting efficiency and effectiveness, Afrimat, a construction supplies manufacturer servicing the construction, transport, and mining sectors, has implemented the QlikView analytics and data visualisation solution with business intelligence partner Decision Inc.

With Afrimat making numerous acquisitions, it struggled to properly integrate information from the disparate solutions from each company. Having a single reporting structure was virtually impossible. In order to provide management with an accurate reflection of business performance, it was essential to consolidate views from the various systems’ data into a unified reporting structure.

“Employees were used to getting paper reports because of the different reporting structures. People had to manually convert reports which took days to complete. This time consuming process had a negative impact on the streamlining of operations within the organisation,” says Andrew Espin, General Manager of Cape Town for Decision Inc.

“From a reporting and analytics tool perspective, QlikView was the natural choice due to its ease of implementation and its ability to provide a combined view of operations across Afrimat. Reporting can now be done automatically and data reviewed on a daily basis. The level of BI insight provided empowers the employee’s decision making capabilities by giving them access to the right information quickly,” adds Espin.

Because of the previous manual processes, Decision Inc. worked with Afrimat to implement a training programme for the various disperse sites. The training programme was designed to help Afrimat employees to understand how the new reporting environment worked, and how it could help them drive efficiencies. A process of continual change management was necessary to drive user adoption, with Decision Inc. going to various Afrimat sites to deliver one-on-one training at regular intervals.

Lucille Bothma, group business systems manager at Afrimat, says the QlikView implementation means that Afrimat can be more creative in the kind of reporting it can create. QlikView provides different ways of looking at core data, and Afrimat is able to view information they would not have before, for example average pricing across the different regions.

“QlikView has greatly assisted our business and we will be installing it at all future sites as we continue to expand our business. Site managers out in the field as well as head office management have a straightforward user-friendly tool which feeds reliable clean data on which they can make decisions. As our partner, Decision Inc. really understands our business, has relevant industry experience and has implemented the solution quickly. We could not be happier with the work done by Decision Inc.,” she says.