Ypres-based Belgian Food Associates Group is a market leader in organic artisan bread products under the brands of Bio De Trog and Pur Pain. The company is also a pioneer in authentic slow-food concepts, providing Mediterranean vegetables and tapenades under the brands Delisol and Sud’n’Sol. To gain a better insight into their operating results, Food Associates was looking for a good business intelligence solution. So, they called in Bmatix.
Better insight into sales figures
‘We wanted to store our sales reports in a basic framework where users would be able to retrieve information according to certain parameters,’ says Marc Van Hoeck, Chief Operations Officer at Food Associates Group. ‘For instance, our sales figures by product or by company, by month or by year. This allows us to make comparisons more easily.’
Power BI
Bmatix organised the data structure and installed the right setup. Data from different internal databases – such as the accounting, time recording, production and quality systems – were brought together in one central database via the agreed setup.
‘We used to process this data in Excel. Together with Bmatix, we chose Microsoft Power BI, which is available in the cloud. We can access the reports anywhere, anytime. Including via smartphone or tablet. The update frequency with a 24-hour interval is already a huge step forward,’ says Marc Van Hoeck.
“It’s quite an achievement that Bmatix was able to complete the reporting in such a short time span. Within the agreed deadline and within budget.”
Marc Van Hoeck, Chief Operations Officer
Within the deadline and budget
Bmatix managed to set up this project in less than a month. ‘Our master and transactional data were well-organised. Nevertheless, it’s quite an achievement that Bmatix was able to complete the reporting in such a short time span. Within the agreed deadline and within budget.’
Through a series of training sessions, Bmatix showed the users how to use the reports to have better insight into sales figures. Marc Van Hoeck is very happy with the clear setup documentation. ‘We certainly didn’t get a black box. We can easily adapt the reports ourselves. For instance, when new companies join the group. And the aftercare was great too. Whenever we had any questions, there was always someone on hand to help.’
In the future, Food Associates Group plans to set up logistics and financial reporting in BI too.