Sometimes enterprise resource planning systems can provide too much of a good thing. At least that seems to be the problem executives at Kalama, Wash.-based Steelscape Inc. were faced with. The SAP data warehouse that Steelscape, a producer of metallic-coated and custom-painted steel coils, uses provides too many fields for users to choose from, says Hector Marquez, director of business systems for Steelscape.
"It presents the user with so many options that sometimes it's hard for them to look into the same information that the other guy is looking at," relates Marquez.
In order to break the data down into a more user-friendly format, the company implemented a business intelligence (BI) solution called Artus by Atlanta-based Bitam Inc. With Artus each vice president within Steelscape can access dashboards that provide them with the most important data, according to Marquez. Now, executives can see key metrics for sales, purchasing or operations in color-coded dashboards that highlight performance in red, yellow or green.
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To that end, Steelscape is in the process of sharing BI data with the company's manufacturing operations and logistics department. This will allow senior managers and those below them to answer questions that the executive level may have about certain performance indicators, Marquez says.
"By addressing the top management, we're introducing it to the whole company because the senior managers and all his director managers want it and whoever below him wants it because they're going to be asked about something or some indicator or some aspect of their work."
