Success Stories
Reinders enhances decision-making, improves sales performance with advanced reporting and analytics from MITS.
LEADING DISTRIBUTOR TO THE COMMERCIAL GREEN INDUSTRY BOOSTS ACCESS TO CRITICAL ERP DATA
Reinders, Inc. is a family-owned distribution company established in 1866 in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, USA. Serving the commercial green industry—golf courses, municipalities, schools, parks, athletic facilities, landscapers and others—the company operates 12 stores in the Midwestern U.S.
Reinders expertise within its industry is widely recognized, as demonstrated by the success of its bi-annual independent turf conference—one of the largest in the U.S, with more than 85 exhibitors and 1,500 attendees.
Not surprisingly for such a long-lived company, Reinders was among the first in its industry to automate its business, implementing a broad-based distribution management system—now known as ERP SX.enterprise and marketed by Infor Global Solutions—in the early 1990s.
THE NEED FOR FASTER, BETTER INFORMED DECISION-MAKING
As Reinders grew, its needs evolved. Fortunately, the SX.enterprise system evolved as well, enabling the company to successfully manage its growing business. As the business became more complex and competition stiffened, however, the need for improved visibility into operations increased.
A few years ago, Reinders began using the Hyperion performance management system (now Oracle Business Intelligence) in an attempt to provide clearer insight into critical information held by the SX.enterprise system: sales, commissions, margins, and data related to key performance indicators (KPIs).
Reinders’ business, however, presented a range of complexities that required significant customization and effort to address with Hyperion. “Our organization includes a matrix of sales reps (and types of sales reps), product categories and regions,” explains Reinders IT director Robin McGuire. “Also, our Reinders IT resources are extremely limited.” Additionally, it was difficult to meet end-user requirements without overwhelming them with both data and complexity.
These challenges meant sales reps and managers had to wait for monthly reports to be printed and transported to their locations. And new information needs—at any level of the organization—all funneled through a single individual who had to design and create reports, delaying and even undermining critical decision-making.
For these reasons, Reinders began looking for a reporting and analysis solution better matched to its need for enhanced, self-service decisions support, and automated, easily distributed reporting.
MITS DISCOVER and MITS REPORT: THE RIGHT MIX OF INSIGHT AND SELF-SERVICE.
Early in its search, the Reinders team learned of the MITS Distributor Analytics solution. “Our company president saw a MITS demo, and immediately liked its ability to present snapshots of the business—with the added analytic facility for drilling down into the details when problems or opportunities become apparent,” says McGuire.
The MITS solution offered other important advantages: instant, automated report distribution via the Web and email, data export to PDF or Excel for further investigation as well as dashboarding and reporting for use at appropriate levels within the organization.
The Reinders team decided to begin using MITS Distributor Analytics, and MITS Report (for operational reporting) to make the wealth of data held within the Infor SX.enterprise system accessible on a self-serve basis.
Implementation was rapid and rewarding. “We hit the ground running, right from the beginning,” says McGuire. “We began with the MITS Distributor Sales Analysis solution, and saw results quickly. And working with the team at MITS, analyzing data and configuring our solution, was great.”
Initial insights provided to end users include sales commission reporting, comparative and trend reports on sales, gross profits, open orders, sales projections and more. Just as importantly, executives have access to dashboards that provide at-a-glance business performance and simplify drill-down for decision-making and problem-solving. When all solutions are rolled out, approximately 60 end users—in sales, management, finance and the executive suite— will benefit from self-service reporting, dashboards and analysis.
RESULTS
The Reinders team is already seeing the benefits of combining the technologies from MITS and Infor.
“We see faster, better-informed decision-making,” says McGuire. “MITS Discover dashboards, with their daily snapshot of key data, are immediately useful for managers and executives, who can more quickly gauge where the business is and make time-critical decisions.”
This easy access to answers presents dual savings to the Reinders team. In the past, when new insight was needed, IT had to design a report. That meant a delay, and also kept IT resources from performing more strategic tasks. Automated reporting (and report distribution via the Web) also gets critical insight into the field more quickly—and with less paper waste.
Reinders will expand its use of MITS Discover and MITS Report in the near future, adding a number of standardized reports and a second analysis application focused on inventory.
“Now, we’ll get answers in the hands of decision-makers much more quickly,” says McGuire. “So decisions can be made more quickly. Our company will be able to take advantage of more opportunities, and address issues before they become larger problems.”