Frucor gets agile with SAP BusinessObjects

Frucor gets agile with SAP BusinessObjects Data Federator

Improves Reporting Times and Reduces Complexity

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) Leading drinks manufacturer Frucor Beverages Ltd has implemented SAP BusinessObjects Data Federator, increasing the IS department’s agility when it comes to reporting business information to decision makers. SAP BusinessObjects Data Federator takes disparate data sources and enables business users to view this information as though it came from a single source.

A review of systems at Frucor identified that the company needed to reduce its IT complexity and improve reporting times – crucial for a business in the FMCG market.

Frucor was already familiar with SAP BusinessObjects solutions and in particular its strengths in creating a ‘universe’ for users to bring together all the information they need for decision making in their particular roles. Frucor uses SAP BW for its Enterprise Warehouse but didn’t think that all the company’s data needed to go into BW as it also runs a SQL Server data warehouse. Using SAP BusinessObjects Data Federator means developing information at the Metadata level rather than extracting it from the data warehouses. Frucor can leverage the universe approach against BW without losing functionality.

Mark Palmer, IS Program Manager at Frucor says that the company is very pleased with how the project has gone and the results they’re seeing.

“Frucor has always thought outside the square when it comes to finding solutions to meet our requirements,” says Mark. “Buying new tools isn’t necessarily the answer to every question. We’re really stringent about making sure that any new purchases fully meet our requirements and deliver on our long-term strategy as well as complementing investments we’ve already made. Data Federator made a strong business case.”

Although the business users don’t see anything different in their user experience, Mark says from an IS perspective it is much easier to turn around requests from business users with the right tools.

“Data Federator makes it easy to pull together disparate information into the BusinessObjects universe. We can now produce information without a lot of time, cost or significant effort. We’re definitely more agile in our response.

“We’re also using Data Federator as a prototyping tool. So in the first instance we may produce a report using Data Federator and then in the future we can pull it into the data mart in our data warehouse. Data Federator may not always be the end solution, for some things it may in fact be the starting point. It’s exactly what we were hoping for,” says Mark.

SAP did some additional work to integrate Data Federator with BW so it could sit over the top and Frucor could fully leverage the BusinessObjects universe layer.

Graeme Riley, SAP New Zealand Managing Director, says that Frucor is the first company in New Zealand to implement Data Federator.

“Frucor is definitely leading the pack in their innovative approach to leveraging their investment in SAP and SAP BusinessObjects. They challenge us to make sure our solutions are the right fit for their business. In the past year or so we’ve seen tremendous uptake of our business intelligence solutions as companies endeavour to make the best decisions for their businesses. Data Federator is helping Frucor to get fast access to up-to-date business information to inform that decision making,” says Graeme.

The IS team at Frucor did the implementation themselves and Mark says they were particularly pleased with the access they had to SAP technical support.

“We were in direct contact with some of the Data Federator developers. They turned around our requests very quickly and helped make the implementation a very smooth and painless process.

“We’re really happy with where we’re at. The next step is to get some formal intensive training on Data Federator. We’re keen to learn more,” says Mark.

SAP BusinessObjects Data Federator

SAP BusinessObjects Data Federator can help businesses rapidly integrate data in real-time. The software brings together information from unrelated data sources letting business users view the information as if it came from a single source.

This single and integrated view of disparate data sources is based on a code-free, rule-based mapping development environment that allows users to intuitively define business rules and create source-to-target mappings.

SAP BusinessObjects Data Federator includes: fast integration performance with an advanced query optimiser; access to multiple data sources including Oracle, SAS, Teradata, Web services; XML Integration with SAP BusinessObjects Metadata Management for data lineage and analysis and; real-time data integration for supercharging any business intelligence deployment.

About SAP

SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software(*), offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 92,000 customers in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol “SAP.” For more information, visit www.sap.com.

About Frucor Beverages Ltd

Frucor Beverages Ltd is the market leader in energy drinks in New Zealand and Australia. It’s also the market leader in the juice category and the second largest non-alcoholic drinks company in New Zealand. Many of Frucor’s brands in energy drinks, fruit juices and fruit drinks, pure waters and sport waters, soft drinks and milk drinks are household names.

Since 2003 Frucor has been a national sponsor of the Life Education Trust, which has mobile classrooms that show 240,000 kids a year how to make positive choices in life

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