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“With timeXtender, we have quick and easy shortcut from ERP to Business Intelligence"

Bo Jørgensen, Project Manager, Cembrit Holding. 

“Today we are using the ERP system iScala in 9 out of 13 countries along with theDanish Business Intelligence tool from Targit. We use timeXtender to confi gure theTargit “data cube” and, afterwards, for moving data from iScala to Targit. And it reallyis a fantastic tool for this task because it makes it so much easier and faster to confi guredata cubes compared to traditional programming which often requires consultantassistance.”
 

So says Bo Jørgensen, who has two jobs with Cembrit Holding A/S – one as Project Manager in the mother company,Cembrit Holding in Aalborg, and the other – a quarter of his time – as Finance Manager in the company’s sales company inStockholm, Cembrit Tepro Byggmaterial AB.
 

So when it comes to fi nancial reporting on both a company and national level, Bo Jørgensen is a man who keeps his fi nger on thepulse of his business. And, that’s why he also has the sole responsibility for the corporation’s Business Intelligence strategy.Cembrit Holding has subsidiaries in 13 European countries. Up until a few years ago, the company did not have a common IT strategy nor did they have common IT systems. Today, even though 9 of the companies now use the same ERP system, iScala, they use them
in very different ways. For example, there are great differences in how the data fi elds are defi ned and how the underlying database is built up.

timeXtender – an irreplaceable tool

There are so many differences that it would just be too large of a data logic task to standardize these data definitions. Plus, it would also create a lot of practical problems and dissatisfaction locally. So, for now, it’s a long-term dream. Instead they have chosen a solution using a special tool to transform and move data from the iScala systems to the OLAP data cube from where Targit gets its data. This tool is timeXtender. And it is saving Cembrit Holding A/S a lot of diffi cult programming work. Bo Jørgensen says:
 

”timeXtender is so easy to use that with just the help of a computer mouse we can determine which data fi elds in iScala should be moved over to Targit and in what format. And, we can do it ourselves! Otherwise we would have been forced to hire external help to do it. And that’s not only a much more expensive solution – it’s also slower because the consultants are not here every day. So not only do we have a cheaper and easier shortcut between these two systems, we can also build new roads between them quickly when Targit users or management come with new requests or ideas.”
 

“In that way, timeXtender has become an irreplaceable part of the organization’s Business Intelligence platform. And that happened more or less by accident,” explains Bo Jørgensen who has many years of experience in the IT industry as a consultant.

”We didn’t really think that there was such a tool so we didn’t know about timeXtender – neither the product nor the company. They were the ones who contacted us and it was just when we needed them. They hit us in our weak spot and were able to show us what they had to offer. First, they showed us a demo of their product and when that looked promising, they showed us a test on our own data from iScala.” Everyone who observed this experiment was impressed and now timeXtender has become an irreplaceable tool for data transformation in the company. And it will become even more important in the coming year.

The company has planned that iScala will be implemented in the company’s subsidiaries and they want to use it to transfer data from the Business Intelligence system to Hyperion, the system used for fi nancial reporting in FL Smidth – the company that owns Cembrit Holding. So with timeXtender, Bo Jørgensen has found a solution to some diffi cult data logic challenges. And because of his deep understanding of the ERP world, he believes will become even better:
 

“It is a really great tool! The people from timeXtender have done a top professional job all the way – also with the daily support. But perfect – it isn’t quite there yet. You can still see that it comes from the Axapta world so in my judgment it can become even better than it is today. And the people from timeXtender know this, too. They are really good at listening to the users of their system – at least to the ideas we have. So I am sure it will be an even better product in the future.”

About Cembrit Holding...

Cembrit is among the leading distributors and manufacturers of fi brecement products in Europe. Cembrit is owned by the FLSmidth Group. The Cembrit mission is “to develop, manufacture, buy, and market products and systems for roofi ng and cladding with focus on fi bre cement”, giving the following key business areas:

• Fibre-cement fl at sheets for external and internal cladding.
• Fibre-cement slates for roofi ng and facing.
• Fibre-cement corrugated sheets for roofi ng and facing.

To strongly service the European building and construction industry, Cembrit has subsidiary sales and service companies in Great Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Slovakia. In addition, a wide network of distributors markets the Group’s products and solutions.

Cembrit has also entered a joint venture with the Austrian company Eternit-Werke Ludwig Hatschek AG and established the company Eternit South-Eastern-Europe Holding GmbH with production facilities in Hungary and sales company in Romania. Furthermore, Cembrit has its own manufacturing companies in Finland, the Czech Republic and Poland. The manufacturing companies are leading within fi bre-cement based production, drawing on the know-how of the company, which is based on more than 70 years of experience.

Cembrit offers a wide range of products and solutions for roofs and facings, internal cladding and lining of ceilings and walls. The company not only supplies building materials, but also offers complete installation systems as well as technical solutions. The products and solutions are used for all sorts of buildings: Residential houses and holiday cottages, trade and industry buildings, agricultura