Marvesa is a global trader of vegetable oils and fats. These are used as raw materials in the animal feed industry or for the production of green energy. Marvesa wanted to consolidate its financial, logistical and commercial data. E-mergo implemented TimeXtender to structure the data in a practical way. It also implemented Power BI to help Marvesa create its own reports.
An end to the plethora of reports, user-friendly presentations for colleagues in the sales department and management information that's just three clicks away. That, in a nutshell, was Marvesa's request to E-mergo. "We have contracts to buy and sell from all over the world. Each one has its own cost structure and is often denominated in a foreign currency. Some of the goods arrive by ship, while others are delivered by truck," says Derk Otten, Finance Manager at Marvesa. "From the data generated from all these different perspectives, we need to create usable management information. We need this overview for financial accounting, and also for the commercial management of our activities. Are we staying within budget? How is our growth in certain product or customer groups? Are certain improvement initiatives reflected in our results?
Foreign currencies
The old reporting tool was no longer in line with the company's information requirements. Marvesa wanted to be able to do its own reporting without the need to go to an IT service provider for every change. In January 2021, they asked E-mergo for help. "Together with the IT manager, I brought all the data into TimeXtender and built a model that would meet their information needs," says Hugo Winkelhorst, Business Intelligence Consultant at E-mergo. "For example, they want a good overview of their position in complex contracts, and they want to assess whether they are taking too much foreign currency risk. To achieve this, some adjustments had to be made to the configuration of the ERP system so that we could extract the right data from it".
With the data warehouse in place, it was time for a new reporting tool: Power BI. Edmond Thaqi, Business Intelligence Consultant at E-mergo, loaded the TimeXtender model to create a variety of financial reports. "It was quite a challenge for me to understand what Marvesa wanted to see, because the model and the formulas are structured differently from a standard procure-to-sale process," he says. "So in the beginning we did exactly what Derk told us to do. As we became more familiar with the subject, we were able to think proactively about how best to present the data."
Marvesa now avails over several reports that give an overview of their performance. On a weekly or even daily basis, employees receive certain reports in their inboxes. Hugo comments: "Initially, there was no form of self-service. Now, most types of reports can be generated by Marvesa's Business Controller. We make sure that all the tables they need are available in Power BI. If there are major changes, they can always come back to us and we can unlock the data for them or advise them on the data models. But it is Marvesa who is in control of the data now."
At a glance
The first set of reports has been in use for some time, and E-mergo and Marvesa are now working on more complex reports. "Think about how you can better manage your foreign exchange risk. We have a euro administration, but we also buy and sell to third parties in other currencies. You want to be able to manage and present those orders end-to-end in a way that is currency neutral," says Derk. "Making that link in your data, between your inventory management and your financial management, is quite complicated. But it's getting better. We now have a tight control over our margins and the realisation of our budgets. The collaboration between the commercial and finance departments has improved significantly. We can help them with tangible, data-driven information, and the commercial department sees the value of these new data insights.” Following the implementation of TimeXtender and Power BI, Hugo also sees other improvements. "Self-service is better and they are now able to click on the data in a dynamic way. This makes it easier for Marvesa to access its data".
Power BI has also been Marvesa's first step into the use of other Power Platform tools. "For example, the Power Automate flows are run on a daily basis to update the data sets," says Edmond. "It also monitors in case something goes wrong in the production environment, and the right people are automatically notified." Derk is looking forward to more frequent collaboration with E-mergo in the future. "I am very positive about the co-operation. E-mergo is very flexible in its approach. After the first few reports, we want to move towards the automation of more predictive reports, so that the margins for the coming months are clear and can be challenged in the commercial department. Finally, we also want to work more with apps. For example that it becomes possible to record an offer directly into TimeXtender. There's a lot that can be done with TimeXtender and Power BI, so the work is never quite finished".
“[...] The collaboration between the commercial and finance departments has improved significantly. We can help them with tangible, data-driven information, and the commercial department sees the value of these new data insights.
Derk Otten - Finance Manager
Solution Overview
Industry: Vegetable oils and fats
Challenges: A high volume of reports
Solution: TimeXtender & Microsoft Power BI
Benefits
- Better foreign exchange risk management
- More self service at Marvesa
- Tangible insights are now available to the commercial and finance departments
About E-mergo
The name E-mergo comes from the Latin proverb 'luctor et emergo' (I struggle and emerge). In Zeeland, this stands for overcoming the struggle against the water. Of course, we do not fight against the water, but we do ensure that companies can keep their heads above water in the ever-growing stream of data. Under the motto 'Manage your data, innovate your business,' we help you get the most out of your data. We do this with the help of Qlik, Mendix, Microsoft, and TimeXtender, for which we provide software, training, consultancy, and management. Together, we enable your business to create new revenue models and save costs.
E-mergo www.e-mergo.nl
TimeXtender : May 6, 2024
TimeXtender