NEW PLANNING TOOL TO MATCH A GROWING BUSINESS

The task

A tailor-made planning solution with just one Excel file

For many companies, budgeting and other planning processes are highly time consuming since many different team members and planning entities are involved. Various documentation needs and hierarchies quickly result in highly complex setups, consisting of multiple distributed Excel files that require a lot of manual handling and control.

For our customer here - a logistics provider - there was a desire to streamline their resource planning with regards to the services provided to one of their key accounts. With more than 40 different locations by the time we started the project, the client had 40 different planning workbooks (one per location) with one sheet per planning week, plus a large number of consolidation spreadsheets, where the results were summarised by use of copy paste. Our client was therefore seeking for a solution that would standardise the planning process amongst different team members, make the daily tasks more efficient and at the same time would be scalable to accommodate their growth ambitions in that area of business.

"As part of our rapid growth, we needed a solution that would make our daily workflows with Excel easier and faster. We also wanted a tool that would standardize certain processes and make them uniform", says the client’s responsible project lead.

exacto has helped with this important task, which has not only reduced the number of Excel files from more than 40 to just one, but which has also become a fully tailored solution that meets the client's specific requirements.

The solution

Everything is stored in one place - with live data in a user-friendly and intuitive interface

In close dialogue with the client’s project team, exacto has developed a planning solution where the entire process is gathered in one place. The solution consists of an SQL database, in which all data is stored, while only one Excel front end is used by all team members simultaneously to input the resource planning on the different locations. At the same time, the underlying SQL database allows ”live” consolidation of all the different planning entities to be displayed in the Excel front end.

”One of the biggest workload and time savers is our pre-programmed "one-click reports”. Data that an entire team previously had to enter manually into separate Excel spreadsheets can now be generated automatically. Moreover, we were able to minimize mistakes and to focus on more important tasks”, is the joint feedback we received from the main user group.

The entire process is managed in an administration module that includes exactly the functionalities that the planning team needs and is still very scalable. The team can add new team members, locations and change overall assumptions, to accommodate their growth ambitions. Since introducing the new planning solution, our client was able to grow and administer their business with their key account to more than 75 locations and still saves time on the daily routines.

The more than 15 users work in a familiar Excel setup, where planning data is entered into one and the same Excel file with live update to the underlying database and the overviews on consolidated levels are generated automatically.

The result

Accommodating the growing business’s needs and still saving time on daily processes

With the new resource planning solution, the client saves up to 480 hours per month, being equivalent to more than two FTEs. As a result, the existing team was easily able to support the substantial business growth in that area. The main reason for the time saving is, that consolidated overviews are based on the underlying SQL database and can therefore be generated at any time without the need for manual consolidation (nor the risk involved with manual consolidation).

”In general it is just an incredible labor and time saver that specifically has been tailored to our needs.”, summarises the client and continues by explaining ”As all data is now collected in one system. This makes it super easy and quick for us to evaluate and analyse whatever we need. We are also a lot more flexible with our analysis as we do not need to collect the relevant data from different sources anymore.”

Furthermore, the client adds that the new tool had a positive impact on both, the internal motivation, as well as on their own customers’ satisfaction ”By making work easier and optimising rather "unpleasant" work steps, motivation has noticeably increased and capacities for other tasks have been created. Furthermore, reports and analyses are a lot more unified and therefore easier to work with for our customers.”

About exacto as the developer of the solution, the client adds the following: "From the very first contact, the cooperation, the development until the current support, we can only recommend exacto as a competent and solution-oriented service provider. The cooperation continues and we are looking forward to further joint projects.”