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by Hallie Forcinio, Contributing Editor   | Abstract: | Following a major merger, graphics supplier KPG uses business intelligence to get a deeper understanding of how the business is running. |
When Sun Chemical Corp. (Fort Lee, NJ) and Eastman Kodak Co. (Rochester, NY) formed the Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG, Norwalk, CT) joint venture in January 1998 and then purchased Horsell Graphic Industries and merged it into the business in April 1998, officials at the new company immediately set out to replace the legacy ERP systems each company had been using with a single platform, the iSeries-based Prism ERP system from SSA Global (Chicago). Prism went live just a few months later. Soon, however, KPG officials realized a key piece of the picture was still missing. While KPG now had a consolidated system for tracking financial and other transactions, it lacked a common reporting platform that would allow demand planning and other organizations to easily access data generated by the new ERP system and other systems. So, at the end of 1999, KPG deployed Graphical Performance Series (GPS) business intelligence software from Vanguard Solutions Group Inc. (Glen Ellyn, IL). GPS WINDFALL
"Prism could generate reports, too, but required programming time to create them," explains Nigel Penhearow, KPG's business operations director for the U.K. and Irish markets. [Click to continue] |