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ASICS

ASICS logo "We like to structure information on current sales and stock in such a way that we can supply our shops and consumers with the right product with maximum speed and flexibility. Business intelligence from Business Objects plays an important role in this operational process."

Rodney Haarsma
ICT Manager
ASICS Europe

Challenge

One of the five biggest producers of sports equipment in the world, ASICS stands for "Anima Sana in Corpore Sano"—a sound mind in a sound body. Since its establishment in 1949, the Japanese company with European headquarters in Hoofddorp, North Holland, The Netherlands, has collaborated with scientists, top athletes, and coaches to develop innovative sports equipment that enables individual athletes to perform at their best while always being sufficiently protected against injuries.

A worldwide trendsetter in the field of sports equipment, it is helpful for ASICS to have insight into demand for a certain product or a certain line in the different seasons. Rodney Haarsma, ICT manager at ASICS Europe B.V., says, "As a retail organization, we are strongly affected by the different seasons. Our sales organizations place purchase orders twice per year. The size of this order depends on the so-called advance sales. Our country organizations deliver the orders to the local stores. Stores often place repeat orders during the season. In order to be ahead of the game, we've improved our insight into the current demand."

The country organization collects the repeat orders and sends them as one purchase order to the European head office in Hoofddorp, which then collects all national purchase orders. It can easily take four to five months until a store receives the desired addition to its stock. Haarsma says, "We will soon be able to considerably cut this time through precise planning and forecasting."

Even though ASICS order processing has been supported by an enterprise resource planning (EPR) system since 2002, the whole reporting process was problematic: It was done manually, it was time-consuming, and it was decidedly not user-friendly. Timely order processing reports are essential for ASICS to be able to anticipate market demand as quickly as possible, and the actual insight into the order status is of great importance for different departments within ASICS. For example, the development department bases its forecast on it, the finance and sales departments their sales budgets, and the distribution departments the whole delivery planning.

ASICS management realized it needed to improve its insight into the sales and order processes worldwide. To improve operational efficiency, ASICS sought to better integrate internal processes, such as design, production, order, and sales. The lack of centralized information made it impossible to compare the status of orders from different countries. Because of this, the development department had to deal with separate production orders while it would have been more efficient to combine these orders.

Due to the fact that a lot of the administration in the countries was still done manually, it was not possible to compare reliable sales figures from different countries. For instance, it was impossible to analyze why a certain shoe type sold better in Benelux than it does in Spain. With improved computerization of the administrative processes, ASICS could compare sales figures from different countries alongside each other.

Approach

ASICS management decided to centralize the worldwide sales and order processes, to better integrate internal processes like design, production, order, and sales, and ultimately, to improve operational efficiency. By integrating its key operational processes, ASICS can combine and compare the status of orders from different countries, and get the answers to why Benelux consumers buy the product that isn't selling in Spain.

The European IT organization in Hoofddorp quickly became aware that it wasn't possible to implement the desired centralization with the current reporting system and so began mapping alternatives. There were three major requirements. First, to ensure that the process was manageable, the new reporting tool had to be rolled out in phases to four European countries and regions. Second, it had to be possible for the European IT department to centrally offer the new solution to the different countries and regions. The third requirement related to the simplicity of the reporting possibilities in view of the approximately 100 end users in the different countries. ASICS called on Kadenza, a Laren, North Holland-based firm, to help with this selection. Kadenza specializes in the fields of BI and data warehouses.

Following the selection process, in the course of which workshops, among other things, were used to determine what the ideal sales report should look like, BusinessObjects™ XI from Business Objects, an SAP company, was chosen.

This enterprise solution is simple to use and it offers extensive reporting possibilities. Beside the fact that the BusinessObjects solution met the above-mentioned requirements, it was a decisive factor that the very user-friendly user interface possessed good data integration possibilities that were compatible with the company's ERP system.

Results

In October 2005, Kadenza started the implementation of BusinessObjects XI at the European head office as well as in the Benelux region. Implementation was completed within three months. At present, the following offices work with the system: Benelux, Austria, France, Germany, and Spain. Delivery times to stores have been drastically cut – order information for all European countries is now available within one day. The sales department can now make detailed analyses and comparisons between the different countries, even down to the shoe type and post code level.

Since going live, the ASICS European IT department has further expanded the reporting system base. In the first phase, end users in the sales department were provided with current information with regard to the status of sales orders. European and Benelux organizations can now analyze purchase orders, giving ASICS the advantage of having insight into availability problems and the matching of stock with (expected) demand at an early stage. The planning possibilities have both increased and improved. For the IT department, this means that managing the data warehouse has become a great deal simpler. Additional management dashboards will be used, and via personal portals, sales managers can find information on the retailers' order and contact histories.

Based on the BusinessObjects software, ASICS better anticipates the changing demand from retailers, and the company can make decisions regarding future production orders earlier than it could before. With the BusinessObjects solution, ASICS is in a position to strengthen its relationship with its retailers and consolidate its market position compared to the competition.

Order information for all European countries is now available within one day, which drastically reduces the delivery time to stores. The sales department can now make detailed analyses and comparisons between the different countries, even down to the shoe type and post code level. Haarsma notes the importance of business intelligence for ASICS. He says, "We like to structure information on current sales and stock in such a way that we can supply our shops and consumers with the right product with maximum speed and flexibility. Business intelligence from Business Objects plays an important role in this operational process."

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