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Kiku-Masamune

"Now we're able to identify where changes are needed in our contracts and drill down to the information we need to use our sales resources most effectively. For the first time ever, the entire flow of our operation is crystal clear."

Yoshihiko Handa, sales and marketing director at Kiku-Masamune.

Challenge

Kiku-Masamune Sake Brewing - kiku meaning chrysanthemum, a flower valued in Japan for its elegance and delicate fragrance and masamune, which is another way of saying sake - has been brewing premium sake in Kobe for more than 340 years. The drink, which has charmingly been described as "moonlight steeped in spring rain," has been a staple in Japan for centuries and continues to play an important role in Japanese culture and religion today.

Though steeped in age-old traditions, recent years have been anything but tranquil for the sake industry. In fact, the alcoholic beverage market in Japan as a whole stands at a crossroads, with consumer tastes becoming increasingly diversified as imported western alternatives garner more and more market share.

Moreover, recent changes in Japan's tax laws have encouraged a growing number of small and midsize brewers or kura to produce the more sought after, and therefore more profitable, premium sake. This has only served to heighten the intense competition already clearly evident among Japan's estimated 1,700 sake breweries.

Kiku-Masamune knew that it could not stay the course by relying solely on tradition and quality. Along with the tax law changes, recent deregulation has made competition among brewers fiercer than ever. As Kiku-Masamune sales and marketing director Yoshihiko Handa colorfully observes: "The old licensing system gave us a certain sense of security; it was like traveling with a convoy fleet. Now it feels like we’ve been left all alone on the open seas in a raging storm."

Approach

Sensing a crisis, the company set out two policy priorities: optimize efficiency in sales and "assess sales performance." More specifically, sales expenses needed to be trimmed, and information such as sales performance by retailer and profits by product and customer had to be measured more accurately.

The data they needed to achieve these goals already existed. However, nobody had the time or the inclination to follow the convoluted paper trail to get to it. Clearly, the moment had come to look for help outside the company. And so it came to pass that a business steeped in hundreds of years of tradition started looking for answers in modern-day technology.

The Kiku-Masamune backbone system stores up to 1.9 million records for liquor vendors and 300,000 records for individual expenses. With the liquor vendors' data increasing by about 100,000 records per month and expense management data renewed almost daily, adding 100,000 new records each year, a solution for keeping on top of it all had to found - and fast.

Heartened by the promise of minimal investment, quick development, and immediate effectiveness, Kiku-Masamune looked to Business Objects to move away from depending on paper-based data.

As Keiji Fukuda, systems manager in the company's accounting department observes, "Of course, if we'd been prepared to spend all our time trying to unearth crucial data, we could have continued indefinitely with our paper-based operations. But what if somebody needed to look at a document submitted several years ago? We simply didn't have the tools to meet those kinds of demands. With BusinessObjects Enterprise on board, however, it's a completely different playing field."

Benefits

Handa says candidly, "I've quickly discovered that business intelligence (BI) is so much more than I originally thought. The drill down capability this technology puts at your fingertips is simply amazing. Now, with just a few clicks, I can find answers to all my questions right at the source."

Handa continues, "Before BusinessObjects Enterprise, it was like we were always seeing pieces of the puzzle but never had the big picture. Now we're able to identify where changes are needed in our contracts and drill down to the information we need to use our sales resources most effectively. In fact, for the first time ever, the entire flow of our operation is crystal clear."

With these noticeable benefits, it's hardly surprising that plans are already under way to increase the number of BusinessObjects Enterprise users from the current 100+ to virtually all 500 Kiku-Masamune employees. The ultimate goal is to arm individuals with the data required to make the right decisions quickly and effectively, resulting in more profitable and efficient operations overall.

Kiku-Masamune no longer falls to pressure from competitors and emerging market trends to slash prices or compromise strict quality standards in order to win pricing wars. Instead, Kiku-Masamune uses BusinessObjects Enterprise to price its premium sake astutely, with a firm basis on hard data.

Effective information gathering and information sharing are clearly at the center of the company's newfound calm amid the storm. With a top-notch BI tool on board to guide decision making and help optimize sales opportunities, Kiku-Masamune is poised for many more years of success.

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Quick Facts

• Industry:
  Sake manufacturer and distributor
• Business pain:
  With over 340 years of sake brewing history, and a fiercely competitive marketplace, the Kiku-Masamune needed a revolutionary way to manage and benefit from its vast data stores.
• Why Business Objects?
  With easy-to-use reporting products from Business Objects, Kiku-Masamune can make decisions based on hard data - rather than pressures from competitors - to stay competitive.
• For More Info
  Visit the Kiku-Masamune website