SunOpta increases margins and reduces inventory exposure with QlikView
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- America
- Europe
Country
- Canada
- Netherlands
- United States
Product
- QlikView
Tech Stack
- Oracle
- IBM AS/400
- Microsoft Axapta
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Applicable Industries
- Consumer Goods
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Sales & Marketing
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
- Supply Chain Visibility
Services
- Data Science Services
About The Customer
SunOpta Inc. is a leading processor and distributor of natural and organic food products. The company operates in three business units: the SunOpta Food Group, which specializes in sourcing, processing, and distribution of natural and organic food products; Opta Minerals Inc., a producer, distributor, and recycler of environmentally friendly industrial materials; and SunOpta BioProcess Inc., which engineers and markets proprietary steam explosion technology systems for the bio-fuel, pulp, and food processing industries. Through a combination of internal growth and acquisitions, SunOpta quickly grew to become a leader in sourcing, processing, and distributing food products.
The Challenge
SunOpta, a leader in the natural and organic foods and natural health products markets, faced challenges in reporting and data analysis due to rapid growth and acquisitions. The company lacked overall visibility into companywide sales, finance, and operations. It also struggled to quickly integrate data from newly acquired or existing business units with differing enterprise software systems for shareholder reporting and strategic planning purposes. SunOpta needed to upgrade its existing disparate BI and reporting solutions, including Oracle BIEE, to maximize profitability with a daily view of gross profit performance and reduce inventory exposure and related costs.
The Solution
SunOpta deployed its initial QlikView application – division sales analysis – in only one week. With QlikView, 120 SunOpta employees can now analyze customer profitability, inventory exposure, and manufacturing costs, for the answers they need to drive corporate profitability. SunOpta immediately leveraged the invaluable data that was locked in Oracle and five other enterprise systems. The company developed its first QlikView application – sales analysis – in only one week. Beginning with basic analysis of sales by division, SunOpta continued to expand the application to include in-depth sales and revenue analysis, including actual-to-budget, year-over-year, month-to-month, and top 25 customers by product and item. SunOpta division managers use QlikView on a daily basis for instant visibility of overall sales and contribution margins, as well as contribution margin by customer.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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