Meijer finds the right budgeting & reporting solution with Infor

Meijer finds the right budgeting and reporting solution with Infor MPC

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Published on the 27/01/2009 | Written by Infor

AT A GLANCE

Meijer, Inc.

INDUSTRY

Retail

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

Replace spreadsheet-based planning and reporting systems with one that would store data in one place and make information much more accessible.

SOLUTION

Infor MPC

THE BENEFITS

Enhanced reporting
Improve the quality of financial reports

FOR MORE INFORMATION

INFOR
W: INFOR
T: +61 2 9021 7100

PARTNER CONTACT

EMDA
W: EMDA
T: +64 9 921 6600 or
T: +64 3 343 0023
E: info@emda.co.nz

Grand Rapids, MI-based Meijer, Inc. operates more than 170 retail supercenters consisting of 40+ departments across the midwestern United States…

The company wanted to replace its spreadsheet-based planning and reporting system with one that would store data in one place and make information much more accessible for users.

Meijer, a 20-year M Series customer, considered several vendors but ultimately chose Infor MPC as a single application that would house data centrally, enable immediate web-based access to information, and enhance reporting capabilities.

Central repository needed
Jeff Powers, director of financial reporting at Meijer, noted that feedback from the business areas helped Meijer determine that its existing financial reporting processes needed to be changed.

“The business areas were asking if they could have more data, as well as get it in a more standard format and in a central spot,” he said. ”We used to distribute profit and loss statements in hard copies. The information was available electronically but not via a web delivery method.

“Our budgeting process was done completely in Microsoft Excel and Access,” he continued. “It wasn’t directly connected from a reporting standpoint into the financial reports, which is what the business areas needed and wanted.”

Powers knew that a central repository for data had become a necessity. “We wanted to have our operating results in the same place where our plans were,” he said. “Having a web delivery piece was crucial in order to provide easy access for our users.

We also wanted to get rid of the spreadsheets and be able to slice and dice the data automatically within the tool itself. ”

Data integration a key factor
Meijer’s finance and IT teams worked together to determine the process by which a software vendor would be chosen.

“We set up a series of demos with several vendors,” said Powers. “We asked the same questions of all of them and focused primarily on planning, but we also wanted to be able to dovetail that into the reporting side. We knew we wanted to have one database for all of our information instead of multiple databases, and we wanted to be able to import data in and out of it. We also wanted to be able to drill through and out of the database into supporting documentation, and we wanted the web view. Finally, we were concerned with how quickly we could develop the new system and get it up and running.”

Meijer whittled down the initial group of products to three, and from there selected MPC.

“Our filters during the evaluation process centered on cost, number of databases involved, and ease of data integration,” said Powers. “We were also concerned with the reliability and track records of the vendors and their products. Infor was our choice and we felt comfortable that the data integration with our M Series general ledger would go very smoothly.”

The implementation began within eight weeks from the time of purchase and the first set of profit and loss statements was published within six months.

Enhanced reporting, lower costs
Business area users can now go to the web for the information they need. As they sign onto the web, they see messages about the availability of financial reports, key scorecards, or other information posted by the finance team.

“Our 200+ users are happy to be able to go to a central spot, pull the information, have it immediately go into Excel if they want to work with it, and be able to pull the past history,” Powers noted. “They can page through their profit and loss statements and drill into further detail that supports the individual P&L lines, and they can flip between actuals and budgets.

Their ability to drill into the support data eliminates some of the emails that we would have sent to them manually in the past so they’d have their backup data. Now they have it right in front of them.”

Becky Vanderploeg, corporate accounting team leader, noted that she’s had a positive experience with Infor’s customer support group every time she’s worked with them.

“The AnswerLink system and the customer support staff are excellent,” she said. “They are very timely. As soon as a case is posted, I get either a phone call or a web response. We also had a group come to our site to help us determine how to get our process to run and consolidate and report as quickly as possible, which is very important to us given our three-day close.

Overall, AnswerLink’s performance has been fantastic.”

Powers noted that Meijer often tests new processes, products, or store layouts and designs.

“We use different stores as laboratories to test these new processes or layouts and we are always asked to show what the performance was before, during, and after one of these tests. Obviously, the system that we use has to be fairly nimble to allow us to create that type of reporting,” he said.

Concluded Powers: “The package that we bought had to enable us to improve the quality of our financial reports while driving down costs. From an accounting department standpoint, we needed to be sure going forward that we would be able to be more efficient in producing financial statements. MPC is going to allow us to continue to increase the amount of reporting that we do, in a timely and efficient manner, yet still be able to hold down our costs in the process. That will be even more important to Meijer in the future as we continue to grow.”