Capana accelerates Conaxess' Qlik-based BI solution

 

For the international trading company Conaxess, having up-to-date access to the latest knowledge about their market and products is crucial for their success. The company had a Qlik-based BI solution, but it was slow and unreliable - until Capana was contacted and got the system back on track.

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"Initially, we had a custom-built, cube-based BI solution, but we had replaced selected parts of it with a Qlik-based solution three years ago. We chose Qlik because we had the impression that it was a powerful BI tool, but the new solution did not address our frustrations. It was slow to use, and it did not provide us with the information we needed in our daily operations. It often felt like we were not speaking the same language as our previous BI provider," explains Thomas Hammelev-Wethje, former project manager and current IT manager at Conaxess.

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"Before you say goodbye to Qlik, talk to Anders Frost!"

 

The sentiment among all the company's BI users was clear: If the Qlik solution couldn't be improved, they would have to find another system. Thomas Hammelev-Wethje received a recommendation for Capana's founder, Anders Frost, through his network, and it soon became clear that Capana was the solution to Conaxess' BI challenges.

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"At our first meeting, Anders presented Qlik as he believes it should work in a company like ours, and he showed concrete examples of what a well-functioning Qlik solution could do for us, and it was a real eye-opener. Anders has a deep understanding of Qlik, but perhaps even more importantly, he has a strong business understanding and an understanding of our company's needs and challenges, which provided a solid foundation for our collaboration from the very beginning," says Thomas Hammelev-Wethje.

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Capana started working on Conaxess' Qlik solution in early 2017, and soon after, the Qlik solution began delivering the value that Thomas Hammelev-Wethje had expected it to provide.

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"Capana has significantly improved the performance of our BI solution. It is stable, reliable, and fast to use, and it is flexible and easy to customize through parameters and filters, so each employee has direct access to the information they need," he says, adding:

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"We have about 20 daily users at the management level who receive customized reports with a clear snapshot of reality, where the performance is compared to our budget. The solution is an important tool in our financial management. In addition, we have about 40 operational employees who receive automated reports with daily inventory levels, sales figures, etc., through Qlik NPrinting, and both groups are extremely satisfied."

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"Myself and the other managers in the company use the primary functions of Sales, Finance, and Order Inventory on a daily basis, and we are currently in the process of implementing the Cash Flow function. The system gives us a good overview of our business and enables us to optimize it in various ways," says Kim Engmark, adding:

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"The solution allows us to identify areas where we can focus our attention to change certain trends or optimize, for example, sales. This overview gives us the ability to take quick action in our daily operations. Therefore, we are currently discussing the possibility of extending our BI solution to more employees in the purchasing and planning departments – this is likely to happen during 2017, once we have found the right approach to ensure value creation in these departments as well."

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To be rolled out internationally

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Thomas Hammelev-Wethje's clear goal is for the BI solution to be a central part of Conaxess, not only in Denmark but on an international scale.

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"Right now, we are testing the solution in Denmark, but the intention is clear that it will be rolled out in the Nordic countries and then across Europe. Our business model is based on having the latest knowledge about our market and products, so it is crucial that we have fast access to accurate information. Our new Qlik solution will facilitate the intake of new tasks and enable us to analyze our figures and businesses, making us even better at solving our tasks. Additionally, Qlik is an extremely adaptable system, easy to adjust if our requirements change, which often happens in a trading company like ours," says Thomas Hammelev-Wethje.

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Meeting needs - and challenging the status quo

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He particularly highlights the ability of Anders Frost and Capana's other BI specialists to quickly and thoroughly understand the BI needs of each manager and employee - and to fulfill them perfectly.

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"They are truly skilled at understanding the needs of each role and how Qlik can address them, so we have a solution that delivers the necessary insights to, for example, sales, logistics, key account managers, etc. Business insight is essential when you need a system like this, and Anders Frost and Capana have it fully, both technically and in terms of delivery. From the beginning, we had a very good alignment of expectations and established some excellent parameters for how the collaboration should proceed, and it has exceeded all expectations," says Thomas Hammelev-Wethje.

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But Anders Frost and Capana don't just work to fulfill the company's needs - they are also not afraid to challenge the status quo if they know that certain needs can be met in different and better ways than the company has done so far.

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"We actually had a pet peeve, which was that we were used to creating the same report in six different versions for our managers, but Anders convinced us that it is better to create a core report with tailored bookmarks and filters for each manager. It streamlines our work because we are working from the same numbers, so we have a common foundation to discuss, but each of us sees it from the perspective that is relevant to our specific area of responsibility," explains Thomas Hammelev-Wethje, concluding:

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"Anders and Capana have become an extremely valuable sparring partner for us in the development of Qlik for the company, and our CFO has even hired them to assist with other business tasks as well. In short, the collaboration with Capana has been an absolute success story for us so far."