Act Faster with Real-Time Data
The Peek & Cloppenburg KG corporate group in Hamburg is shaping its annual cost planning enterprise-wide with the fully integrated planning solution Allevo in SAP. In this way, the corporate group enhances the quality and meaningfulness of its planned values - and steers its growth even more effectively. The Peek & Cloppenburg KG corporate group in Hamburg combines traditional values and core competencies such as quality, taste, or consistency with modern virtues such as a passion for innovation and vision. The result is a modern company with a 100-year history that is also well-prepared for future market developments.
Plan 100 Cost Center Groups with Excel in SAP
The growth trajectory is effectively supported by powerful IT processes. SAP ERP 6.0 ensures this. The corporate group has now also implemented IT-supported and transparent processes in cost and budget planning - with the fully integrated planning solution Allevo from Kern AG in Freiburg within SAP ERP. The current 40 end-users can plan cost types and cost center groups consistently and comprehensively on a single Excel sheet directly within the SAP system. This is possible because the SAP add-in establishes automatic bidirectional data exchange between the applications by merging the Excel and SAP worlds. "Compared to before, we plan cost types and gross revenues up to the result after trade tax for around 100 cost center groups company-wide faster and more efficiently," explains Stefan Firmin, Head of Controlling at Peek & Cloppenburg KG Hamburg. There were performance issues at the beginning. However, these were satisfactorily resolved through collaborative efforts of the project partners.
Act Faster with Real-Time Data
Once the decentralized planners or central controllers have entered their planned values and comments in Allevo, this data flows into SAP CO and is available there. Plausibility checks ensure correct planned values. Even if the planners change their values several times until the completion of planning - today, the controllers always work with current planned values. This allows them to immediately recognize deviations from budget targets and react promptly. The current status of the planning can be easily monitored with the status management of Allevo at the touch of a button. Based on the planned comments, which are transferred to SAP along with the planned values, controlling can additionally track planned costs at any time. Additional costs, such as those for special promotions in stores, can also be conveniently displayed in the application, distributed across months, and their share of total revenue calculated.
Increase Enterprise Intelligence
The seamless data flows today accelerate and shorten the planning process. "This allows us to start planning later, which makes it more accurate," emphasizes Stefan Firmin. An important aspect, as especially the Christmas business contributes disproportionately to the annual turnover. At the same time, P&C improves the quality of planning as well as the data stored in SAP. This increases enterprise intelligence and enables valid and sustainable evaluations as well as proactive planning and control of the corporate group. Analyses conducted with SAP reporting system show detailed cost developments over the last 24 months, both across the corporation, per store, and business area, such as personnel, investment, and material costs.
Plan 34 Stores in 6 Countries Uniformly
Supported by Allevo, the controlling department was able to standardize the planning processes for the individual cost center groups. These include the 26 German and currently 8 European locations as well as central business areas, such as purchasing and alteration workshops. For this purpose, central controlling provides personalized Excel layouts, known as planning masters, directly in SAP to the respective planning responsible. It is determined, for example, that a store manager only plans certain cost types, such as the gross wages of employees. The controlling department takes over the planning of other cost types and personnel costs - each in separate planning masters. Further projects are already on the agenda: in the future, Allevo will also be used for monthly management reporting. "This way, the management can steer growth even more efficiently," says Stefan Firmin.