AMERICA’S LARGEST DENTAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER CREATES “WOW” APPLICATION WITH COMSHARE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SOFTWARE

a-dec, Inc., leading distributor of dentistry tools, furniture and cabinets, solves its growing information management problem with Web-architected software from Comshare

The new Comshare application serves a-dec headquarters in Newberg, Oregon and approximately 80 territory and regional sales managers around the world. Comshare is the leader in Web-based solutions for management planning and control (MPC), which comprises planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, management reporting and analysis.

“I came to a-dec about three years ago, after the company had recognized the need to somehow manage the immense amount of data it was collecting, and had invested in an ERP system to contain it all,” says Keith Bearden, CIO for the company. He is responsible for ensuring consistent, compatible technical architecture and software applications to support a-dec’s business needs. “Implementations of ERP systems are typically dreadful,” Bearden continues. “They derail your company and most every company I know has spent twice what it expected and taken twice as long to get the system up and running. It’s a horrid experience and a-dec’s was no different, so people at a-dec were already gun-shy of what technology could do for them.”

Now Bearden was faced with handling the needs of a new sales forecasting and production planning system, using the latest technology. Comshare’s customizable, Web-based solution and the consultative expertise of Northwest EIS-OLAP, LLC. combined to make the winning combination for a-dec within eight months of its decision to create a new forecasting system. It has been quite a success for Bearden’s team. “Until now, the information technology group I head up was perceived as an overhead expense. Today, when our users see the new Comshare system, they typically say, ‘Wow! That’s really cool! I didn’t know I could do that!’ No one says that about the ERP system. With Comshare’s easy-to-use Web-based functionality and the development expertise of our valued consultants, we have finally delivered our users a ‘Wow’ application. Northwest EIS-OLAP, LLC. consultants were able to solve our sales forecasting and production scheduling problem using Comshare Decision, by creating a customized application to fit our needs.”

The Challenge
Employing just over 900 people with customers in more than 100 countries, a-dec is one of the largest dental equipment manufacturers in the world. The company designs and builds much of what you see in your dentist’s office, then markets its products through an extensive worldwide network of authorized dealers. The company’s primary focus is to create equipment innovations that help doctors perform healthier, more efficient dentistry — a mission the company has adhered to since Ken and Joan Austin founded it more than 35 years ago. To continue to meet that goal, the Austins knew they needed to find people who could help the company remain responsive to an ever-growing customer base in a global environment.

As a result, Keith Bearden was hired as the company’s chief information officer, and a year later, Cris Ettinger, formerly of Nike, was brought in to help the company’s sales force do a better job of forecasting. Today, Ettinger is responsible for sales forecasts for a-dec in his role as sales operations manager. Says Ettinger, “When I first came to a-dec, I found that regional managers, who were responsible for about 75 territory managers around the world, had an annual meeting where they would estimate sales revenue for the next year. Then they would guess at what that meant in terms of the actual production of chairs, lights, cabinets, etc. Remarkably, they were pretty accurate when predicting dollar volume, but when it came to forecasting the product mix we needed to manufacture, they were not even in the ballpark. Consequently, manufacturing might have long lead times and excess inventory. Conversely, they might have to work overtime to build the product within a given lead-time or expedite shipments or raw materials, costing the company a lot more money to respond to our customers’ needs. I knew we needed help.” It was time to put business intelligence technology to work for a-dec.

The Solution
“Once we agreed that our multidimensional data base would be our corporate standard, because it fit our architecture and could satisfy multiple needs,” says Bearden, “we turned to our valued consultants, Northwest EIS-OLAP, LLC., for their software recommendation. They recommended Comshare because of its Web architecture, its compatibility with mainstream database technology, and the fact that we could use it interactively as a reporting and information gathering and deployment tool,” says Bearden. “Today, Comshare is helping us use technology to manufacture the products that our customers need when they need them, while it saves us time and money.”

Says Ettinger, “a-dec territory managers communicate with finance and manufacturing via the Web. The new Comshare system enables them to communicate their sales forecasts, the product mix they need, and when they need it. The net effect is increased sales.” The application also provides territory managers with a reporting capability that allows them to be better prepared for sales calls. “The Comshare system shows the territory managers trends that can help them identify how they might be able to help dealers boost sales,” explains Ettinger.

The Benefits
In less than a year, the new Web-architected Comshare system has brought dramatic changes to a-dec and the way this multi-million dollar company serves its customers. “We knew we needed a Web-based solution for the territory managers because they are scattered all over the world,” says Bearden. “The new Comshare system is accessible via the Internet from wherever they happen to be, complete with accurate, up-to-date information.” In addition, a-dec’s production department uses the data for planning and scheduling.

It’s clear that Comshare is also helping a-dec with another goal when it comes to providing information — to remove IT from the picture. “Even though I’m the CIO and maintain a staff to support applications, my team didn’t want to be in the reporting business,” admits Bearden. “We wanted a self-service application that gave our users the information they needed without having to wait in the queue for IS to respond. We believe we’re doing that with Comshare.” As for the continued use of technology, Ettinger has nothing but praise for the new system: “When I got here, laptop computers were a fairly new tool to our team. Today, members of our sales force are very excited about what technology enables them to do. One territory manager was very resistant at first. He used to get a bundle report of about 300 pages that he’d have to go through with a pencil and a calculator, trying to pull together the information. And that could have taken all day, depending on how much information he needed to get out,” attests Ettinger. “Using the new Comshare system, with a little coaching from me by phone, he had exactly what he needed in 30 minutes. He was thrilled.”

When asked what the biggest benefit the new application is to the company, both Bearden and Ettinger don’t miss a beat: “The biggest benefit of our Comshare system is increased customer satisfaction due to the shorter lead time, so that they have the right product available when they want it,” says Bearden. Ettinger adds, “And internally, I’d say the Comshare system eased the burden of management on manufacturing. It’s a lot easier for them to plan. We had our best year-end business ever in 2000 just because we were able to look into the future, plan, create an inventory mix and have it available for our people to sell.” And according to Bearden: “From a monetary point of view, the Comshare system saved us tremendous amounts of money in overtime and inventory management and will continue to do so. In 1999, we spent over a million and a half dollars in overtime. We estimate the Comshare system came close to cutting that in half.”

Bearden sees the Comshare system as a means to accomplish great things for a-dec and its customers. “I think it’s the foundation for a more robust, successful use of information by all facets of the company,” admits Bearden. “The future possibilities are limitless. We’re planning another application to do better vendor and receipt analysis while improving raw material flow. And the finance department wants to review payables/receivables, days outstanding — all the types of information that they can look at by customer-base and geographies. It’s becoming clear that other people besides our sales force want more and more information available to them. Long term, we see this as a way of creating that enterprise-wide view of information for the people who need the information at their fingertips,” attests Bearden. “That should be the role of IS. With the Comshare system, we will deliver that.”

Northwest EIS-OLAP, LLC. is a consulting firm specializing in the development of executive information, decision support and business intelligence systems. The company combines its own development methodology with related Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) information technologies. Its consultants, on average, have over ten years of experience in designing, developing and implementing multidimensional database applications. In addition, they have significant business experience in financial analysis and planning, accounting system implementation, financial consolidation, budgeting and forecasting, performance measurement and cost allocations. For further information on Northwest EIS-OLAP, LLC. send an email to nweisolap@yahoo.com or phone: 360.905.7934.

Comshare, Incorporated is the leading provider of e-business software applications for management planning and control (MPC), which comprises planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, management reporting and analysis. Comshare’s MPC applications deliver business-critical information over the Web that can be used to make sound planning and management decisions. In business for 35 years, Comshare is one of the top independent software companies, with customers around the world, many of which are Fortune 500 and Financial Times Top 1000 companies. Comshare is a Microsoft Data Warehousing Alliance Platinum Partner, an IBM Business Partner, an Oracle Business Alliance Partner, and a Hyperion Alliance Partner. For more information on Comshare, call 1-800-922-7979, send e-mail to info@comshare.com or visit Comshare’s Web site at www.comshare.com.

CONTACT:
Sandy Ellinger
Comshare Corporate Communications
734-769-6194
sellinger@comshare.com

Comshare® is a registered trademark and Comshare Decision™ is a trademark of Comshare, Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.