Exact Software: Business analytics solution soothes international growing pains for Alltech Biotechnology

The good news for Alltech Biotechnology, a leader in the animal feed industry, was rapid international growth. The bad news was that in the meantime, the Lexington, Ken.-based company's number of major databases had grown to 60.

Alltech uses perishable products, so it's essential for managers to track supply numbers and inventory expiration dates to avoid wasting labor and resources.

Alltech Biotechnology is using a business analytics solution from Exact Software to track supply numbers and inventory expiration dates of perishable products to avoid wasting labor and resources.

To gain those capabilities, Alltech chose the Exact Business Analytics 4.6 (EBA 4.6) solution from Exact Software. The solution enables users to formulate and analyze sales, production, inventory, and financial reporting.

Within 30 days, Alltech had EBA 4.6 up and running—with sales, margin, and basic inventory analysis on approximately 60 databases. The company then expanded the implementation to other business areas, and, within 90 days, had enterprisewide reporting and analysis capabilities.

Today, using EBA, an OLAP cube is created and sent out to personnel at local, regional, and global levels to show which products are going to expire within the next 30, 60, 90, and 120 days, says Eric Piersol, manager, MIS Global Business Applications Group, Alltech. Users can then drill down to see which lots at which location(s) are affected, and take appropriate action. This prevents product from expiring—which leads to rework, or worse, disposal—saving Alltech both time and money, Piersol says.

Alltech also significantly reduced financial reporting cycles—from 45 days to 20 days—and improved close times by more than 50 percent, Piersol says.

“Exact Business Analytics creates a financial hierarchy right out of the box so we're able to view budget amounts and revisions, financial information, and audits for the current year—as well as from previous years,” Piersol concludes. “The direct result is that using EBA 4.6 makes us more proactive, informed, faster, and efficient.”

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