Avantium is using the Tibco Spotfire DXP system as an enterprise business intelligence (BI) platform.
The system delivers real-time performance reporting and analysis across the entire company.
David Jim, group controller at Avantium, said: 'Back in early 2007 we decided that we needed a BI solution to help us better manage our business.
'Not only in finance, but also HR, sales and operations, as well as at an executive management level.
'Up until then we had been relying on monthly or quarterly reports printed out from our ERP system or exporting data to Excel, but these were historic documents and did not help our management on a daily or hourly basis when key decisions need to be made.' Avantium was already using Tibco Spotfire Decisionsite in its day-to-day research processes, and wanted to ensure that Spotfire DXP could fit company requirements for enterprise BI.
To do this, the company set up a pilot project for a number of BI systems, including Spotfire DXP, so it could compare results and delivery.
'The Spotfire DXP solution was up and running in just half a day and delivering the results we had stipulated in our pilot project requirements, which was well ahead of the other suppliers.
'Spotfire DXP also provided the best flexibility.
'So we decided to extend our use of Spotfire rather than purchase a solution from a different vendor,' said Erik Bergman, ICT team leader at Avantium.
The Spotfire system went live in December 2007 and was rolled out to management and project leaders in finance, sales, HR and operations, as well as the executive team.
Following internal consultations, Avantium set out pre-defined reporting templates and allowed users to modify them according to their specific needs.
This implementation provided the right information at the right time and in the right format, including those for more data-intensive groups that needed access to data from a variety of different departments and business areas.
The benefits of implementing Spotfire are already evident.
'We are noting a significant difference in the way that we can manage our business since we started using Spotfire,' said Jim.
'For example, there is real transparency on the sales side and it has also allowed managers to make informed decisions in real time rather than having to wait weeks before they can access relevant information and data.
