Varian, Inc. is the leading worldwide supplier of scientific instruments and vacuum technologies for life science and industrial applications. The company operates manufacturing facilities in 14 locations in North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim.
Sharing information with all employees
For Varian Inc., one of the Worlds leading manufacturers of scientific instruments, vacuum technologies, and electronics manufacturing, the company’s data from their SAP R/3 operational backbone is becoming increasingly important. The 200+ employee organization needs this information on a daily basis for decision making and ad-hoc analysis. Previously sharing such information was slow and complicated. In fact, the Varian IT department and the CFO had been working for a month to create a sales trend analysis using Excel when a TARGIT reseller made a sales call to the CFO. The reseller met with Varian and demonstrated TARGIT Business intelligence Suite and its ability to collect all information from SAP R3 and other data sources. One week later, Varian purchased the TARGIT solution.
Less complicated than other BI tools
Varian had examined other Business Intelligence solutions, but found TARGIT to be the obvious choice. According to IT Manager Manith Mok, one of the key differentiators over SAP and other BI vendors is TARGIT’s usability.
"We looked at Cognos and Crystal Reports, but found that TARGIT is a lot easier for our users to learn. It has all the functionality we need, but is much less complicated". Furthermore, Varian’s global profile made Internet connectivity a high priority for Mok: "Our employees can get access to our data anywhere, anytime through a web browser – this is not an option in SAP R3".
"We save money using TARGIT"
Today, TARGIT is widely used by Varian’s management for sales trend and financial analysis, and it delivers timely information to employees in both production and sales. Mok states that "TARGIT is capable of providing meaningful information, and it gives the user the ability of drilling into the data. This wasn’t possible in SAP R/3 using the two-dimensional reports".
However, getting meaningful data is not the only advantage. "It takes less time to develop a report in TARGIT compared with the two-dimensional reports that were hard to get in SAP R3. We save money using TARGIT," adds Mok. Moreover, the implementation and maintenance of the TARGIT solution - that caters for the business intelligence needs of the users - is undertaken by a single person. A task that was earlier carried out by several consultants working full time. By utilizing TARGIT, Varian significantly reduces the lead-time and reporting manpower hours needed to make competent decisions based on quality data.
