Manufacturing
BI for Dynamics NAV

About the company

Aktieselskabet CARL CHRISTENSEN (CAC) is one of Denmark's largest internationally known auto parts retailers. The company is headquartered in Aarhus/Brabrand with additional branches in Glostrup and Aabenraa. They manage over DKK 1 billion each year and employe over 600 individuals.

Their Challenges
  • It was difficult for CAC to manage vast amounts of data in multiple systems for multiple subsidiaries
  • Reports were time-consuming and difficult to produce
  • It wasn't possible to drill down into details to get a comprehensive understanding of particular facts and figures.
How we helped
  • TARGIT automatically delivers reports to decision-makers for instant insight
  • Data is seamlessly integrated from every data source for insight into every location and overall
  • Employees have end-to-end visibility into products and customers.
With TARGIT Decision Suite, we’re now able to follow the products all the way through the system. We can identify the turnover rate down to the product level, and we can analyze and compare data.
- Asger R. Poulsen, IT Manager, CAC

End-To-End Visibility

 

Aktieselskabet CARL CHRISTENSEN (CAC) and subsidiary company au2parts wholesale auto retailers had a major data problem on their hands. With multiple locations and systems tracking hundreds of thousands of transactions, getting a comprehensive overview of the entire company as well as individual locations was time difficult and time-consuming. But every location needed that information from CAC headquarters.

The companies dipped their toes into the world of business intelligence (B) and analytics, but their former BI vendor was not able to handle the huge amounts of data. That's when TARGIT came into play.

TARGIT Decision Suite's robust BI and analytics solution for distribution was tailored specifically to fit the needs of both CAC and au2parts. As a parent company, CAC has multiple companies in addition to au2parts managed in multiple accounts across two Microsoft Dynamics NAV databases. This made TARGIT's BI for Dynamics NAV a perfect fit.

The entire TARGIT implementation was rolled out in an impressive 125 hours and spans departments throughout the company, including Sales, Open Orders, Finance, Budget, Purchases, and Inventory Management. TARGIT also seamlessly integrates with CAC's and au2parts' SuperOffice CRM solution, so users can load an analysis in TARGIT directly from a contact in SuperOffice.

Automatically Distributed Reports for Better Insight
 
CAC now creates all reports and analyses in TARGIT. Reports are automatically delivered to decision-makers' inboxes every morning with their most important KPIs, which gives everyone quick access to what they need to know to hit the ground running each day.

TARGIT delivers insight to every department throughout CAC headquarters, with specialized BI for sales, purchases, management, and IT. At subsidiary locations, both customer account managers and team leaders are everyday TARGIT users. Users use data to gauge their own locations' performance as well as benchmark themselves against other wholesalers. If they need further insight, a single click opens TARGIT Decision Suite right on their desktops to give them access to drill down and slice and dice into the numbers.

"Before TARGIT, we had to find the figures and create the reports and analyses manually, but now the system distributes the figures automatically to the different departments," says Asger R. Poulsen, IT Manager, CAC. "The fact that we can get the figures fast makes our focus much broader. For instance, we can now focus especially on the turnover rate. We are able to identify how to increase profitability in the specific departments"

Comparing the turnover rate of all product groups was a major project for CAC before implementing TARGIT. Now it’s easy for them to detect if, for instance, a wholesaler is significantly below average. The ability to quickly and easily spot the reason for performance issues helps them rapidly implement a solution. CAC can also now focus on inventory turnover rate and zero in on each customer's contribution ratio. With TARGIT, interim accounts are now also active.

"Now, we’re able to identify deviations from budget and to see where exactly it goes wrong," says Poulsen. "We can work actively with the budgets. The wholesalers have a relatively small number of reports that they use, but they really bring these reports into play, and it makes a huge difference."

Complete End-To-End Insight
 
"With TARGIT Decision Suite, we’re now able to follow the products all the way through the system," says Poulsen. "We can identify the turnover rate down to the product level, and we can analyze and compare data. Especially the purchasing department is exploring new possibilities. They can track if the vendors respect the delivery ratio, delivery times, and quantity, and they can keep track of the development in delivery times to see if we meet our expected goals and more. Before we had TARGIT, we were able to get the figures, but it took us far too long. We had a designated employee to get the analyses ready; now the analyses and figures are just ready to use.”


When a customer account manager from au2parts talks to a customer, he can now access important information about the customer in an instant. He has direct access to his BI solution through the CRM system, and he’s able to see all of the customer’s data. In this way, he’s always ready, and he has a clear and fast overview of the specific situation. This level of insight took weeks to produce before TARGIT.

Greater Insight, Greater Growth

As CAC continues to grow, the amount of data to analyze grows in tandem. Today, everyone is able to get the figures they need, exactly when they need them.

Originally published March 17, 2020. Updated February 26, 2024