Daishowa-Marubeni International Prophix Case study

Daishowa-Marubeni International
Prophix
Case study
Quick facts
Industry
Manufacturing (process)
Company overview
Operating since 1969
Annual revenue:
$400 million (CAD)
www.dmi.ca
fibre requirements for its pulp mill in Peace
River. The company manages these lands
Employees: 300
DMI’s month-end financial
processes consistently required
members of their corporate
accounting group to work
overtime while managing several
inconsistent spreadsheets. By
using Prophix to eliminate their
reliance on spreadsheets, DMI
now produces month-end
consolidations with ease and has
established efficient budgeting
and reporting processes that
integrate seamlessly with their
Microsoft Dynamics G/L.
on a sustainable basis for the purposes
G/L: Microsoft Dynamics GP
of commercial harvest, reforestation,
wildlife habitat, and ecological diversity.
ROI
Recognizing the problem
• Reduced preparation
time for month-end
reports by 14 hours
Relying on a number of inconsistent
spreadsheets, DMI’s forecasting and
budgeting processes caused frustrations
for their corporate accounting group
and wasted valuable company time.
As a result, monthly forecasts were
virtually unattainable, even with the
accountants working overtime at the end
of each month. A series of complicated
spreadsheets that did not (and could not)
Background
integrate with DMI’s G/L package left the
company without enough
Daishowa-Marubeni
International
Ltd. (DMI) is an
integrated forest
products company
first established in
western Canada
in 1969. Today,
the organization’s
bleach kraft pulp
mill in Peace River,
“With a totally hands-off
approach, we are able to
import costs from our G/L,
run the processes, and then
at month end produce reports
without having to manipulate
the data.”
—Marvin Baker
Senior Accounting Advisor,
DMI
detail for reports. It fell
to the staff to manually
enter data. “The overtime
required to make up the
month end was quite
large, so it was almost
impossible for that person
to meet the deadline
unless they stayed and
worked twenty-hour days,”
Alberta ranks as
says Marvin Baker, DMI’s
one of the top ten pulp producers in North
Senior Accounting Advisor.
America. DMI manages 2.9 million hectares
“Everything was solved through overtime;
of Forest Management Agreement (FMA)
they worked until the job got done.”
timberlands in order to supply most of the
A second major challenge involved the
lack of consistency when developing
• Reduced report distribution
time from 8 hours to
1 hour each month
• Saved 7 hours for
the aggregation
and consolidation
of monthly data
• Reduced time to
perform intercompany
eliminations by 87%
• Eliminated a week’s
worth of budget template
changes, which DMI now
processes in minutes
• Significant time savings for
analysis with full visibility into
all facets of DMI’s finances
Daishowa-Marubeni International
new spreadsheets. Add in the increased
streamline their reporting. “With a totally
turnover during the economic downturn and
hands-off approach, we are able to import
establishing efficient procedures with multiple
costs from our G/L, run the processes, and
spreadsheets became almost impossible. The
then at month end produce reports without
company’s management of two businesses,
having to manipulate the data,” says Baker.
harvesting wood and manufacturing pulp,
“We’re also able to export changes and
further compounded the problem.
import them back into Great Plains so that
Why Prophix
we have a closing entry in our G/L. We don’t
have to type in costs or statistics; we can
Baker noticed a few key elements that
do all of that automatically. It cuts down
set Prophix apart. As he explains, “[Other
prep time from 20 hours to six or seven.
applications] couldn’t handle payroll,
We’ve also increased our accuracy and
the hardwood harvesting operations,
consistency, given the fact that the data is a
and the G/L as well as Prophix. We do a
lot more protected than in the spreadsheets
lot of consolidations at month end and
to which we had become accustomed.”
they didn’t have the ability to do that in a
In addition to reducing overtime and
timely fashion. Prophix was able to handle
making their team of four accountants
what we wanted to do, and it integrated
more productive, Prophix affords DMI’s
well with our Great Plains system.”
accountants the opportunity to evaluate
Implementing a solution
their organization’s finances with complete
visibility into the company’s operations.
Baker says that DMI’s implementation
Baker says that he cannot overestimate
experience was positive. “The consultant
the value of the forward-looking view that
was knowledgeable, helpful, and easy
Prophix provides. “With the way that the
to work with. He kept what could have
market and economy have gone, we want
been a stressful situation pretty stress free.”
to be more on the ball with our future costs,
The company oversaw a fairly aggressive
so we’ve been able to create detailed
roll out that started at the beginning of
monthly forecasts.” DMI used to base their
February and had Prophix fully implemented
predictions on the previous month’s data;
by the end of March. Baker notes that
now the company turns data around in six
the consultant made sure to ask DMI’s
working days, which provides them with
accountants what they wanted the
a significant competitive advantage.
system to achieve and he consistently
tailored his work to meet their needs.
Benefits
Prophix
Case study
Future plans
“More Prophix!” Baker exclaims. He notes that
he hopes to get managers more involved
DMI has saved an impressive amount
in using the product directly. “We plan to
of time with the Prophix solution. The
expand Prophix into the organization and get
accounting group automatically imports
more people using the solution,” he says. It
all costs and statistics directly from their
sounds like we can expect more time savings
Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains G/L, and
and informed financial decision-making
then runs a series of processes to allocate
from this busy and successful company.
and consolidate these figures in order to
© 2012 Prophix Software
350 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Suite 1000
Mississauga, ON, Canada • L5B 3J1
1-905-279-8711 • www.prophix.com