Guinness Anchor Berhad Taps Into IBM Business Analytics To Boost Productivity

LAS VEGAS .- Guinness Anchor Berhad (GAB), Malaysia’s leading brewery, has tapped IBM (NYSE:IBM) business analytics and performance management technology to significantly improve its decision-making process and business productivity.

GAB, the leader in Malaysia’s beer and stout market with a 57% market share, sells well-known brands such as Tiger, Guinness, Heineken and Anchor. Despite its success, the company found that a collective total of 480 hours were spent by employees daily, gathering information for budgeting and planning, which took valuable time away from focusing on business objectives and driving revenue-generating activities.

Furthermore, the previous solution in place required significant manual work, impacting data accuracy and slowing down information delivery to key decision makers. GAB’s budget planning process was heavily reliant on spreadsheets for information gathering, analysis, scenario planning, and what-if analysis. This resulted in very slow responses to stakeholders’ requests for information, which when available, lacked sufficient details and accuracy for real insight into how the business was performing. In fact, company management estimated that an additional $3 million dollars worth of business opportunities could have been realized each year, had decision-making been more efficient.

With IBM business analytics, the entire budget planning process is now automated, eliminating potential errors arising from manual spreadsheet entries, ensuring that all information is accurate and can be quickly sent to stakeholders across the organization. The new analytics system also empowers budget-holders by giving them more control via continuous weekly or monthly reports while enabling scenario planning and what-if analysis of flexible rolling and profit and loss forecasts. IBM is also helping GAB better track performance against strategic objectives, and guarantees the quality and accuracy of financial numbers for timely, sustainable compliance.

GAB staff can now spend more time on revenue-generating activities such as special promotions and new product branding, leading to higher productivity. “Because the new system frees up departments to focus more on their primary functions, staff morale has improved,” said Ms Chan Mieng Chaan, Financial Planning & Decisions Support Manager, GAB. “We have also significantly cut down the planning cycle time from three months to two weeks and now have the visibility to see more clearly where the business is headed when compared with our business goals and forecasts. This new insight will better lead us to adapt plans and targets accordingly, to ensure we are on course with our growth plans. Furthermore, we now have more time for analysis.”

By using IBM business analytics and performance management solutions, GAB has achieved a smarter and more transparent information system. Equipped with a single version of the truth, the company is now better able to maximize collaboration across departments and organizational levels, ensuring agility in responding to market challenges and opportunities.

“The financial department of every organization needs smarter ways to drive profit and growth enterprise-wide. Analytics can free the office of finance from the burden of spreadsheet-based processes and help establish an efficient process of informing employees of mission-critical information that drives effective decision-making across the organization,” said Vincent Ler, Country Manager, SWG, IBM Malaysia.