ally Consulting, a company specializing in IT consultancy and smart solutions for business 4.0, supports Protec, an Italian company that deals with the design and production of filtration systems, protections and high-tech accessories for machine tools, in the process of renewing the ERP management system and in the adoption of the Business Intelligence solution.
Since its foundation in 1995, Protec has been able to innovate so much as to convert itself from an artisanal reality to an important point of reference for the industrial sector. The vocation to the customer has allowed the company to delve into every need and then propose appropriate solutions and production processes, fully respecting the typical criteria of the Industry. The company boasts great experience in the manufacturing sector, thanks to a structure and know-how at the complete disposal of the customer and to modular, customized and highly innovative solutions, which allow it to support the technological evolution of the market.
Protec needed to equip itself with an advanced management system that would support it in its growth path, with an approach that was more linked to the review of processes and internal organization and allowed better control of the management and costs of orders to make operations more efficient.
With the support of ally Consulting and the implementation of the Infor CloudSuite Industrial (CSI) ERP solution, a highly performing software rated as the best management software for discrete production for functional coverage suitable for the SME sector, Protec completed the company reorganization project within the timescales defined with the ally partner, going live in January 2023.
In detail, the ERP project was divided into 3 macro phases:
– Mapping: collection of requirements and creation of the prototype model
– Realization: user training and data migration support
– Go Live: shutdown of the old system and start-up of all company operations on CSI
All phases were managed in close collaboration with company stakeholders, including ownership and end users guided by the PMs and Business Consultants of ally Consulting divided by functional areas. During the analysis of the requirements, the need emerged to interface the LANTEK laser cutting programming software and the ARXivar documentation with CSI, and the CADLINK software for Excel was also introduced which facilitated the direct loading of the bills of material onto CSI.
The new solution has brought significant improvements, allowing the company to optimize all processes, correctly manage warehouse transactions, plan purchases and production loads, manage bills of materials and production cycles, including Italian-style assets, treasury and electronic invoicing. The key to the success of this project was the active collaboration of the owners, who decided to invest in IT while also focusing on the value of people who have always placed at the center of their success. The accurate analysis of needs and the implementation of targeted scheduling software has led to more efficient management of business planning to accompany the company through the transition and resolution of challenges.
At the end of the ERP go live, Protec continued its digitalization process with the inclusion of the business intelligence solution. The project involved three phases: the first consisting of a recovery backup of the history from the previous management system for the analysis of marginal sales; the second, the construction of a Business Intelligence (BI) on the new CSI management system and the third, concerning the finance part. All implemented with the contribution of ally Consulting's partner, DataSmart (team of data and report analysts) with the mission of changing the operators' work habits as little as possible while ensuring full automation of the collection and processing system.
The objectives included the analysis of the various orders, to track the margin created by each item as well as the trend of the orders cataloged by type and trend and the management control for the progress of the orders, to obtain the best margin declined on each item. An interview activity was carried out with the customer to collect information on the general needs for reorganization of the business in which the data collected refers to customers, articles, market analyzes and orders (to whom it was sold, by product family and type). The second phase of the activities involved intelligence processing with the development and cross-referencing of data to obtain the optimization of costs and margins. Finally, a customized dashboard was created that can be run on the internal server and accessible to all users.
For the construction of business intelligence, a server environment was created at the customer's site where DataSmart was installed; thanks to this architecture, Protec can monitor KPIs in real time and have a complete picture of the company's financial situation. Furthermore, the use of PowerBI allows you to obtain interactive reports and graphical views of the data, facilitating the understanding and analysis of the results. Thanks to the integration of financial statement data in the DataSmart finance module, the customer can obtain a detailed view of the company's financial performance and make strategic decisions based on accurate and reliable data.
“I
n Infor and ally Consulting we have found the ideal partners capable of designing and creating a tailor-made management system, perfecting and making all company planning of work fully reliable. We were thus able to continue our virtuous path on the path of innovation" is the comment of Riccardo and Tommaso Viola, owners of La Protec.
"We are proud to count La Protec among our clients, reconfirming ally Consulting's solid positioning in the sector, thanks also to the valuable partnership with Infor. The Infor CloudSuite Industrial solution leverages modern technology to help companies create the efficiencies they need today to achieve their future growth" he declared Paolo Aversa, Managing Director of ally Consulting.
The two companies are currently collaborating in carrying out an important and complex analysis of the data deriving from the difference in machinery and tools used in the department by multiple people and to reproduce the cost of the final bill with all the costs included: from the product, to the materials used up to the personnel costs.
