Obj ects of Innovation At the 2010 Americas’ SAP Users’ Group Fall Focus conference, SAP BusinessObjects customers showcased how they run better with the help of the software. Asics, Harley-Davidson, and Under Armour each had a compelling story to tell that underscored the critical role SAP BusinessObjects plays within their overall business strategies. From planning and consolidation to master data management and analytics, SAP innovation was on full display.

1. 64 cOSMOS SAP SPECTRUM 4 /2010
oBJeCts of
InnovatIon
At the 2010 Americas’ SAP Users’ Group Fall Focus conference, SAP BusinessObjects customers showcased
how they run better with the help of the software. Asics, Harley-Davidson, and Under Armour each
had a compelling story to tell that underscored the critical role SAP BusinessObjects plays within their overall
business strategies. From planning and consolidation to master data management and analytics,
SAP innovation was on full display.
Author: Tim Clark
Harley-Davidson: More than Motorcycles
The iconic brand and business that make up Harley-Davidson a new release of the business intelligence solution in October
span beyond high-ticket motorcycles. The company retains to meet information demands. The company also plans to im-
a credit and banking business to lend to consumers, retail plement SAP dashboard software for company executives so
shops, licensed products, and a parts and accessories arm. they can obtain a consolidated view of how business is doing.
According to Jim Keene, global systems manager, global in- “As demand increases, we’ll look to exploit and optimize our IT
formation services for Harley-Davidson, “This is why analyt- infrastructure,” says Keene. “We have to maintain an ‘always
ics and business intelligence is so important. All of these lines on’ environment due to mobile demands and the need for em-
of business require relationships with customers.” ployees to always have the freshest queries.”
In the past two years, Harley-Davidson has seen an in- As for best practices when dealing with analytics and busi-
crease in a “pull” for information across its enterprise, espe- ness intelligence, Keene says it’s important to establish exper-
cially around repossessions, given the challenging economic tise in how the business interfaces with business intelligence.
environment. “Even though business was bad, the need “It’s an incredibly important skill set to build up in the orga-
for information was great,” says Keene. As a long-time SAP nization. It’s not always easy to translate what the business
BusinessObjects software user, Harley-Davidson upgraded to wants to do into a final product.”

2. SAP SPECTRUM 4 /2010 cOSMOS 65
asics Runs with a consolidated plan
As a leading designer and manufacturer of running shoes, across departments,” says Hsu. “The user-friendly UI looks
athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories, Asics struggled like an Excel interface but it’s more robust for users. Now they
with its stock keeping unit (SKU) count, which was growing can easily calculate additional values in micro and macro envi-
rapidly each season. Without active style filtering or real-time ronments.” Hsu also says that SAP BusinessObjects Planning
ad-hoc reporting, Asics’ planning cycle was cumbersome at and Consolidation enables extensive reporting functionality.
best. In an effort to reduce its planning cycle, provide exten- Asics accounting, for instance, is able to distribute reports
sive reporting functionality, and create a collaborative envi- quickly and easily to the Web, which reduces the large amount
ronment for users, Asics turned to the SAP BusinessObjects of memory that e-mail attachments consume. Asics can also
Planning and Consolidation application. The results speak produce complex financial statement packages on the fly;
for themselves, as Asics was able to reduce its planning cycle what used to take accountants a few days to produce now re-
by 50%, from three weeks down to one and a half. But that quires five minutes. Following the successful deployment and
was just the beginning according to Brian Hsu, the special- adoption of the SAP software, Hsu says Asics will be upgrad-
ist at Asics on the SAP planning and consolidation software. ing to the next version of the application in the near future.
“We developed a streamlined process and increased synergies
Under armour Has a plan for Demand
Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, Under Armour (UA) plan is in place, the planning and consolidation application is
has integrated its planning systems to include the SAP Ad- like a vegimatic,” says Roberts. “It can slice and dice data any
vanced Planning & Optimization (SAP APO) software, the SAP way you want it.”
BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation application, and Roberts says that before it deployed the SAP application,
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards software to expedite period generating revenue targets and budget was a painful and ardu-
closing and enhance analytics around profitability. According ous task. Today, UA is able to generate these reports in under
to UA project manager Dave Roberts, the company drafted too two weeks, a significant improvement over its prior process.
much inventory, which put a squeeze on the company’s profit UA sales executives can now get the details they need to tell a
margins. To address this challenge, UA needed to ensure that compelling story to customers about sales trends. “Now, the
demand for its myriad products was prevalent. As a result, a sales executives track how well they execute against the plan
statistical forecast was built into SAP APO that housed a sales via the data extracted from the software,” says Roberts. “This
plan by customer instead of SKU, style, or color. “Once the same data is used for our quarterly earnings calls.”

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