Painting a better picture

The Davies Paints Experience

Davies Paints, Inc. is one of the leading paint and coating manufacturers in the Philippines. It employs more than 200 employees and maintains relationships with over 1,000 distributors and dealers in various parts of the country.  It has also extended its reach to some parts of Southeast Asia.

In existence for more than 8 years, the company offers a smart array of paint and coating products for exteriors, interiors, floors, special finishes, primers and sealers, wood, metal and surface preparation.

Over the years, Davies Paints has made use of business analytics reports to aid the management in timely decision making. But there have been difficulties. For example, under the previous technology, in retrieving data, even information not relevant to the requesting party was released at the same time.

“We had all the data, but there are times we needed to filter them to suit our specific requirements,” says Executive Vice President George Cua.

People with less technical background also found the exercise not user-friendly. At times, they had to call in people from the IT department for assistance, in order to perform the job.

But that was then. Davies Paints has since adopted the SmartDash Rapid Deployment System (RDS) for Business Analytics from SAP through Fasttrack Solutions, Inc. With the shift, practical improvements have been observed.

“With SmartDash RDS, we can manage data with ease,” according to Mr. Cua. “Users can customize by themselves…it is much easier to use.”

Indeed, for a company with such diverse product line and large distribution channels, finding the right Business Analytics (BA) product is key. A BA software will help identify best-selling products and how well these are doing across all channels. It gives a heads up on which customers are cutting back on purchases, prompting the company to figure out why – and then do something about it. Current and historical reports and analyses are stored and organized, enabling the company to make swift and prudent collaborative decisions. Social media sites can also be monitored to get a feel of the public’s insight into the products.  Finally, BA software also makes what-if analyses possible, determining how profits would be affected if sales increased or increased by certain percentages.

Davies Paints’ Sales Department has been at the forefront of enjoying the benefits of SmartDash RDS.  The pertinent data are accessed, and used as main discussion points during meetings.  It tells the sales people which products were sold where, what patterns are established across time, and whether quotas were met. The system also gives red flags on what immediate concerns need to be addressed.

It is too soon to quantify the benefits from using the SmartDash RDS system. For instance, since the software was implemented only recently, Davies Paints cannot yet make pronouncements as to the return on investments.

But the gains are being felt, in terms of day-to-day operations.

“Reports-wise, we have eliminated replication. We can now customize our reports more easily and it’s more real time; the information is always updated,” adds Cua. He also says that they are currently preparing to use the technology for their finance department to maximize its benefits.

In an increasingly competitive and dynamic industry, having all the information is not enough. Equally important is knowing what to do with that information and how to use it to advance the company’s goals.

SmartDash RDS does exactly that – telling companies what is working correctly and identifying potential problem areas so that corrective action can be done immediately. Choosing a BA product – as Davies Paints has done with SmartDash RDS, for instance – shows that one has to consider ease of use, ease of implementation and administration, scalability, user-interface options, and how well the BA solution integrates into the company’s existing and future platform environment.