Affecto customer reference

CASE: OUTOKUMPU
BOOSTING PROFITABILITY
MANAGEMENT

Operating in 30 countries, Outokumpu

is divided not only by areas of industry, but also into manufacturing and
service units. Before stainless steel
products reach the nal customer,
they have been honed to perfection in
a number of different units. Pinpointing the actual costs per customer or
product has thus been challenging.
Protability information has readily
been available on a local unit level, but
not regarding the entire supply chain.
Consequently Outokumpus take on
total costs has been rough at its best.
Cost transparency and
a clear outlook on protability
In 2007 a vertical protability system
project (VPS) was launched at Outokumpu. The goal was to make the vertical protability of the entire production chain transparent covering every
step of the way from raw material to
the end customer. With VPS, Outokumpu could move from concentrating
on local transfer prices to considering
actual costs accumulated in the entire
production chain.

OUTOKUMPU SHORTLY
Outokumpu is an international stainless steel
company. Our vision is to be the undisputed
number one in stainless, with success based
on operational excellence. Outokumpu
operates in more than 30 countries and

Outokumpus VPS project included

a number of initiatives: modelling of
unit costs (cost drivers), information
consolidation, carrying out reports,
change management, training and
nally moving from project stage to day
to day business operations.
Affecto was in charge of both creating Outokumpus VPS reporting environment and implementing the reporting practises. With VPS, Outokumpu is
now able to obtain detailed insight of
not only unit protability, but also the
protability of individual customers and
products, and get an across-the-board
picture of how the overall protability
of the supply chain is developing.
First, cost models and invoice data
are entered into the system, after
which users can efciently utilise this
data to create a range of reports and
analyses. Outokumpu analysts and
managers are given access to information through the company intranet
depending on their needs and can thus
make full use of the data in their decision making processes.

VPS brought Outokumpu decision

makers much more detailed business
information, Antti Saarela,
VPS expert, Outokumpu

employs some 8 000 people. In 2008,

the Groups sales were EUR 5.5 billion.
The Groups headquarters are located
in Espoo, Finland

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Affecto customer reference

Ease of use
Outokumpus requests for their VPS
were all but simple. The company
needed a versatile range of reporting tools and, moreover, information
analyses needed to be set up to accommodate the needs of professionals examining the data from various
different perspectives. According to
Outokumpus VPS Expert Antti Saarela,
ease of use was a top priority.
Information analyses from various
points of view were enabled by creating
an intuitive user interface layer. To support accounting standards, an online
documentation system was developed,
which allows the end user to see how
each key gure or measure has been
calculated.

Once the VPS project stage was

concluded in the beginning of 2009, a
Vertical Protability Ofce, VPO, was
set up with the task of stabilizing and
further developing the system and
expanding its use through training,
change management and leadership.
In the future Outokumpu intends to
make VPO a permanent part of its
nancial management organisation
and keep developing the system based
on user feedback.
Affecto was in charge of developing
Outokumpus VPS systems reporting
environment using Cognos Business
Intelligence tools, and implementing the reporting system in cooperation with Outokumpu experts, August
Associates and Astrada.

Longsighted development work

With VPS, Outokumpu decision makers
have access to wide-ranging business
information. They are fully aware of
vertical protability gures and can
make use of detailed data regarding
the protability of, for example, different business units, geographical locations, product groups and customers.
Now, information is created to
support decision making. Hence we
are able to identify the most protable products or other best business
options, says Saarela.

SOLUTION
Vertical Protability System, VPS. Affecto
was responsible for both the development
of Outokumpus VPS reporting environment
using Cognos Business Intelligence tools
and implementing the reporting system.

CUSTOMER BENEFITS
Across-the-board, detailed business information:
- Protability gures of the entire order-delivery
chain
- Information of the protability of different units,
customers and products

Affecto is Scandinavias largest Business

Intelligence solutions provider. Business
information management solutions enable
and enhance the utilisation of organisational
information in decision making and management. Affecto also creates process enhancing and simplifying operative geographical

information (GIS), and enterprise content management (ECM) solutions. Affectos headquarters are
in Helsinki; subsidiaries are located in Finland,
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania,
Latvia and Poland. The company employs 1,000
professionals. www.affecto.com

AFFECTO FINLAND OY
Atomitie 2, 00370 Helsinki
www.affecto.
info@affecto.com
tel. 0205 777 11

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