Taking reporting and forecasting to a higher level

To improve reporting and forecasting, Aviapartner has implemented the SAS reporting and planning solution, SAS® Financial Management. This solution gathers data from Aviapartner's various source systems and organizes it for reporting purposes. The new system, which has entailed only a minimum of changes to the existing IT environment, allows end-users to generate reports over an Internet portal. Information is more accurate and consistent, and decision-making has vastly improved.

SAS INCREASES EFFICIENCY OF DECISION-MAKING AT AVIAPARTNER

Handling aircraft turnarounds at 31 airports

Aviapartner handles ticketing, check-in, luggage transport, aircraft loading and unloading, and loadsheets for passenger flights. It also takes care of air cargo handling, including warehousing and administrative formalities. The company is active at 31 airports in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Italy. In 2008, it handled over 34.4 million passengers, 284,000 aircraft turnarounds, and 1.4 million tons of cargo.

Business decisions based on group-wide intelligence

To report on their business performance, station managers at each of the 31 airports regularly provide activity reports and forecasts to headquarters. “Getting consistency into our reporting system was a considerable challenge,” says Koen Dils, International Project Manager at Aviapartner. “Previously, we produced reports from seven operational source systems. One system produced an individual report for the number of handled flights, another for the turnover per customer, one for the costs of personnel, and so on. In order to have an overall view of the business, we had to manually combine the data from multiple  eports into a single Excel sheet. This was not only timeconsuming, but also resulted in regular typographical errors and missing files.”

Aviapartner decided to look for an integrated reporting system that would centralize all financial and operational data. The company also requested a KPI dashboard capable of providing management with an instant overview of the business in order to make rapid adjustments when necessary.

Reduced time and effort when producing reports

"SAS provided us with a user-friendly platform that could be implemented on top of our current source systems," notes Dils. "Because SAS connects easily with other systems, our source data providers did not need to change the way they were used to input data. The principal difference is that now the information from all source systems is automatically combined into a single data warehouse. SAS gathers the data
from the data warehouse and rearranges it in a way that greatly facilitates reporting and forecasting."

It is no longer necessary to put together reports from seven different source systems. All the information is now available over a secure Internet portal where users can request a wide range of predefined reports. It only takes a few mouse-clicks to produce a report whereas before it took business controllers a week or more. The time that the SAS platform has freed up can now be used to analyze figures in greater depth and develop improved action plans.

Greater reactivity to market changes

The reports can be requested at group level, but also by region, by country, by airport, or even by customer. Dils reports that because all data now comes from a single system, the reliability and accuracy of information has greatly improved.
SAS also enables a closer follow-up of the business. With the new system, formal reports can be produced weekly instead of monthly, as was previously the case. This increased reporting frequency enables
management to react more rapidly to market or price evolutions. The speed of decision-making is further improved with the system's KPI dashboard. In a single overview, decision-makers can identify the priority issues to focus on. They can also immediately access a specific figure themselves, whereas previously they had to wait for the operational systems staff to provide the data they needed.

Uniform forecasting

Users can select parameters to create forecasts through the centralized forecasting sheet on the portal. The system allows for the forecasting of flight and cargo volumes and prices, required staff and productivity levels, as well as resulting revenues and costs — for the coming months, or even years. These forecasts are essential for Aviapartner in preparing budgets for customers and to steer their business.

Previously, the level of detail in forecasts varied greatly from one airport to another. With the new planning system, all forecast reports are uniform. They all include the same type of information in the same layout. In addition, the built-in approval workflow makes it easier to follow up on the progress of the forecast. This document is printed on 100% recycled paper. Only recycled fibres were used in the production and all residual products from processing the used fibres are also recycled. Producing paper from recycled fibres generates major savings in resources, both in terms of energy and water. Because of the weekly updates of data, forecasts can also be adjusted more swiftly following such things as the addition of a new customer, the loss of a customer, or changes in prices.

Credibility entails greater focus

The reports are managed centrally in SAS Financial Management by a team of power users. This central management ensures consistent report layout and updates. It also provides flexibility in adapting reports. Besides standard reports, power users can easily build ad hoc reports to answer specific management queries. "In addition to increased reporting and forecasting efficiency, the information has
become much more credible," concludes Dils. "There is less time spent discussing the source and more time available for discussing the most appropriate actions to undertake. The solution has clearly taken our business monitoring to a higher level."

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