Honam Petrochemical’s Quest for better Management Reports

List and describe the information requirements of HPC’s new management system. What problems was the new system designed to solve?

Honam needed reliable reports that could accurately measure management performance and provide useful, accurate information for increasing sales and reducing costs. Executive decision-makers wanted up-to-the minute reports that they could view quickly on their desktops. They wanted access via the Web or their mobile devices. They also wanted access to enterprise-wide data that could be shared easily across various business units and functions to support the company’s expansion geographically and by product line.

The problem’s Honam wanted to solve included outdated reports. Then individual managers were processing and manipulating data to make their departments look better to senior management. The report data were also outdated and only presented periodically. Executives also did not want to be overloaded with unnecessary data.

To what extent were ‘people” problems affecting management decision making at HPC? What were some of the management, organization and technology that had to be addressed by the new system? How did the system’s designers make the system more “people-friendly”?

To what extent were ‘people” problems affecting management decision making at HPC?

Individual managers were processing and manipulating the data to make their departments look better to senior management. The report data were stale and presented only on periodic basic. Executives at the chemical firm wanted access to the data before they went through manipulation or processing. They didn’t want each department’s own interpretation report thus delay the report to management. The executives wanted anytime access to the most time data but they did not want to be overload with unnecessary data, so they could focus on the “watch-up indicators”.

What were some of the management, organization and technology that had to be addressed by the new system?

Issue that need to be addressed by the new system such as, up to date information can be shown during the meeting to ensure all discussions and decision making are based on the consistency and timely review of the data. An executives can access the data at any time to get a more accurate and timelier picture of how their organization is performing without any outside interpretation. Other than that, there is no longer do top level decision makers for example to send their staff members on data-hunting excursions. The staff should know data is available and how to get it to expedites their decision making process.

How did the system’s designers make the system more “people-friendly”?

The system’s designers need to make the system more “people-friendly” by develop several things such as, develop web access from multiple location, required training on how to use the system, develop well designed and user friendly screen and data entry forms, simple and easy to updates, easy to troubleshoot and efficient.

What role did end-users play in developing HPC’s new system? How did the project team make sure users were involved? What would have happened to the project if they had not done this?

End-users appear to have had quite a lot of input into designing the new reporting system. The information systems team asked executives to list existing reports they were already receiving and to assess the usefulness of each. Executives were asked if there any additional reports or data from which their organizational groups could benefit. The findings were very useful in determining the right set of reports and dashboards for Honam executives.

To encourage users to start working with the system, the information people visited various manufacturing plants where the system was being rolled out and had in-depth discussions with executives about the systems’ benefits as well as how to use it. It’s because the information systems team involved users at the beginning and asked for their input, executives were much more likely to adapt to and use the new information reporting system.

What other steps did HPC take to make sure the system was successful?

HPC used a phased approach in implementing the new system. HPC waited until the company was experience with ERP software and confident in its data quality and its data collection and processing methods. HPC CIO, Jong Pyo Kim also emphasized the important of benchmarking with other companies in the industry before designing and implementing an executive facing system. Most manufacturing want to access to similar data and performance indicators.

What types of system-building methods and tools did HPC use for building its system?

SAP Business objects Dashboard is a drag-and-drop visualization tool designed to create interactive analytics for powerful, personalized dashboards based on SAP’s business object business intelligence platform. Business object tools can be used for performance management, planning, reporting, query and analysis, enterprise information management and provide self-service access to data from database and excel spread-sheets.

SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence is an ad hoc query, reporting and analysis tools that is used to create queries or use existing reports, format retrieved information and perform analysis to understand trends and root causes.

What were the benefits of the new system> How did its change the way Honam ran its business? How successful was the system solution?

Timelier decisions – Reduces time needed to collect, process and track data for decision making. Other than that, delivers timely information and various analysis to end user.

Personalized delivery of information – provides options for Early Warning System of data alerts that allows differentiation and personalized delivery of information for executives, managers, and front-line employees.

Measurable watch-up indicators across all business areas – Ensure consistency of information and establishes structure for global sharing of information. Increase business competitiveness through increased use of global information system.

Improved accessibility – Display data management cockpits, or widgets and provides unstructured details and analysis also leverages visual graphics to improve readability.

The benefit was immediate such as Executives no longer are limited to sanitized, stale data in outdated presentation format. Management also can made a discussion and decisions based on timely consistent and accurate company wide data.