Combining sales and financial planning into a single platform at Jacobs Douwe Egberts

Jacobs Douwe Egberts is a global agribusiness group specializing in coffee and tea. Founded in 1753, JDE develops and markets a range of coffees in over 80 countries, generates annual sales of more than €5 billion, and employs more than 12,000 people. The Group has a No.1 or No.2 market position in 18 countries in Europe, South America, and Australia.

In France, JDE is the leader of the category with its brands Senseo, L'Or, OR EspressO, Grandma, Jacques Vabre, Maxwell, and Tassimo.

Its main activity in France is the sale of coffee to retail customers (GMS food), but JDE is also involved in selling to the professional market (such as gas stations and hospitals).

The project

The project at JDE covers commercial steering and financial management in a single tool.

Commercial Steering

Board is used by the Key Account team to manage the annual negotiations. It allows them to:

• Simulate negotiation options
• Consolidate the progress of negotiations in relation to the initial budget
• Analytically manage all customer investments by category (local agreements, international agreements, promotional investments, etc.)

Board also supports the S&OP process (monthly review of the plan) and the discussions that take place each week:

• Translation of volume plans into values for the teams
• Management of product/customer mix
• Pilot pricing strategy with the actual and forecast volumes by product/customer as input
• Easing the exchange of information between different services.

Financial Control

Board allows:

• Valuation of plans by segment, brand, and customer
• Profit steering up to full P&L (real + forecast)
• Budget comparisons and reporting

The solution

Board was chosen in addition to SAP for the first commercial module, which was delivered in three months, and for the secondary finance requirements.

The implementation of the Board solution was as follows:

• Two separate and independent environments: Sales & Finance
• One unique dataset sourcing from the S&OP process = one version of the truth
• One platform for the exchange of pricing conditions
• One redefined process for forecasting

In terms of resources, the Board solution is utilized by the following users:

• Sales: Key Account team and Strategic Revenue Management
• Finance: Management Controllers
• One Administrator

The benefits

Following the relatively rapid implementation of Board (in just three months), JDE now benefits from a single database to manage all customer investments, saving time and enabling the removal of multiple tracking Excel files.

The tool enables an immediate translation of volume movements into value, while alerting management and enhanced analysis provide full transparency of the situation. 

Access to key information by customers has been simplified, Key Account teams have more autonomy to manage their P&L, and all teams appreciate the customizable nature of Board's screens which enable them to see the financial impact of all their decisions.

Finally, the unified nature of Board, combined with the control processes put in place, guarantees the accuracy and alignment of operational and financial information between the finance and sales teams.