Hapag-Lloyd digitizes financial planning and analysis with Board

Board International, the leading software provider of an all-in-one decision-making platform that integrates Business Intelligence (BI), Corporate Performance Management (CPM), and Advanced Analytics, has transformed planning at Hapag-Lloyd. The Board platform now supports around 400 employees in their day-to-day planning activities. 

As well as its experience in logistics and impressive analyst rankings, the solution was chosen for its smooth integration into existing IT systems. With Board and the support of SDG consulting AG, the planning process at Hapag-Lloyd is now significantly faster and simpler.

Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world's leading liner shipping companies and, using 235 modern container ships, transports almost 12 million TEUs (standard containers) per year. Crossing 121 lines, Hapag-Lloyd serves more than 600 ports on all continents. 

Board stands out as being highly compatible with upstream and downstream systems

Data from 128 countries is combined in Hapag-Lloyd's annual bottom-up planning process. Consolidating this data from numerous Excel files previously required a huge amount of manual effort, especially as the data needs to be updated monthly to reflect current trends. This is why Hapag-Lloyd, as part of its digitization strategy, came to introduce a new system for BI and CPM which would make planning a much easier, faster, and more efficient process.

After an extensive assessment, Hapag-Lloyd’s management team chose the Board platform based on its strong planning capabilities and the fact it could be closely integrated into the existing IT landscape. It is now extremely easy to import and link data from the upstream systems (SAP modules and in-house solutions) into Board, which acts as a single-point-of-truth (SPOT) for all planners worldwide.

Board simplifies the alignment process between trade managers and sales planners

The activities of the sales planners and trade managers – responsible for global capacity planning – requires close and reliable coordination. This process has now been greatly simplified as Board links capacity planning directly with sales planning. Cost planning is also tied in and this is driver-based, enabling the company to simulate and predict the impact of decisions by tweaking certain criteria. 

“In a project like this it is important to get everyone on board and convince the entire organization. It is not enough if the Controlling department establishes a solution that is not put into practice by sales. Not only does a system need to provide efficiency and offer an attractive look and feel, it also needs to address the requirements of every user. This is the case with Board,” says Merle Remmel, Director of Controlling at Hapag-Lloyd.

SDG consulting supports the implementation of the Board platform at Hapag-Lloyd. In the first implementation phase, the focus was on planning. In the next phases, reporting and dashboarding will be enhanced, giving managers direct access to the KPIs on their tablets and smartphones.

Read the full Case Study here