POKOLM Frästechnik GmbH & Co. KG

Pokolm Frästechnik GmbH & Co. KG from Harsewinkel in North Rhine-Westphalia wanted time savings, transparency and convenience – and what they got were time savings, transparency and convenience. The milling tool manufacturers employees knew that they could achieve this objective by implementing new software for corporate performance management. So they chose the CP-Software Corporate Planner.

Carolin Menke and Michaela Wetzel, management accountants at the medium-sized company in Harsewinkel, are not only responsible for producing the monthly analyses and reports, but also for supplying the management with the underlying figures for the yearly plan.

Their aim was to have all the management analyses generated to the same standard, from the same source and as automatically as possible in order to spend less time producing the regular reports in future. All the relevant business figures were to be summarised and presented in a clear layout. The overriding objective of these measures was to simplify the yearly plan for all concerned.

The natural choice
To achieve this objective, the management and controlling team decided to implement the software from Corporate Planning. The Westphalians particularly appreciated the benefits of developing and displaying planning scenarios in several different data streams, “and that reports can be produced effortlessly and automatically. What’s more, all the figures can be exported to Excel quickly,” Carolin Menke and Michaela Wetzel explained, adding to the list of points in favour of the Corporate Planning Suite.

During the roll-out and in their first steps with the software, the management accountants were assisted by the in-house IT department and the Corporate Planning Premium Partner W&K Controlling. They found that having CP experts close at hand in Paderborn meant that the roll-out phase went very smoothly and communication channels were short and direct.

Together they began by preparing the ground in the existing pre-systems for importing “clean” data with an explicit account assignment to the planning and analysis software. In the data import function, an automatic structure build feature makes sure that the existing cost centre structures are transferred to the distinctive CP tree structures in Corporate Planner. The necessary structure and configuration of the databases was worked out by W&K in a joint effort with the management accountants and the IT staff. So that Carolin Menke and Michaela Wetzel would later be able to prepare the reports, analyses and plans as required without any more help, they attended a training course in the software.

Focused on what matters
Preparing the regular evaluations for Sales and Production has now become routine for the two management accountants. They can generate the analyses of the sales and relevant cost types in just a few clicks. The procedure is largely automated, which means that they spend less time on reporting, be it a question of ad-hoc evaluations for various management positions or the weekly, monthly and quarterly reports.

Instead, they are able to focus on specific questions from the executive management, for instance, by making advanced and in-depth analyses of the sales and the business environment, calculating the profitability of investments, and adding to the management accounting tools at their disposal.

Another important part of their work in which they are now assisted by the software is the preparation of the annual financial plan. On the basis of consistent and transparent historical values combined with detailed analyses and forecasts, drawing up a yearly plan has become much easier for the two management accountants. The predefined logic blocks in the CP-Finance module for integrated financial planning make the planning process extremely efficient. The POKOLM Controlling staff use these smart logic blocks in order to record future business transactions, integrate them in their plan, and produce a budgeted balance sheet, P&L plan and cash flow plan automatically. In the process, the logic blocks take account of the business logic and the interrelationships between the components of the plan, so the planning staff can rest assured that all the values are coherent and form a sound basis for decision-making.

Forward-looking
“Our objective was to deliver transparent and reliable figures to the management in less time, and we‘ve achieved that already,” Michaela Wetzel sums up. When time permits, she and her colleague try out new analysis and planning methods and functions in the software so that they will soon be able to supply the executive management with an even more comprehensive basis for decision-making. As their company motto “We know how” says, it’s easy when you know how.

About Pokolm
For over 20 years, POKOLM, which began as a classic family business in the nineties, has been supplying tool systems geared to the needs of industry from one single source. Today, around 100 employees work on a shop floor covering over 3,000 square metres. Many of these have acquired decades of experience in the production of milling tools. This depth of expertise and the modern plant and machinery guarantee consistently high quality. And this has been a long tradition at POKOLM.