Big Data
Standardization Software
For Inside the Enterprise
Example Application:
SAP® Material Masters & Line Items
With a special focus on all Indirect Materials / MRO
Cameron Green, Business Development Lead
Håkan Cervin, Software Development Lead
Fresh International, Fresh Software AG
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Do you have these toxic data symptoms in your company?
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Do your Purchasers mention any of these problems?...
“Our Indirect material spend is a “black hole””
?
“Surely this item could be on an e-catalogue?...”
“Our Company still purchases MRO by unformatted
freeform text and only in one local language”
“Why is the supplier name so often
in the material description?...”
“We’re struggling a bit with Purchasing Automation”
“It’s difficult to analyze
spend on services”
FFT
FFT
(Free
Format
Texts)
Contracts
BOM’s
Material Catalogue
TODAY
“How do we move
away from all this
free-format text
purchasing?”
?
Structured
Purchases
Contracts
BOM’s
Material
Catalogue
“Why are items purchased as free
text when they are already on the
catalogue or in the store”
Services
BOM’s
Services
Catalogue
WHEN?
“So few of our materials are on
Maintenance BOM’s with wellmaintained Purchasing
Information Records”
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Do your Engineers mention any of these problems?...
“Why can't I list all the similar parts together?...”
“Describe it in only 40 characters??”
“Why can’t it be easy - like Google?”
“I can't find my material...”
“I could find it if it was on the BOM...”
“The vendor sent the wrong thing…”
“Do I have duplicates?...”
“Purchasing bought the wrong #@§* thing again...”
“This description looks like Greek to me... hmmmm... maybe it is Greek”
“If I have production downtime due to missing parts once more...”
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Do your IT Professionals mention any of these problems?...
"Our users are
sometimes frustrated"
“MDM can’t do detailed cleansing
but all these other tools are so
expensive and they don’t
complement SAP’s offering"
"How many legacy materials
did you say we have to clean?"
"I am not sure of the quality, or the business ownership
afterwards if we outsource the actual data cleansing"
"I don’t want to look after any more interfaces –
even if they swear they are certified!"
IT
IT
"9 months+ for data cleansing? ...
My project is never going to go-live"
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Do your Accountants mention any of these problems?...
"Was this spend CAPEX or OPEX?"
"We can’t always prove Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) compliance...
Especially SOX 404 - internal control of financial reporting"
"Did we comply with all the import/export duties...
are the base commodity codes even correct?"
"The requisitioner in the factory chose
the wrong account again – seems they
are just choosing the top one in the list"
“Our Accounts Payable process has too much rework
- regardless of our move to financial shared services”
“Intrastat, HS and VAT returns are a nightmare
and it takes ages to close these books"
“I can't match the purchase order to the invoice – these vendors won't be paid...”
“SOX 404 - tells me to identify points at which a misstatement could occur – but many of
our materials cause misstatements”
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Are you happy with ALL of your material types?...
Businesses implementing ERP have traditionally focused on the Data
Quality of Supply Chain Materials closest to the customer: Finished
Products, Packaging etc. In many large organizations today that leaves a
large untapped seam of value in the Raw & Indirect / Non-Production Items
such as Spare Parts MRO, Office Supplies, Production Consumables and
that messy catch-all: “Other”.
FINISHED PRODUCTS
0
Since the area under the curve represents real money for your business,
significant real value has been hidden in the large number of line items.
Until recently there has not been a toolset absolutely dedicated to this job.
PACK
Flattening curve due to
credit crunch higher risk of
CapEx (Credit)
1000
RAW
Money gained per cleansed material
Most of the low hanging fruit may have already been picked…
2000
INDIRECT
MATERIALS
300000
3000
Number of Materials Cleansed over time
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Wouldn’t you like a way to “refresh” ALL your dirty item/
material masters?
“By 2013, standardized ways of describing products will prevent errors and help
manufacturers, distributors and retailers cut costs. Implementation will not be cheap,
but the payoffs will be too big to ignore” Gartner 2006.
“SAP is behind some of the competition in data quality, data profiling and associated reporting
facilities, which are important in complex product data environments that are heterogeneous in
nature. Many customers report having to refer to other tools in this area as part of their
implementations. The acquisition of Business Objects enables SAP potentially to leverage some of
the data services related to profiling and data quality, but even Business Objects' experience was
generally associated with customer data and not product data” Gartner, July 2009.
“For an engineer to consider incorporating a standard part in a new design, the
engineer must first know that it exists and be able to find it. 27% of total time is
routinely spent looking through databases and in-house libraries...18% of total
time is devoted to reentering and re-creating part information that already exists
but can’t easily be found.”
"Data visibility is the major challenge for the majority of programs despite the
significant progress of e-sourcing and e-procurement.” Aberdeen Group, Dec 2004
Our customers include some of the world’s largest companies and governments - wouldn’t
you also like to get more business benefits out of your substantial investment in SAP?
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Refresh™ can help you… right out of the box…
Automated Data Standardization for SAP materials – A fresh, new approach to this problem
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
…using the power of big data standards,
Supported by:
ECCMA
ISO 8000
NATO
UNSPSC
ECLASS
INTRASTAT
Harmonized System
… and many other excellent standards
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Easy &
automated
process
removes
barriers to
adoption of
standards
…customized and scored to make it more specific to
your industry,
Disorganized
/ 'dirty' / low
quality data.
refresh™
NON SAP
EAM/ERP
Clean data exported in exact format needed for
ERP upload (LSMW, Text, etc…)
Fresh pre-scores and
cleanses (in this
example) the eOTD and
UNSPSC matches by
your industry type and
then incorporates this
into SAP format in the
easy to use tool,
Refresh™.
Fresh also feeds back
to standards providers
for continuous
improvement and uses
membership to
standards and content
providers to stay current
International organizations update
standards e.g. the UNSPSC and
eOTD catalogues in 23 languages
through experts in 47 countries.
Data and catalogue contributions
from Fresh and other members
including over 2M real examples
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
…including expert content to work from day1.
Repeatable scoring algorithm
eOTD / ISO 8000
Scored Dictionary
Common misspellings,
& abbreviations content
‘Smart’ search engine
Duplicate proposal engine
e.g. Vendor Catalogues
Export format options
predefined e.g. for ERP
Top nouns
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
…and realistic examples & tutorials to help you get started
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
User-friendly, easy to learn, flexible and powerful to use,
Functionally Rich and Intuitive:
• User Friendly, familiar & intuitive screens, no dedicated training necessary
• Imports ‘dirty’ data directly from SAP or in a standard Excel format
• Automatically proposes potential duplicates and translates material descriptions
• Automatically spend-classifies materials to UNSPSC and your Material Groups
• Automatically re-describes short text and long text to a noun modifier standard
using unique algorithms based on a patented combination of word scoring,
translations, synonyms, standard abbreviations and dictionary settings
• Key settings are customizable, to allow the user to build more accuracy into the
tool with each use. Obscure classes are removed from the shipped standards.
• Proposes attributes from key supplier catalogues which are openly shared
• Can mine attributes from all in-house structured and unstructured texts in SAP
• Deep Global International Standards experience & content included on day 1
• Pre-Built dictionary ready to use on day 1 - no upfront specification needed
• The right person does the job quickly as part of the daily job – no extra FTE’s.
Disorganized
/ 'dirty' / low
quality data.
Technically built for lowest TCO:
• Java application running stand alone . Works with SAP and non-SAP.
• Built using the same development tools used by SAP in SAP master data
exchange infrastructure (XI) / process integration (PI) products.
• No database needed = Lower software license cost and implementation effort
• Pre-integrated with standard ERP = lower total cost of ownership
• Architecture based on deep SAP experience & low risk, plain vanilla IT
• Design mirrors the exact table field names and characteristics of SAP materials,
SAP Classification, SAP purchasing information records and bills of materials.
• Requires no additional hardware CAPEX – low consumption windows service
• Promotes the full use of your existing software footprint, especially ERP.
Cleansed
data exported
in exact SAP
format for
expert check /
SAP upload.
SAP or NonSAP EAM/ERP
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
...in all your simultaneous languages automatically,
Refresh is live today at
customers with complex
language requirements –
Global businesses with
multiple simultaneous texts.
Our software and
dictionaries are truly
multilingual; powering local
ease of use and head-office
visibility. No matter which
original language.
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Refresh™ gives you perfectly clean item data (SAP example).
Good, repeatable, nounmodifier standard compliant
structured short text –
multilingual, accurate &
commercially neutral
Structured long texts autogenerated in all languages
Always find your similar
parts in ERP whether its
through the standard
transactions or…
Optimized PO text including
attributes and part numbers
Correct Account Assignment
Verified Spend Classes –Both
Internal & External including
UNSPSC & Material Groups
Correct Commodity
Codes/Intrastat/HS
& PRODCOM codes
Automatic Technical Class &
Better BOM Assignment
Reduced Obsoletes, Reduced
Duplicates, and Optimized Stock
Levels & equivalent parts
… a Fresh Enhanced Material
Search Help. This can be found on
any ERP screen including Purchase
Requisition, Purchase Order, Goods
Receipt, Invoice Verification, across
the entire process.
Automated & Complete
Technical Characteristics,
Values and ERP UoM’s. Can
be used to generate
standard long & short texts
in materials and purchasing
inforecords per vendor
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
…and Keeps it clean for longer
Refresh acts with SAP as a “helpful policeman” at the
point of data entry. Run in SAP technology for realtime, online use. SAP is the Master Storage System.
While Clients are free to use the Refresh Algorithms &
content as it suits them, usually it is deployed as an
ABAP WebForm &/or material request workflow. Other
formats such as Z-transaction are also available.
Refresh gives powerful & practical assistance to the
material requestor during the material creation process.
Refresh Server holds helpful rules
for SAP data creation: autocorrecting, proposing, validating
and safeguarding the data at point
of entry by the business end-user.
It’s a live, electronic big data
standard at first point of entry.
Refresh does not overlap in
functionality with SAP. Standard
pre-built workflows will accelerate
your data governance project and
Refresh’s online real time auditing
checks will help your the material
requestor by proposing alternatives
& content to get it right first time.
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Isn't it time you "refreshed" your data?
Refresh is being used today in leading multinational companies to dramatically reduce the
man-hours needed to achieve and maintain perfect SAP material data.
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Business results from a typical project...
… some of which are quick wins for the
•Reduced working capital & / or operational expenses
business...
•Less false stock-outs & Reduced maverick buying
•Leveraged plant commonality - sharing of big-ticket items
•Reduced Dormant or Obsolete Inventory
•Easier searching
•Easier stock level optimization
•Better Spend Analysis
•Easier goods receipt and accounts payable processes
•Increased procurement visibility for supplier consolidation
•Data ownership and sharing enhances data quality
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Contact us
If you have any questions at all, or would like to schedule a demo
at your convenience, contact our functional and technical sales leads below:
We will be very happy to help you.
Commercial Questions, Functional Questions:
Cameron Green
+41 793883662
cameron<dot>green<at>freshinternational.com
Technical, Deployment and Architecture Questions:
Håkan Cervin
+41 797027378
hakan<dot>cervin<at>freshinternational.com
Fresh International
offices:
Fresh HQ
Baarerstrasse 78
Zug CH-6300
Switzerland
Fresh Nordics
Wallingatan 11,
Stockholm S-111 60
Sweden
Fresh UK
4-5 Bonhill St.
London EC2 4BX
UK
www.freshinternational.com
We are excited about the possibility of working together.
Thank you for your interest in our products and services.
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Company Profile & References
Fresh was incorporated 8 years ago to build the leading Item Data Standardization tool based on Big Data matching algorithms .
After initial sponsorship by a fortune 50 multinational and 3 years of R&D culminating in a patent application for its unique
process, the commercial version of Refresh is live in leading multinationals and governments globally.
A Global Footprint:
Some Key Customers:
World’s Biggest Utility Company
France. Refresh user since ‘11
1 Million materials in SAP ECC6.
World top 10 Aluminium company,
UAE, Middle East. 80000 materials
in SAP ECC6
Canada’s #2 Electricity Company
Canada. Refresh user since ’09
500 000 SKU’s in SAP to UNSPSC
in two weeks.
World’s #1 Fine Paper Company
Austria. Refresh user since ‘07
340 000 SKU’s in SAP ECC6.
Leading Global Chemical Co.
USA. Refresh user since ‘10
300 000 SKU’s in SAP ECC6 New
Project for 2011.
Oxford University, 100 000 SKU in
sciences, life sciences & research.
Live with Refresh Desktop since
2011.
Government of Canada. 250 000
materials in SAP ECC6 on around
20 sites in northern Canada.
Portugal’s Largest Employer
Portugal. Refresh user since ‘10
350 000 Materials in SAP 4.7.
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Some examples of great places where we’ve implemented Refresh
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com
Acknowledgements
SAP, ABAP, SAP NetWeaver, LSMW, ABAP WebDynpro
are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP-AG.
www.sap.com
Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo and Java are trademarks
or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems Inc.
www.sun.com
Fresh is a member of the electronic commerce code management association.
www.eccma.org http://www.eccma.org/Member_Directory/Fresh.php
Fresh is a member of UNSPSC
www.unspsc.org
See “Refresh for SAP” at
http://www.unspsc.org/unspsc_resources.asp
This presentation is the confidential property of Fresh Software A.G. - www.freshinternational.com