Tamed-down information is Raisio’s asset

Background

Raisio's extensive business operations and the growing global markets create an uncontrollable amount of information of which only a fragment is essential for managing a business. In order to manage, report and analyse information, the Group required a solution that would help the management find relevant information faster and more efficiently to support decision-making.
Raisio and Affecto began cooperation at the beginning of the 1990s when Affecto delivered a laboratory system to what was then known as Raisio Chemicals. The cooperation deepened from a customership to a partnership towards the end of the 1990s when Affecto started to develop a solution covering all business operations of the Group for collecting, analysing and utilising business intelligence. In its business operations, Raisio also utilises Affecto's document management and geographic information systems solutions.

Solution

Business intelligence solutions form the core of the cooperation between Affecto and Raisio. Raisio is a forerunner among Finnish businesses in developing business intelligence. The consultancy for company information management began in reporting and data warehouse system projects in 1999.

BI solutions were first introduced in Raisio's grain industry business group, from where their use extended through RavintoRaisio to the entire Group when the SAP enterprise resource planning system was taken adopted in 2004. Business Intelligence solutions created for Raisio by Affecto are based on the Informatica and BusinessObjects software.

Additionally, Affecto has delivered document management and geographic information systems solutions to Raisio as well as a comprehensive system for monitoring working hours. A system developed for planning and optimising the transport of Rehuraisio's bulk feedingstuffs is based on Affecto's TransGT solution framework.

Customer benefits

Development applying best practices and supporting Raisio's business processes as well as cooperation relying on the frame agreement ensure that Raisio not only has operational systems but also the related support and management services. With Affecto's IT solutions, Raisio aims to develop its business operations to achieve long-term cost-effectiveness and profitability. This is assisted by uniform system solutions within the whole group.

Markku Rastas, IT Manager at Raisio, thinks it is important that the solutions are fully utilisable by the users and that they meet the needs of sales, marketing and finance as well as those of logistics, purchasing and production.

The solution architecture of the business intelligence application area built by Affecto guides the creation of meaningful, uniform reporting. It responds to current needs but also outlines future needs, thus enabling the company to quickly implement previously planned solutions.

For its part, the TransGT transport control system rationalises and brings a map basis to Rehuraisio's transport planning and logistics. It also increases the transparency of transport cost monitoring. As TransGT is linked up with Raisio's ERP system and operates as an integral part of the overall architecture, the transport control system has also taken the Group's food industry into account.