PETROQUÍMICA TRIUNFO

	It would be difficult to find another solution on the market that serves all the corporate management levels.
Gil Carvalho de Freitas, IT Manager, Petroquímica Triunfo

From a fragmented IT structure to an integrated solution. Data input operators transformed into authentic business analysts. For Porto Alegre, Brazil, petrochemical firm Petroquímica Triunfo, the adoption of SAP solutions constituted a milestone that marked its ability to control and generate information more reliably and efficiently.

It all started in 1998 when the producer of chemicals for the plastics manufacturing industry decided to scan the market for a solution that could integrate its internal processes. The trigger was dealing with the millennium bug, but Gil Carvalho de Freitas, IT manager at Triunfo, was already considering replacing the decentralized in-house tools with a solid system that could serve the entire company’s needs.

SAP Solutions Justify Investment

The choice came down to SAP. According to Freitas, “One of the points that caught our attention at the time we were making the decision was that the investment by SAP in research and development was equivalent to the annual revenue of the second-place company.”

Triunfo implemented SAP ERP software and worked on finetuning its business management software until the arrival of the SAP NetWeaver platform, which was adopted in November 2005. The initial version of the software was implemented with the support of an SAP partner, MultiVision, and then updated in 2003 with the support of SoftTek. In March 2005, migration to the next version of the SAP ERP solution did not require external support.

After adopting SAP NetWeaver, the other solutions were gradually implemented, such as the SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI) component and the SAP Strategic Enterprise Management (SAP SEM) application balanced scorecard functionality, both of which have been integrated into the new platform. The plan is to update all the SAP solutions rapidly so that the migration to SAP NetWeaver can be finished in eight months.

	One of the points that caught our attention at the time we were making the decision was that the investment by SAP in research and development was equivalent to the annual revenue of the second-place company.
Gil Carvalho de Freitas, IT Manager, Petroquímica Triunfo

Petroquímica Triunfo’s investment in SAP exceeds BRL 1 million (€ 0.4 million) per year. In the next three years, a total of BRL 3.5 million (€ 1.4 million) is expected to be invested. Freitas justifies the increase by explaining, “It would be difficult to find another solution on the market that serves all the corporate management levels.” The investment has proved money well spent. “Today our IT costs are the same as before adopting SAP, but we obtain much more valuable benefits,” says Freitas.

Addressing Operations, Tactics and Strategy

The evolution of Petroquímica Triunfo’s IT management involved three phases, which addressed operational, tactical, and strategic concerns.

The first phase, the implementation of SAP ERP, served to define the best business practices and rules to improve operations. “Previously, each data entry operator input data into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets in his or her own way, leading to variations in data pertaining to the same information. This in turn led to large numbers of errors, and the information was unreliable,” points out Freitas. Today it is possible to ascertain precisely when data was produced, in what quantity, and for which client.

Another example of significant improvement is the monthly balance sheet; this previously took up to 15 days to be completed but now can be consulted on the second working day of each month. “The rules are essential to control the data. For us, this proved a huge benefit in methodology, given that people dealing with transactions have to produce consistent, reliable, and transparent work, complying with the business rules of the company,” adds Freitas.

With operations addressed, Triunfo embarked on the second stage for IT management: the quest for organizational efficiency. A tactical component was necessary, and for this Triunfo chose SAP NetWeaver BI and SAP SEM business planning and simulation (BPS) and balanced scorecard functionality. Now company managers, coordinators, and business analysts can analyze information collected in all areas, from the factory floor to the financial department, both inside and outside the company, via remote access. This represents a tremendous leap ahead in Triunfo’s business management capabilities.

Strategic Planning Enabled Across the Company

Petroquímica Triunfo began to use SAP NetWeaver BI in 2002, and it was fully up and running in 2003. In 2005, the entire integrated IT management project based on SAP was fine-tuned across all levels of the company.

	There is a lot of talk about operational efficiency to obtain a leading edge; for us this is evident. Organizational efficiency will give us a competitive advantage. To achieve it, one requires a management model, qualified staff, and necessarily a business intelligence structure, like SAP NetWeaver BI, which enables top management to manage the performance of the organization.
Cezar Augusto Mansoldo, Managing Director, Petroquímica Triunfo

With SAP SEM balanced scorecard functionality supporting strategic planning, the executives and directors can use the range of information generated in the operational and tactical phases to draw precise growth targets for the company, controlling the pace – and thereby fulfilling the third, strategic stage of the Triunfo plan. “One of the strong points of BPS is that it makes simulations possible. At any time, it is possible to know exactly what impact an increase in a given production line will have on the company margins, for example,” says Freitas.

Accessible Information for Operational Efficiency

With the SAP system, the business vision has become clear for managers, who are now able to access any data from the production and sales cycle quickly, with a time lag of only four hours. The next step is to achieve real-time data, which will be possible with new analytics functionality, implemented in October 2005.

“There is a lot of talk about operational efficiency to obtain a leading edge; for us this is evident,” says Cezar Augusto Mansoldo, managing director of Petroquímica Triunfo. “Organizational efficiency will give us a competitive advantage. To achieve it, one requires a management model, qualified staff, and necessarily a business intelligence structure, like SAP NetWeaver BI, which enables top management to manage the performance of the organization.”

SAP NetWeaver has proved its worth to Triunfo over the last two years. At the current strategic stage of the project, the company is making IT a business driver – “IT embedded in business,” as SAP puts it. “When the users have access to timely, reliable information, the log-in becomes an act one does not just to ‘find out’ but rather to ‘carry out,’” concludes Freitas.