The situation. Syngenta is a world leader in sustainable agriculture with more than 26,000 employees in about ninety countries. Its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore runs a research and development laboratory developing new agricultural technology for the region.
The challenge. Reports from the Singapore team arrived in whatever format each executive chose, so management could not properly track the progress and performance of laboratory activities or drive improvement initiatives. Compilation was manual, accuracy could not be verified, and numbers were only available when reports were submitted at period end.
How KMS was chosen. Another Syngenta office overseas already used Qlik and recommended it. KMS gave a live demonstration and showed that a browser-based, cross-platform interface would let a management team constantly on the move enter and retrieve data from desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. That accessibility became the deciding factor.
What KMS built. A Qlik deployment on Excel files, Oracle and MySQL that gives users a cross-platform way to enter data anywhere and produce standardised reports, with drill-down into the key performance indicators of the laboratories. The whole implementation, including live usage and enhancements, took two months, at a cost the client called reasonable and without significant user training.
"After listening to the issues that we faced, KMS was able to provide us a clear and customisable solution. The rich graphical interface, combined with its powerful drill-down capability and flexibility of QlikView offered by KMS makes it one of the best BI solutions I have encountered." — Lim Kian Hong, Product Specialist, Syngenta Singapore
Results. Standard reports give management an accurate picture of laboratory progress at a glance, and it takes an estimated 40 percent less time to give management the information it needs. Time saved on manual reporting has reduced manpower cost and put the team's attention back on research, and the client reports cost savings on R&D from more accurate spending decisions.