InfoApps Support Rapid Growth at Hawkins
Company Size
200-1,000
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- WebFOCUS
- WebFOCUS Portal
- App Studio
- InfoAssist+
Tech Stack
- .NET
- J.D. Edwards
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries
- Chemicals
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Sales & Marketing
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Supply Chain Visibility
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Hawkins, Inc. is a chemical distributor that blends and manufactures chemicals and specialty ingredients for customers in a wide variety of industries. The company is headquartered in Roseville, Minnesota and operates 40 facilities in 19 states. Hawkins generates more than $400 million in annual sales, creating value for clients through superb customer service, quality products, and personalized applications. The company has been growing and adding personnel in many new locations. The company runs its business on J.D Edwards and used to rely on a 15-year-old homegrown .NET application for analytics and business intelligence.
The Challenge
Hawkins, a chemical distributor, was facing challenges with its 15-year-old homegrown .NET application which was limited in its flexibility and cumbersome to use. As the company grew and added personnel in many new locations, the legacy system was becoming unmanageable. The company was constantly writing code to add new features or new users to the application. The need for an upgrade was evident, especially with the need for future technology enhancements, such as mobile access to data. The company was looking for a solution that was more efficient, intuitive, and could be leveraged by a broader base of users.
The Solution
Hawkins selected Information Builders’ WebFOCUS BI and analytics platform to replace its legacy system. WebFOCUS demonstrated its superior ease-of-use and functionality in a proof of concept, during which the framework for what would become the organization’s new sales and margin analytical tool was created. WebFOCUS now supports a comprehensive environment, accessible to the sales teams and many other areas of the organization. Dashboards and InfoApps enable more users to efficiently retrieve and analyze information. Transactional data from J.D. Edwards applications is moved into a data warehouse, where it can be accessed by users through dashboards and InfoApps built with App Studio and deployed through the WebFOCUS Portal. Data is refreshed frequently, to ensure that users are always looking at information that is current and up-to-date.
Operational Impact
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Honeywell - Tata Chemicals Improves Data Accessibility with OneWireless
Tata was facing data accessibility challenges in the cement plant control room tapping signals from remote process control areas and other distant locations, including the gas scrubber. Tata needed a wireless solution to extend its control network securely to remote locations that would also provide seamless communication with existing control applications.
Case Study
Advanced Elastomer Systems Upgrades Production
In order to maintain its share of the international market for thermoplastic elastomers AES recently expanded its Florida plant by adding a new production line. While the existing lines were operating satisfactorily using a PROVOX distributed control system with traditional analog I/O, AES wanted advanced technology on the new line for greater economy, efficiency, and reliability. AES officials were anxious to get this line into production to meet incoming orders, but two hurricanes slowed construction.
Case Study
Wireless GPS Tracking & Security Monitoring
Enhancing the security of hazardous freight and ensuring compliance with Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration mandate that all trains carrying chemicals capable of creating a toxic inhalation condition are equipped with on-board safety monitoring systems.
Case Study
Field Device Asset Management For Chemical Company in China
Chinese chemical subsidiary of multinational corporation serves customers throughout the world. Sales offices and research and technology centers are strategically located to provide rapid response to customer requests. Just two workers were assigned to maintain thousands of intelligent instruments in three production units, so they could do little more than react to device issues as they appeared. This costly maintenance method inevitably led to unexpected downtime when a critical instrument failed. Plant management recognized the need to change from reactive to predictive maintenance for all assets, including instruments and control valves, but help was needed in implementing such a technology-based initiative.
Case Study
Industrial Workforce Mobility for Improved Safety & Operations
Huntsman Corporation, a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals, undertook an aggressive program to eliminate injuries, product defects, and environmental releases at their Port Neches facility. Termed “Project Zero”, this program required a completely mobile solution to empower operations and maintenance personnel to capture defects, track work progress and make process and safety related decisions in real-time.
