Supernova Award Category

Data to Decisions

The Problem

Before going live on Host Analytics in late 2013, PS Logistics transferred trial balances from its McLeod ERP software into Excel. In addition to being time-consuming, the manual data transfer caused downstream issues as new accounts were added. Compounding their challenge was the goal to double their business by 2018, making their Excel-based processes even more unsustainable. A typical monthly close would drag on for three to four weeks, while year-end auditing with on-site auditors took up to eight weeks. The finance department was hindered in its ability to analyze the finances for potential savings or growth opportunities and spent a disproportionate amount of time running reports that would take days to produce. The small IT team didn’t have the internal resources to improve the processes and its recommendation was to introduce a cloud solution.

The Solution

The problem was clear, but the solution wasn’t. The company could either hire a lot more people to manage the close and financial processes faster – or it could invest in a software solution that would not only speed things up but would also integrate operational data to improve the reporting and allow the company to become more proactive.

PS Logistics initially favored an on-premises software solution, but soon realized it would lead to infrastructure costs and additional maintenance overhead that would impact the IT team. The company evaluated ten solutions before selecting Host Analytics’ cloud-based EPM platform, which financial controller Dwight Lloyd described as “an eye-opener” that was “light years ahead in terms of user interface, user platform and financial reporting.” The company praised how Host worked to earn the business, by giving them transparent access to current customers.

The results

The Host Analytics implementation has literally revolutionized PS Logistics and the way it operates. The Host Analytics platform was live at PS Logistics within weeks and quickly providing tangible benefits.

The modernization of the company’s financial management and consolidation systems led to a drastic reduction in the once-tedious close and consolidation processes. A close process that once took up to four weeks could now be completed in 5-7 days. A year-end audit that once consumed as many as eight weeks could now be completed in less than a week. Reports that once took days to run could now be produced within minutes.

As a result, the company was able to reallocate resources to focus on analytics and collaborate with operational teams to monitor metrics such as miles per month, maintenance cost per mile, empty or partial load truck impact, and cost per recruited driver. This real-time data enables PS Logistics to immediately identify and address issues.

Metrics

As previously stated, the benefits of shifting to Host Analytics’ cloud-based platform were immediately recognized. The results include:

• Faster monthly close and auditing: The time for the company’s monthly close has been reduced from four weeks to one week. The time spent on the year-end external audit has dropped from eight weeks to one or less.
• Insightful operational reporting: Reports that took days to prepare can now be generated in minutes, instead of days. And because the reports can combine financial data and operational metrics, the company has been able to quickly discover real savings opportunities, notably around fuel – a key element to the business that, because it’s subject to market swings, makes it important to monitor and react in near real-time.
• Data-driven cost savings: Robust multi-dimensional reporting has allowed PS Logistics to unearth previously hidden insights. In one example, the team identified $2.4 million in annual savings after using Host Analytics reports to surface issues with its fuel surcharge model. The company also identified discrepancies in its ERP system’s mileage data which conflicted with truck- based GPS data, leading to significant fuel cost savings.

The Technology

Host Analytics Enterprise Performance Management Platform for Budgeting and Reporting

Disruptive Factor

Since the implementation time was so short, PS Logistics was able to start looking for business opportunities much faster than anticipated. The much shorter close times—cut by 80%—also gave the team ample time to search for and identify new and creative ways to increase company profitability.

For example, the cost of fuel is obviously critical to PS Logistics’ profitability, and although much of the cost of fuel is passed to customers in a surcharge, any discrepancies directly hit their bottom line. But by using Host Analytics, the team could quickly run robust, multi-dimensional reports, model different scenarios, explore various plans, and instantly review resulting forecasts. Focusing just on their fuel surcharge, PS Logistics also identified conflicts in their ERP system’s mileage data versus their truck-based GPS data. The combined discoveries resulted in a savings of $2.4 million.

The ability to easily create new models changed the status quo for PS Logistics and signaled a paradigm shift for the entire trucking industry. With this traditionally conservative industry being slow to adopt new technologies, especially cloud-based solutions, the success of PS Logistics was eye-opening. Others in the industry quickly recognized the inefficiencies and friction created by spreadsheets and other antiquated technologies, and realized that they, too, could drastically improve their own financial processes.

Shining Moment

At this time, Dwight at PS Logistics has been acknowledged by his team. We wanted to bring his work to you to begin to formally recognized for transforming how the trucking industry approaches.