management team at Au Bon Pain's corporate headquarters was using legacy. Cobol systems in accounting and finance to pro
When someone throws data at me I go right to Monarch. Without it, it would take me two full days to create and QA a year-long forecast, but with Monarch it takes five minutes.
LORELEI FRITSCH, DIRECTOR OF PLANNING AND ANALYSIS, AU BON PAIN.
Self-Service Data Prep: Key Ingredient for Au Bon Pain’s Success Background In 1978, businessman Louis Kane wanted to make authentic fresh breads and croissants available to everyone, everywhere. Today, Kane’s vision has come to life with 300 Au Bon Pain café bakeries around the world. Headquartered in Boston’s Seaport district, Au Bon Pain has become a cornerstone of the urban scene where the world lives, works, shops and plays—in office buildings, college campuses, transportation hubs, malls, museums and hospitals. Challenge As a domestic and international café chain, both independently operated and franchise owned, data is critical for tracking payroll and making budget projections at headquarters and in its manufacturing arm. 15 years ago, the
management team at Au Bon Pain’s corporate headquarters was using legacy Cobol systems in accounting and finance to produce standard print files, but they didn’t have the ability to manipulate the data. None of the information was aggregated. It was difficult to extract insights. And the process was labor-intensive and inefficient. “We tried a number of products along the way such as free programs and some fairly inexpensive solutions that allowed you to do batching manipulations, but the interface was very specialized and basically required a programmer to use it,” said Lorelei Fritsch, Director of Planning and Analysis for Au Bon Pain.
Au Bon Pain Based in Boston, Au Bon Pain has 300 franchise and independently-owned cafes around the world where people work, live and play. Industry Retail Challenge Prior to using Monarch Au Bon Pain had no efficient way to manipulate the data, aggregate it, or extract business insights without IT’s intervention. Solution Au Bon Pain uses Monarch Complete in the cash reconciliation process, payroll reporting, labor distribution, budget planning and analysis. Benefits Today, Au Bon Pain no longer needs to rely solely on the IT department to extract data. The team can slice and dice, manipulate and aggregate the data themselves as well as glean insights quickly. Results With Monarch, Fritsch is able to produce forecasts in minutes instead of two days which frees up IT staff to do other important tasks. And the ability to extract and manipulate the data herself lets her be more efficient and accurate with her budgets and forecasts.
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When we started using Monarch to access our legacy applications, we were able to export our data history which was critical. There’s no way we would have been able to do that without Monarch.
LORELEI FRITSCH, DIRECTOR OF PLANNING AND ANALYSIS, AU BON PAIN.
Self-Service Data Prep: Key Ingredient for Au Bon Pain’s Success Solution Au Bon Pain management knew there had to be a better way, so they turned to Monarch from Datawatch. Very quickly, the team was able to do their own data preparation, without the help of IT. Today, Au Bon Pain uses Monarch Complete for cash reconciliation, payroll reporting, labor distribution, budget planning and analysis. Au Bon Pain’s accounting team plugs several different reports into Monarch on a daily basis and pulls information from legacy payroll spreadsheets, does cash reconciliations, and combines data from multiple sources. This not only gives them a big picture view of the data, it also lets them slice and dice it, do ad-hoc manipulation, and drill down to analyze a single department using different filters and calculated fields when needed. “When we started using Monarch to access our legacy applications, we were able to export our data history which was critical. There’s no way we would have been able to do that without Monarch,” said Fritsch. “Monarch is an incredible tool for budget planning and forecasts. If I want to budget for an item for a three percent global raise, for instance, I can plug that in and project out for the following year. And with Monarch we were able to build a cash reconciliation model that ensures there are no unaccounted for items.”
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“We just recently switched payroll systems. Without Monarch the cash piece would have become an IT development project since we had to get aggregated information over to the new system. Using Monarch for the data collection and formatting helps with reconciliation in Trintech. The greatest benefit is the calculated fields. Without it, IT would have had to design a system and pull data out as well, or script an automatic feed which would have slowed everything down,” added Fritsch. Results Monarch has become an essential tool that Fritsch relies on daily for budgeting, forecasts and reconciliations. It has enabled her team to be much more efficient with their time, extract the information they need quickly and reduce the burden on IT. “When someone throws data at me I go right to Monarch,” said Fritsch. “Without it, it would take me two full days to create and QA a year-long forecast, but with Monarch it takes five minutes.”
4 Crosby Drive Bedford, MA 01730
www.datawatch.com
