GS1 Switzerland

A business intelligence solution for project planning, resource planning and personnel planning

The smart dashboard - the heart of process optimization

GS1 Switzerland enables solutions for more efficient value creation networks with the help of global standards. The association supports companies in optimizing the flow of goods, information and values and provides practical knowledge. Together with its members, it develops standards and process recommendations and creates benefits for all involved. GS1 Switzerland is a neutral association based in Bern and part of the not-for-profit organization GS1, which is active in 140 countries.

"Smart software with modular frameworks, individually scalable applications, high performance and user-friendliness are essential!" is how Florian Aeschbacher, Head of Finance and Controlling at GS1 sums up the requirements.

Last year, CoPlanner, in cooperation with its Swiss partner company OBT AG, implemented a business intelligence solution at GS1 Switzerland with a focus on Taylor-made project, resource and personnel cost planning .

Highlights for GS1 Switzerland are features in project planning that enable the project manager to perform complex, multi-year forecasts virtually at the "push of a button". For example, different cost types can be automatically allocated to an internally defined structure through a cost split stored on the project.

In resource planning, the project managers distribute the capacities of the employees in the team to the individual projects. Here, reference values from the actual hours of the individual employees are used as a basis, and at the same time the plannable annual hours of the employee are taken into account. These values are valuated with average hourly rates and then flow into the corresponding cost centers as debits or credits. Once planning is complete, the project manager marks this for all participants.

Thus, trends and bottlenecks in resource planning, keyword: "workflow", are on the one hand early recognizable and controllable and on the other hand costs can be planned specifically.

Personnel costs

Personnel costs are planned centrally in personnel planning on the basis of cost centres and cost types and overheads via project planning at project level and transferred unchanged to cost centres. In the individual rolling plans, such as course planning, the actual data is regularly transferred from the previous ABACUS system and the expected annual value is budgeted in the CoPlanner plan screen. Based on the budgeted annual value, the remaining plan months are automatically filled with data, which can also be easily adjusted manually in the individual month. The contribution margins of the individual projects result from these parameters on the basis of a calculation. This enables a quick reaction in case of deviations or new developments in individual areas.

CoPlanner Dashboard

The CoPlanner Dashboard, as the core and central control instrument, provides project managers and management with a comprehensive reporting system. Starting with the personnel resources per project, through project revenues and costs to the DB invoice, all desired values are clearly displayed. The graphical representation is underpinned by figures and gives those responsible a quick overview of where there is potential for optimisation or where active intervention is required. In addition, global reports are made available and the ten most cost-intensive, personnel-intensive and production-intensive projects as well as projects with budget overruns are shown in each case. A comment function is available to project managers for explanations of the values.

Finally, Florian Aeschbacher from GS1 Switzerland comments on the joint, efficient project implementation with CoPlanner: "We now have a tool in our hands that not only saves us an enormous amount of time and money, but also gives us much greater flexibility in financial and resource planning and evaluation. A real benefit."