Pedders iQ Training and User Guide

FRANCHISEE REPORTING

Module 1: Pedders iQ Data Extraction and Reporting Effects

Version 1: Friday 15th October 2021

Prior to use of the “Reporting Portal” in Pedders iQ, which uses the global reporting tool COGNOS produced by IBM, it is important to understand some important general information, in particular, the data extraction process from Merlin Cobalt (old) to Pedders iQ/Pronto (new) and the effects that this has on reporting – especially historical data for comparison purposes.

Please read and understand the information below the email that was sent to current users at the time on Monday 11th October 2021.

Dear Early Adopters and Pedders iQ Support and Roll Out Team!

As we roll through the journey of the Pedders iQ/Pronto Roll out the term “every day is a learning day” is very relevant!  Part of that learning has been around data extraction and changeover and the effects of this on reporting.  We have a planned session with the Early Adopters this Friday with a priority to go through BAS calculations and payment procedures but ahead of that I thought I would like to provide some general information (brain dump) that will hopefully provide some useful information in relation to the data and reporting space. My apologies for a long email but there is A LOT of information here!

1. The Overall Priority of the Rollout, especially for the early adopters, has been that “minimum viable product” – which means a focus on critical operational activities and tasks (business critical ahead of “nice to haves”)
2. Data Extraction from Merlin Cobalt to Pedders iQ/Pronto: The extraction of data from Merlin to Pedders iQ/Pronto prioritises Stock, Creditors, Debtors, Trial balances and Pedders Part Information.

1. PZ and “some” cash sale/odd transactions: As a result of point 2 above historical PZ (or non-matched item) transactions have not been brought over. To do this and match every individual PZ number by transaction would have meant another 100 people and 10 years! Note: It is very rare in ERP changeovers to have all old data come across to the new system.
2. General Ledger: The focus for general ledger extraction and clean up (some requiring SIGNIFICANT clean up) has been to make sure that the day of go live that both systems balances. Please note that you now have a generic general ledger structure consistent with what PSAS is using and what other stores will also use. The benefit of this is general ledger (margins, costs etc) benchmarking across the group (Nirvana being “live” Bruce Thompson/Trevor Parker Conference Sessions!)
3. Please do not transact in Merlin after your go live. They are (obviously) not linked. This will throw out all your sales, debtors, financials etc. IT IS A DISASTER FOR YOU. YOUR BOOKKEEPER, ACCOUNTANT etc IF YOU DO THIS! Transact ONLY in Pedders iQ/Pronto from Go-Live

3. Cognos Reporting System: Pedders iQ/Pronto uses IBM COGNOS as its reporting system which can be accessed from the left-hand menu on the Pronto Xi home screen by hitting the top option “Reporting Portal”. IBM Cognos is one of the most widely used reporting engines in the world and is used by many of the world’s big businesses. The Cognos reporting system is controlled by strict user permissions (based off OKTA login) so that stores only see their own data and people/staff only see the data that is relevant to them. The following are the type of reports within your Cognos system.

1. Standard Reports: These are reports that have been designed by IBM/Cognos based off best practice via many businesses and many years. There are several of these “out of the box” that you will use. These types of reports are sourced from each dataset and live during operations.
2. Custom Reports: These are reports that have been slightly tweaked by Pronto/Pedders
3. “Cube” Reporting: Each store/group of stores has its own “data set” but where a multi store arrangement exists or data is required back to Head Office for Group Reporting etc a “cube” is set up which is a virtual grouped data set (think REALLY big live Excel Spreadsheet) that sits outside of Cognos that contains and crunches this data from multiple datasets and then links back into Cognos. Again, obviously, only relevant users will receive relevant “cube” data. These types of reports are updated nightly for the data from the previous day.

We will be tweaking report structures to provide stores with the right information.

4. Sales Reporting: 

1. As a result of 2a above historical sales reporting in Pronto is inaccurate.  For sales comparison purposes (for example wanting to compare post go live month to a pre go live month) you will need to take sales in merlin up until your go live date vs sales in pronto from your go live date (note – merlin reports in both ex and incl GST depending on the report whereas Pronto/Cognos is ONLY excluding GST…with the exception of debtors and other relevant reporting that needs GST included). 
2. We will continue to develop dashboards and reporting – focusing on what is critical first. There is A LOT of work from A LOT of people happening here – both at Pedders and Pronto.  Reporting (plus benchmarking) will end up being a real strength of Pedders iQ, especially when all stores are on. I am now the project lead for reporting and benchmarking working with some very clever people at Pronto.
3. Please be patient with reporting and especially historic comparisons – PSAS went through EXACTLY the same issue…. we are now 12+ months from go live which now gives us good comparison data! If the base Pronto/Cognos Reports and Information are good enough at present for our business they will be for yours.
4. At some point soon we will be shutting off your Merlin servers and returning to Merlin (otherwise we continue to pay double!). To assist you with sales reporting comparisons we are doing the following.

1. Mark Pedder and Simon Richardson are currently discussing an archival system with Merlin – but this is likely to be one user account so request for archival info will need to go via a support portal request. It’s also recommended that you run and save any report from Merlin that you will think you might ever need, prior to your server being shut down and removed.
2. Brenda Goodyear and Di Orders together with Nigel Hazell and the SOMs do a great job of providing weekly and monthly sales info (Total, Retail, Labour and Distribution) with rankings via email. I am assisting here to provide the right sales data between two systems.
3. I have downloaded (and will upload for each store at go live) key daily and monthly sales information (by price level) from Merlin from the beginning of 2018 to the go live date into each store’s MY STORE account on the Pedders Intranet. This information is contained in MY STORE/Pre-Go-Live Merlin Sales 2018-. It would be a good idea for all stores to also save any relevant archival Merlin reports in here (or somewhere) so that when your Merlin server is gone you can quickly reference some information rather than potential requesting and waiting for info from the central archival system.
4. Continued development of Cognos Sales Reports and Dashboards. Ultimately, we want a generic reporting set so that all stores are looking at the same information but also the flexibility for people to slice and dice data as they require. Again – in time reporting and business analysis will be a real strength of the Pedders iQ system.
5. Training to commence soon in regard to reporting starting with an initial session this Friday afternoon with Early Adopters, ERP Support Team, and anyone else from Head Office/PSAS that wants to jump on. (Please request link from Trevor Parker if you have not been invited)

5. General Ledger/Financial Reporting

1. As a result of 2b above historical data in Cognos/Pronto reporting for GL areas (Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Accounts Receivable, Stock, Accounts Payable etc) will be inaccurate (or just won’t exist) except for the load of info at the go live date. Obviously as you transact in Pedders iQ/Pronto this information will be accurate (or should be!) from the day you go live onwards. Obviously, priority here has been legal requirements so that BAS etc will be accurate post go live.
2. Cognos Reporting for General Ledger/Financial Reporting is very strong and you have available the same reports that PSAS has been successfully using for over 12 months. Most of these are standard system reports.
3. Again we will continue to develop reporting, dashboards etc in this space
4. For comparisons I would suggest that you start downloading any old Merlin Reports (run the report then export to excel) and save to that MY STORE area on the intranet.  This might include monthly P&L, Balance Sheet, Debtors etc for the past XX months…. just to have an archival copy for comparison purposes.
5. Training to commence soon in regard to reporting starting this Friday afternoon
6. BAS/Legal Lodgement – to be discussed this Friday lead by Trevor Parker/Andrew Schwab.

6. PZ System: A lot has been made of this and yes it seems there are more steps and is more complex than Merlin currently. This is partly due to the Pronto integrated system but mostly because of our desire to service you better with more Pedders parts and less purchases/sales of competitor parts. The Merlin system provided and easy way of selling non-Pedders parts with the use of unique PZ part numbers in every circumstance and a system that didn’t require much further information to proceed.  The new system is designed to provide critical information about type of product, supplier, reason for purchase, supplier part number, cost etc so that we can get better reporting to provide Pedders parts at better margins for you in the future and is standardised so that the end user is not required to create new item codes each time & adhere to Pronto mandatory inputs to do so. I am told by Lex Gelmi and other users that although cumbersome at the start the PZ process becomes second nature after the first few weeks. Thanks in advance here for your patience with the new process and your commitment to expanding YOUR brand over your competitors.
7. Errors and Glitches: And finally, please accept my apology for errors such as the Workshop iQ GST issue and the post Oct 1 price change.  I would be lying if I said this will be the last issue – particularly as we continue to maintain two different databases (Merlin/Pronto) which sometimes require different inputs/controls to administer. Pedders iQ is a REALLY complex beast and we will continue to find and iron out bugs and issues along the way that will become smaller and less frequent as we all (Pedders and Pronto) mature with the system
8. Continued Support Structure, Training, Comms etc: Lots going on in this space so standby for further updates.  We thank our early adopters in advance for being the first, on the ground advocates for the new system.

Thank you again for your amazing commitment, patience, and support of a new and completely different ERP System. The journey ahead will continue to be littered with potholes but with the calibre of the people on this email anything is possible.  I am really, really excited about what the future holds with Pedders iQ as we begin to move out of the “minimum viable product” stages and start to utilised advanced functionality to enhance our combined businesses.

Yours Sincerely,

Scott Pedder | Managing Director

Tel +61 3 9706 3500 | Fax +61 3 9706 6737 |

25-29 Letcon Drive, Dandenong South, Victoria, Australia 3173

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