Hauling Efficiency: Route Transforms Planning and Reporting
Route Group transformed its financial and operational planning, automating Board Pack reporting and reducing month-end effort
The Route Group is a diversified holding company with operations across Southern and East Africa, including subsidiaries such as Palfinger, Shacman, Visual Branding, Route Quest, BPI and several property companies.
Within Route Management (Pty) Ltd, the group houses brands including SA Truck Bodies, Henred Fruehauf, Trailer Parts Engineering, Route Components and Fruehauf Components. The group manufactures trailers, tankers, specialised trailers and solutions for various applications, as well as axles and parts. It also operates a nationwide parts retail network serving logistics, transport, agriculture and mining, and provides equipment financing solutions.
To support its growth and operational efficiency, the company needed a more streamlined and effective approach to financial planning and reporting. The goal was to enhance visibility, reduce manual effort and enable faster, more accurate decision-making across its finance function.
“Venn Cubed helped us turn hours of manual work into minutes - our planning and reporting has never been this efficient.”
Richard Wiegand, Route Financial Manager
Budget Cycle reduced from 3 months to 2 weeks
Automated consolidation and reporting cut manual effort, reduce errors, and speed up the budgeting process.
Board Pack Generated in Seconds
Automated reporting delivers instant Board Packs, improving timeliness and consistency.
ERP-Driven Reporting
Financial reporting now comes directly from the ERP system, eliminating manual spreadsheet adjustments and ensuring one consistent, accurate version of the truth.
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The Route Group’s finance department was facing several challenges that were impacting efficiency and accuracy.
The reporting of financial statements and preparation of Board Packs were highly manual, repetitive, and time-consuming. Finance staff had to perform extensive number crunching each month and consolidate data from all cost centres manually, increasing the risk of errors. The budgeting process was also lengthy and labour-intensive, requiring multiple iterations with little automation support. Additionally, data was siloed across departments, making it difficult to gain a consolidated view of financial performance and slowing down decision-making.
A Scalable and Automated Planning Solution
Route Management partnered with Venn Cubed to implement IBM Planning Analytics, creating a scalable and fully automated financial planning solution. The engagement began with the aggregation of multiple data sources into a single source of truth, laying the foundation for accurate and efficient reporting. The Monthly Board Pack was then streamlined and automated, delivering immediate efficiency gains and significantly reducing manual effort.
The budgeting process was optimised and fully automated within IBM Planning Analytics, dramatically shortening the planning cycle and providing greater flexibility in forecasting. Comprehensive data structuring and documentation ensured a smooth transition, allowing the finance team to focus on analysis rather than repetitive spreadsheet work.
Change management challenges were successfully addressed through extensive user training and ongoing support, enabling the finance team to fully adopt the new tools and processes.
As a final enhancement, ReportWORQ was implemented to optimise last-mile reporting and user licensing. This allowed the group to automate complex Board Pack reporting and other outputs, ensuring consistent, reliable, and repeatable reporting for all stakeholders.
Greater Efficiency, Accuracy, and Focus
With IBM Planning Analytics and ReportWORQ in place, Route Management transformed its financial operations. The budgeting cycle became significantly faster, while monthly reporting was automated, reducing errors and improving confidence in results. Importantly, reporting now draws directly from ERP systems rather than manual spreadsheet adjustments, reinforcing a true single source of truth. This ensures complete, reliable financial information is available to stakeholders, enhancing visibility and decision-making.
By replacing time-consuming manual processes with automation, Venn Cubed enabled Route to achieve greater accuracy and efficiency. The finance team is now able to dedicate more time to analysis, forecasting, and supporting business growth, while leadership benefits from timely, accurate insights.
