At a Glance
Business Challenge
Across 15 production sites and 30 legal entities, Zoppas managed complex planning with more than 20,000 Excel files a year, creating manual work and risks to accuracy and consistency.
Business Impact
Zoppas reduced its dependency on Excel by approximately 50% and went live in under a year. Managers gained clearer visibility and more accurate forecasts.
How Board Helped
Board integrates CRM and other data into multidimensional financial planning, including cash-flow scenarios that account for product mix and customer and supplier payment terms.
Why Board
Zoppas chose Board to represent its company structure in one platform and transfer consistent data directly from its data warehouse into the P&L.
Abstract
Zoppas Industries Heating Element Technologies (ZIHET), a global leader in heating elements and systems, has adopted the Board Agentic Planning Platform to streamline and automate complex financial and operational data management. By integrating multiple international data sources into a Single Point of Truth, Zoppas significantly reduced its dependency on Excel and improved its forecasting capabilities. Board enabled unified planning and provided managers with clear, actionable insights into the company’s financial and operational performance.
Moving forward, Zoppas plans to expand the platform’s use across global subsidiaries and additional business functions, fostering enhanced collaboration and consistency throughout the Group.
The Company
Zoppas Industries Heating Element Technologies (ZIHET), headquartered in Vittorio Veneto, Italy, is a global leader specializing in heating elements and heating systems for domestic, commercial, and industrial applications. Established in 1963, Zoppas has consistently evolved, meeting market demands and innovating across diverse sectors such as automotive, food services, robotics, aerospace, biomedical, and household appliances.
With Board, we were able to achieve complete visibility across all financial, economic, and cash flow components.
Alessandro Mazzero
The Challenge: Consolidation, Simplification, and Standardization
With 15 production sites worldwide, 30 legal entities, and more than 8,000 employees, the company manages extensive complexity across multiple markets and varied production processes. Due to the diverse and complex nature of its global business, Zoppas faced significant operational challenges in recent years. Specifically, the reliance on over 20,000 Excel files annually was highly inefficient and posed risks related to accuracy and consistency.
Therefore, the company needed an integrated solution to consolidate extensive financial and operational data from various international sources, and provide managers with a Single Point of Truth. Standardizing and automating key processes were critical to reduce low value-added manual activities and facilitate accurate decision-making. Zoppas also required advanced multidimensional planning capabilities to transform medium-to-long-term forecasts into actionable insights.
The Solution: An Integrated Planning Platform
To address these complex needs, Zoppas selected the Board Agentic Planning Platform. This solution enabled a streamlined, unified approach to data management and planning, significantly reducing dependency on Excel by approximately 50%. Board’s multidimensional capabilities allowed Zoppas to transform static, spreadsheet-based planning into dynamic, automated processes, seamlessly integrating CRM data and information coming from other operational tools. Furthermore, Board improved cash flow planning by integrating variables such as product mix changes and the payment terms of specific customers and suppliers.
Roberto Dall’Armellina
One of the reasons we chose Board is that it allows us to transfer data directly from the Data Warehouse to Board, feeding consistent data directly into the P&L.
The Benefits: Improved Accuracy, Cooperation, and Efficiency
Implementing Board resulted in substantial operational and strategic advantages for Zoppas. The transition to a unified data repository increased financial and operational clarity, providing management with consistent insights and more accurate forecasts. Automating routine, labor-intensive tasks freed up resources, enabling employees to focus on strategic, value-added activities rather than on creating Excel files. Ultimately, Board allowed Zoppas to achieve comprehensive coverage of all parts of business, improving cooperation and data consistency.
Roberto Dall’Armellina
We achieved our goal in less than a year, from design and implementation to go-live.
The Future: Extend the Usage of Board to Other Business Functions and Subsidiaries
Looking ahead, Zoppas plans to expand the use of the Board platform internationally, deploying it across global subsidiaries. Concurrently, the company aims to deepen the platform’s usage at its headquarters, emphasizing continuous improvement and gradually phasing out Excel. Additionally, Zoppas wants to extend Board’s application to other business functions, including sales, supply chain management, and human resources, promoting greater internal collaboration. Lastly, the company is preparing a tailored solution for SIPA, another group company with a distinct business model, ensuring consistency and comprehensive data management throughout the entire Zoppas Group.
Alessandro Mazzero
We found Board to be the perfect support, because it allowed us to replicate our company's structure in a single tool.
