Challenge 23. “Streamlining the process of preparing and monitoring the sales budget”

Challenge 23. “Streamlining the process of preparing and monitoring the sales budget”

Smurfit Westrock Sangüesa is an industrial plant specializing in the manufacture of MG Kraft paper for packaging, food, and industrial applications, with a strong focus on international markets and high standards in terms of customer service, reliability, and operational efficiency.

Currently, the process of preparing and developing the sales budget —which is broken down by customer, product SKU, volume, and price—is highly labor-intensive and involves a significant amount of manual work. We operate in an environment characterized by a large number of customers and a wide variety of products. There are no predefined pricing tables, so each transaction is negotiated individually, incorporating specific terms tailored to each customer and application.

The budget must be structured in detail, allowing for the planning and tracking of sales by customer, product, and time period (monthly), including key information such as projected volumes, selling prices, and commercial terms. In addition, multiple departments—sales, production, logistics, purchasing, and finance—are involved in the process, which increases its complexity.

In addition, the budget should include relevant information on various types of costs, such as transportation and raw materials, in order to analyze profitability by customer, product, and period, thereby facilitating business and operational decision-making.

Currently, this process is managed using an Excel file that is passed between different departments, with data being combined, exported, and processed manually, relying on the expertise of staff. However, it is necessary to move toward automating the process and implementing approval workflows, version control, and change tracking.

This approach leads to operational inefficiencies, a high administrative workload, and a significant risk of errors, especially in an environment where the level of detail (customer–product–price–volume) is high.

The challenge is to develop a solution that enables collaborative work on the detailed sales budget, simulates different scenarios (changes in prices, volumes, or costs), and tracks changes—transforming the current Excel spreadsheet into an integrated application that is constantly connected to the corporate ERP system and whose data can subsequently be analyzed in the Power BI environment.

Expected benefits

• Operational efficiency: Significant reduction in the time spent preparing and monitoring the sales budget.
  Fewer errors: Greater reliability in analysis, ensuring a single source of information and eliminating reliance on scattered Excel spreadsheets.
  Better decision-making: Greater visibility and control over profitability by customer, product, and period.

What are they looking for in a collaborator?

We are looking for startups, technology companies, or innovative teams capable of developing solutions for process automation, such as:

• Development of applications or websites (in an environment provided by Smurfit Westrock).
  Pattern analysis technologies that facilitate the creation of sales forecasts based on trends and historical data.
  Integrations with ERP and Power BI, supported by SQL databases.

Particular emphasis will be placed on the ease of implementation of the solution, as well as its ability to adapt to a real-world industrial environment and to the requirements defined in collaboration with the various departments involved.