Snyder's of Hanover: New Systems for an Old Family Company

Tiffin University

Article Summary

"Snyder's of Hanover: New Systems for an Old Family Company"

Submitted for

ACC 512 (Section 90)

Information and Decision Support

Professor Rhonda Gilreath

By:

Michael Bond

Tiffin, Ohio

June 17, 2012

"Snyder's of Hanover: New Systems for an Old Family Company" talks about Snyder's of Hanover, a bakery and snack food distributor out of Hanover, Pennsylvania. The article pointed out early where Snyder's stood in the market place as well as the old-fashioned method that they used in managing and analyzing data. The remainder of the article talked about upgrading that system and what it could do for the company.

Snyder's got its start in 1909 making pretzels in southern Pennsylvania. Over the years, the company continued to make steady growth. They added new products and branched out into different areas such as chips and a bakery. By 2002, Snyder's was the second largest pretzel maker with 12.1 percent of the market. However in 2002, after having a sales growth more the industry's norm for years, the company suddenly stalled.

The major factor in this stall was the way that Snyder's collected, managed and analyze data. All of the financial departments from Snyder's would use Excel spreadsheets to store all of the financial numbers. At the end of each month, these spreadsheets were sent to Lois Stambaugh, the financial analyst for Hanover's. Once she had them, she would transfer all of the data into a combined spreadsheet for the company. This method was used at the ends of each fiscal quarter and the end of each year.

It's quite clear that this method raises a number of concerns. The process of transferring numbers can be repetitive and tedious. When you have to do that from over 50 spreadsheets, the potential for making mistakes is very high. Along with the chance of making mistakes, typing all the numbers in can be very time consuming. In addition, the head analyst can't finish the combined spreadsheet until all of the department sheets are in.

The one thing they teach you in the business world is to expect the unexpected. There is almost always information that is received at the last moment. If a department needs to update their spreadsheet after it has been submitted, it becomes the waiting game. Ms. Stambaugh has to wait for that department to send her the updated sheet. Once she has that, she needs to go into the combined sheet and make the changes necessary. Making changes to just one sheet causes a delay to when the overall statement is finally ready. The more changes you have, the longer the delay will be.

We all know that things can and do change at the drop of a hat. People are constantly checking the stock exchange numbers throughout the day to make decisions that will help them. Snyder's method of collecting their data at only set points of time is a hindrance to them. If there was a change in trends or an unexpected event, the company would not be able to make any adjustments to take advantage of this.

Snyder's went to Satori Group which provides business management solutions. After reviewing all