Integrating Evocon with Business Central and Power BI: How Intertrade Achieved Full Production Visibility

Intertrade Hellas SA is a Greek company specializing in the production of high-quality paper products. They operate two complementary business units: a paper mill producing large jumbo rolls, and a converting operation that transforms those rolls into consumer products like toilet paper, kitchen towels, and napkins. Running 13 machines across four different sites, like many manufacturers, Intertrade had a problem: too much manual work, not enough accurate data, and no clear picture of what was actually happening on the shop floor.

To solve this, they implemented Evocon’s OEE monitoring system, tightly integrated with Microsoft Business Central and Power BI real-time production monitoring. The result is a connected system that’s given them full visibility, and the foundation to keep improving. We spoke with Dimitris Tzanakakis, Operations Excellence Manager, Intertrade; Dimitrios Karamanos, Production Manager, Intertrade; and Thanasis Chondronasios, Digital Transformation Consultant, to learn how they used Evocon to build their “super data set,” bringing full visibility into their operations.

The Main Challenges: Operating With Limited Visibility

Before Evocon, Intertrade’s production monitoring was based on manual data. Operators wrote everything down on paper, like machine stops and downtime reasons. Then this was sent to the production department, which had to manually add that data into the ERP system. It was slow, it was error-prone, and management could only see the last day’s picture.

Intertrade followed OEE calculation through an advanced but complicated custom report in Business Central that was based on master data difficult to control and maintain correctly. OEE calculations were based on operators’ manual entries and manually calculated target productivity per product based on many products and machines technical parameters. Maintaining all this information correctly and up to date for hundreds of products was a huge challenge. Furthermore, reports were coming out in printed formats per machine, and all this information had to be manually input into Excel to generate graphs and management summary reports.

One of the biggest struggles faced was invisible losses. Small inefficiencies that added up but never got measured. Shift changes could cause downtime that went unnoticed, and management couldn’t fix unseen problems.

Accurate OEE Reporting: Integrating Evocon with Microsoft Business Central and Power BI

Intertrade understood that just collecting data wasn’t enough. Everything needed to be connected, from operations to admin and analytics; everything needed to be on the same page.

The first big integration was with Microsoft Business Central, their ERP. At Intertrade, production orders flow from Business Central to Evocon, including product codes, quantities, target speeds, and more. Then, Evocon sends back the real, accurate performance data: stop times, run times, and downtime reasons. Everything syncs automatically. There’s no more manual entry, no errors, just one consistent source of truth.

The second integration was with Power BI. Intertrade used Evocon’s API to pull raw data directly into Power BI, where they built what they call a “super data set.” This was done by combining Evocon’s OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) data with costing data and production optimization insights from the ERP to create custom reports that go beyond the standard dashboards.

Intertrade wanted to compare their actual OEE against a set of benchmarks they have. Now, it was possible to dig into the sub-components of OEE and connect operational performance to financials. That level of analysis is now feeding into their production optimization algorithms and making their product costing more accurate than ever.

This data, combined in Power BI, allows Intertrade to create all the specific reports needed, with fully accurate data, in addition to the standard Evocon reports used.

Quick Implementation with a Supported Rollout

Intertrade’s rollout was extremely efficient, with the initial implementation on their pilot line taking just one day. Evocon was chosen as the ideal system, as the Production Manager, Dimitrios Karamanos, had experience with the platform at a previous company and knew the benefits it would bring and how easy it is to install and use. Started with one paper machine, the pilot ran for about six weeks.

Project financial justification was obvious to Dimitris Tzanakakis, Intertrade’s Operations Excellence Manager. The annual cost of the licenses was less than the yearly salary of a single employee. By reclaiming the hours previously lost to manual administration and data entry, the system would effectively fund itself.

With a successful pilot completed, the decision was made to roll out Evocon to ten more production lines in the next two months.

The ERP and Power BI integrations happened alongside the rollout, taking about 6 weeks total, though the work on integrations was completed between holidays, daily tasks, and other projects — so they are confident that, if needed, this could be done even faster. 

Two main factors made the smooth integration possible. First, Evocon’s hardware installation was straightforward. Second, their local Evocon partner, John Lelis, was there every step of the way, especially with the trickier parts like the Business Central integration and Power BI setup. John worked with a member of their team who has extensive knowledge in Business Central, so between them, it was possible to set the systems up to get all of the necessary information. Their own ERP manager was fully committed too, which kept everything moving. Dimitris compared a successful implementation team to a WRC rally team:

Intertrade successfully met all three criteria, paving the way for measuring and improving OEE. The system’s ease of use made the rollout even smoother. With operators able to intuitively use Evocon, adoption didn’t take long, with initial training completed in the first week of implementation.

The Results: Managing 13 Machines, 4 Locations, 1 Screen

The impact has been transformative. Intertrade went from reacting to problems after the fact to spotting them in real time and making decisions based on actual data.

Not only that, but now it’s possible to view production across 13 machines spread across four geographically separate sites on a single screen. Now, there’s no need to walk the floor at multiple locations to figure out what’s happening. Management sees everything, everywhere, instantly.

Additionally, Intertrade recently set up automatic alerts. Now, if a machine is down for more than 30 minutes, the technical and production teams are notified straight away.

Dimitrios sees the ease of use as one of the two main benefits of the system:

Problems get fixed faster. They’ve also uncovered suspected hidden losses, like time lost during shift changes, and are now working to recover those minutes.

The strategic benefits are still unfolding. By using Evocon to integrate OEE data with Business Central and Power BI, Intertrade can calculate the actual productivity of every product on every machine — kilograms per hour, precise and comparable. They’re feeding this into optimization algorithms and refining how products are costed. Although still in the early phases of real-time OEE monitoring, the foundation is there for continuous improvement projects.

Future Outlook

Intertrade is just getting started. Now that the data collection and integration are set up, they’re moving from spotting downtime to deep analysis of their data — identifying specific improvement opportunities. With precise product productivity measurements and advanced planning capabilities, Intertrade is positioned to take its digital transformation to the next level.

Key Takeaways

Intertrade’s success proves that integrated OEE software is the key to digital transformation. By integrating Evocon with Microsoft Business Central and Power BI, they created a seamless flow of information from the shop floor to strategic decision-making.

Manual data collection was costing them more than just time. The lag in reporting meant they were always reacting to past problems, and invisible losses like shift change downtime were draining productivity without anyone noticing. Real-time monitoring changed that completely.

The two-way integration with their ERP eliminated duplicate data entry and created a single source of truth. Production orders flow automatically from Business Central to Evocon, while actual performance data flows back, ensuring accuracy and consistency across reports for the entire organization.

Building a “super data set” in Power BI by combining Evocon’s OEE data with costing metrics and production optimization insights from the ERP unlocked advanced analytics capabilities. This allows Intertrade to benchmark performance, optimize production scheduling, and improve product costing accuracy in ways that weren’t possible before.

A phased implementation approach — starting with one machine, then rapidly scaling to ten more — minimized disruption while proving value quickly. Strong support from John Lelis, their Evocon partner, and internal commitment from their ERP manager were critical to the fast, successful rollout.