Our client is a global pharmaceutical company that specializes in skincare products. They were generating their critical daily and monthly sales reporting using Excel.
Our client is a global pharmaceutical company that specializes in skincare products. They were generating their critical daily and monthly sales reporting using Excel. However, this process took the team around an hour each day to produce the daily report and up to 2 days to produce the monthly sales report. Due to churn in the team the knowledge around the business process was fragmented and the mechanics of the report were not well understood.
The report relied on data from the global data warehouse, but rather than having direct access it used canned reports whose logic was not defined by the team. This meant that in order to correctly reflect the right numbers, manual adjustments were often required to the spreadsheets.
The Excel file itself was also becoming so large that it was difficult to use, as it needed a long time to perform calculations and often crashed or became corrupted. It was becoming a business risk that needed to be addressed.
The customer needed a more stable and reliable solution, and they recognised that using Power BI was the right approach to minimise the risk and effort associated with the current spreadsheet. Talos was selected as the partner following a recommendation from Microsoft for a Data & AI solution partner with the right expertise.
Applying our PEBBLE methodology, we started by building out a Business Glossary that defined and agreed all the business rules we needed to replicate in the new solution. This required forensic analysis of the current spreadsheet, and close engagement with the business to make sure all requirements and rules were properly captured. Throughout the process we ensured we spent time with the business to help them approach how they could use the new reporting tools to better inform management and field staff.
Using our deep technical expertise, we developed a solution that bypassed the current canned reports and went straight to the global data warehouse as a source. This involved liaison with the global BI team to ensure we could access the data on a routine basis and to understand how they had structured it. The design also called for a master data solution that could be managed by the local team to manage region specific data such as customer categorisations.
Once the data model and reports were completed, we conducted several training sessions to staff on how to use the reporting suite that was developed, as well as conducting training workshops with a few staff on how to develop more reports utilizing the data model.
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The data is now updating automatically through the scheduled refresh on the numerous databases and is part of the global Power BI infrastructure. The team no longer need to spend effort producing reports and all the business logic is fully documented.
Because of our methodologies’ focus on training and enablement we ensured the client can create more reports built off the data model to achieve any growing needs of the business. We also extended the capability of the sales field team, giving them access to reports that provide them a snapshot of their region (using Row Level Security) remotely on their iPads.
Through the application of our Enterprise PowerBI strategy methodology and tools, we will design an approach for your organisation that will deliver value in alignment with your corporate strategy.
This process will also analyse your technology options and provide initial recommendations on appropriate capabilities and architectures.
We look forward to discussing your requirements, please complete the form below, book a meeting here, or contact us directly via email: [email protected]
