SSTech organization data is spread across multiple business applications that are being used for different business requirements. There had always been a challenge to consolidate all information, visualize, and analyze data using a single platform.
Following are the major business challenges that we have identified:
- Data spread across different departments.
- No single source of truth.
- No advanced analytics deployed.
- Data sharing across internal departments.
- Data collection from different data points.
Following are the business applications that are being used by SSC.
| SI. No | Application Name | Description | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Microsoft Great Plans | ERP Application that holds data after an order is confirmed. From Sales order until collection of funds is being managed using Microsoft GP. | On-Premises |
| 2 | Microsoft CRM | CRM Solution that holds the organizations business opportunities | On-Premises |
| 3 | Excel Spreadsheets | Team targets data is available in Excel Spread Sheets. | On-Premises |
| 4 | Zoho Project | Project management system that handles Project tasks and engineer allocation along with engineer utilization. | Cloud |
| 5 | Manage Engine | Manage engine is Helpdesk application that holds information on tickets that is being received from customers and engineer allocation along with time spent for a customer by an engineer. | Cloud |
| 6 | Synergy HRMS | Holds employee salary information and self-services such as claims and so on. | On-Premises |
As explained earlier, data was spread across multiple operational systems and it will be challenging to see consolidated information. For an example, if management wants to see whether an order is profitable for the organization, which has its Sales Order entered in MS GP with the Project scheduled in Zoho along with engineer assignment and employee CTC available in Synergy HRMS, we require to integrate all this information to produce the desired outcome. This was performed manually via collecting information in spreadsheets and then commence the analysis process. If there were more questions, then we did have to collect more data from relevant stake holders making the whole development a time-consuming process.
Solution Provided
To address the business challenge, we decided to build a Single Source of Truth that will extract data from multiple systems and build a data warehouse from which all required information would be fetched the way business required. We extracted massive amount of data from operational systems into a format that is easy to understand, current/live, and accurate; enabling decisions to be made on the data. The high level architecture diagram is represented here of what we have done.
Extraction of data from the applications listed out earlier is being done first, then transformed and then stored into a Datawarehouse. Post which data cubes are created for faster and easier data access.
Power BI is used as visualization tool to visualize and analyze data, using Power BI you can do the following:
- AM / SM / Pre-Sales / Management can access data from anywhere and any device, including mobile phones.
- Always keep yourself up to date and follow your achievement and delta. Refreshing of excel data or request for information internally is no longer required.
- We have provided drill through / drill down, if more detailed view/information is required.
- Ensured data security. As any individual can see only their data even though all are using one report.
- Achieved mobile BI without any additional investment, we have utilized the Partner benefit given to us by Microsoft.
- Get insight about your achievement and funnel better.
- Collaborate with your team with asking real time interactive chat features.
- Embed your Power BI Dashboards in Microsoft Teams.
- Annotate and share from Power BI mobile Apps.
- Share a Snapshot of a Report.
Following benefits are achieved from Data Warehouse (Single Source of Truth)
- End to end analysis for management.
- Helps management in better decision making.
- Eliminated duplicate entries.
- Provide decision-makers with the right data at the right time
- Be instantly alerted to opportunities and problems.
- Iteratively improve the data intelligence capabilities of the company.
As described in above picture, we are right now at the second step as we started analyzing data on what happened, and the data explains why it has happened. Our vision is to reach Predictive Analytics that will help you to predict your closures and target achievement.
Few points on how Predictive Analytics can help you.
- It looks at past behaviors of customers and leads to discover patterns that suggest whether the information can be considered as prospects.
- Helps identify cross-selling potential, up to product level.
- Helps to predict customer behavior and assists in suggesting possible future behavior.
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