Our warehouse saves time, large amount of money and ineffective processes for the Linet Group

What was the challenge? Ensure a common data base and methodology for business and financial reporting

Linet Group, the world’s leading manufacturer of medical beds, has been growing steadily, so has the volume of data and number of systems the group utilizes. However, group reporting drew data for partial reports from different sources. Their processing was therefore challenging, as was finding common intersections in business and financial reporting. The numbers that were supposed to match often differed.

We prepared a data warehouse with reporting service as holistic view of the Group’s activities and results

We built a data warehouse with financial and sales reporting on top that unifies many disparate systems so that the company has a comprehensive view of its activities and results. Business plans, opportunities, orders, delivery notes, invoices, receivables, payables, client and supplier records... all this data from seventeen Linet Group companies is now easily accessible to managers and owners in one place.

Besides methodology how to build and maintain the warehouse, we also delivered our own data governance product. It helps keep track of data warehouse contents, its inputs from source systems, outputs, including data ownership tracking and controls, definition of calculations, etc.

Outcomes

• unification of seventeen different systems
• a single source of data for financial and business reporting
• methodology for business and financial reporting
• methodology for record keeping and maintenance of the warehouse
• data governance tool

Our approach can be separated on two phases

Prior to the project, Linet Group had only internal reporting from a few sources.  Business reporting drew data mainly from CRM and supplemented it with some data from accounting. Finance, on the other hand, produced reports only from accounting data, but using a different methodology. Instead of matching numbers, Group managers often saw different data on the same subject in a single presentation.

The data warehouse was therefore expected to create a common data base with a unified methodology for business and financial reporting. It was necessary to ensure that they use the same data sources, and that product catalogues, chart of accounts, customer and revenue segmentation, and cost centers definitions were unified.

Implementation of two applications that Trask uses to build and maintain data warehouses was crucial to the success of the project.

1. Trask Data Automated Platform (TDAP)

The first is the Trask Data Automated Platform (TDAP), which is a framework for building and running a data warehouse. With TDAP, we try to achieve maximum level of automation of development processes, creation of data structures and transformations between them. Thanks to this, we can not only build the data warehouse, but also quickly, transparently, and efficiently adapt it for future expansion. Besides Linet, TDAP is used by ČSOB bank.

2. Trask Business and Data Dictionary (TBDD)

The other application is Trask Business and Data Dictionary (TBDD). It describes the entire contents of the data warehouse in business and technical terms - from inputs from source systems to the core of the data warehouse to output datamarts and reports. Anyone can look at the business definition of all the metrics used in the reports and see the exact path of input information, transformations and calculations used to generate them.

TBDD identifies the data owners and clear processes to ensure data governance. The application is also used, for instance, by VW Financial Services / ŠkoFIN and Sberbank CZ. As of early 2021, we offer TBDD to clients as a standalone product outside of our project deliveries.

Highlights

1. main benefit – connecting 17 companies within the group

The construction of the new data warehouse was unique due to the wide range of data systems within the Group, including those that we connected over the first seven months as well as those to be added in the following phases of the project.

We connected the systems of seventeen Group companies to the new data warehouse (STAGE layer). Connecting the systems for tracking of business goals (Budget) and opportunities (Salesforce) was the easier part, as all Group members use them. However, connecting the accounting systems was a challenge. The companies in the Group mostly use different systems or systems with specific configurations. We connected 7x SAP Business One, 1x SAP 4HANA, 1x Helios, 5x Naviosin and 1x Asplan to the data warehouse.

2. main benefit – bringing unique data collection

Business plans, opportunities, orders, delivery notes, invoices, accounts receivable, accounts payable, client records, supplier records - all this data is consolidated from various source systems into a single data structure within the core data warehouse (CORE), and, most importantly, into a single business meaning. This was an extremely challenging task for us as a supplier, but also for the client. Together, we had to choose which data to consolidate from the source systems and how to transform it into a universal form to meet the diverse needs of the Group. In order to adopt the new data warehouse and make its contents understandable to the business, it was also important to document precisely and transparently everything that is stored in the core of the warehouse, where the data comes from, and how to interpret it.

Regular daily and monthly reports

We focused on the key monthly and daily reports. The monthly Business Review Meeting reports combine the business and finance perspectives in one output and were the primary indicator of project success. We created most of the reports for two different reporting platforms - Microsoft Server Reporting Services and Microsoft PowerBI to serve different user groups optimally and efficiently.

Conclusion

We built a data warehouse and financial and sales reporting on top of it for Linet Group, unifying the many disparate systems of its seventeen companies. This gave the Group a holistic view of its activities and results. Thanks to the DWH project, total revenue can be broken down by client segment or product, which is important for the business, or by cost center and account, which is a key insight for the financial department. The project also offers a breakdown of business partners and separation of intra-group transactions, which is important for financial consolidation. However, the totals remain the same.

Besides methodology on how to build and maintain the warehouse, we delivered our own data governance product. It helps keep track of data warehouse contents, its inputs from source systems, outputs, including data ownership tracking and controls, definition of calculations, etc.

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