Analytics for Leading Specialty Industrial Supplier

The Challenge

Our client had an existing Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) that was not meeting the business requirements, making it difficult to report on invoices, inventory levels, and purchase orders. The data in the EDW was inaccurate, inconsistent, and incomplete. The performance of the EDW was also a concern. Our client needed faster reports, an improvement in general performance, and required a reduction in downtime associated with refreshing the reporting Data Warehouse.

The Solution

We developed a SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package to support the Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) process to populate a solution in the Microstrategy tool. We incorporated data for customers, products, vendors, sales representatives, and purchase orders. The solution implemented routines to improve the accuracy and consistency of the data. The cleaned, formatted, validated, reorganized, and reliable information enabled improved reporting of invoices, inventory, and purchase orders. Our solution was architected for optimum performance, resulting in faster data refreshes and reports.

The engagement was complete within 90 days and involved:

  • Mapping data sources to target tables
  • Developing SSIS packages
  • Testing packages
  • Matching and validating EDW data against sources to confirm accuracy
  • Conducting user acceptance tests to gain approval from users
The Result

Within three months, raw data was transformed into useful insights for the company. Implementing the new EDW allowed the client to identify issues arising in the operation of the company. This allowed them to focus on the analysis of the information and make better decisions based on data. By converting data into actionable insights, our client was able to make key business decisions.