Error-free and up-to-date reports are the basis for good business decisions in a company. Especially in the areas of advertising, sales and logistics, where the company operates under high deadline pressure, Mediengruppe Pressedruck depends on reports in real time.
In a workshop, IBsolution worked with corporate IT to develop a suitable architecture for reporting. Instead of introducing an additional business warehouse, the company opted for an integrated solution with SAP HANA Analytics. Here, reports are generated directly on the HANA database without intermediate storage. As a result, reports are truly real-time, all figures are up to date to the second, and accounting errors are immediately visible.
With the virtual data models and so-called views of the SAP HANA database, not only the creation of reports can be accelerated considerably. Missing information can also be easily inserted subsequently by the business department.
The integrated solution had the advantage that users with no SAP experience did not have to be trained for another software. Instead, they can now call up the reports via SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office directly in MS Excel, i.e. in their familiar working environment. For key date-related reports – for example, for controlling and planning – an embedded BW was set up, which already exists in the scope of SAP S/4HANA. In addition, all legacy data was automatically transferred to the new database using SAP SLT in the course of the project.
Since no detailed requirements specification existed, the project was carried out in an agile manner using the Scrum methodology. It quickly became apparent that the growing requirements could not be met with the planned resources by the scheduled go-live. Therefore, IBsolution increased the project team significantly: Three teams worked on the reports in parallel with the business departments, each in the areas of controlling, ad management and sales/logistics.
In this way, IBsolution was able to complete all the reports required for operations on time. And not only that. Despite the tight schedule, the basis for a modern, sustainable reporting system was created. Based on this, all future requirements in the areas of planning, consolidation and financial statements can be implemented without the need for another relaunch.
Thanks to the smart use of SAP HANA technology, Mediengruppe Pressedruck can now make better and faster decisions and derive maximum benefit from its data. In this project, IBsolution’s consultants once again proved their motto “We deliver what we promise.” Their technical expertise and experience in managing large and critical projects paid off. The Heilbronn-based consultants will continue to support their customer in implementing a comprehensive business intelligence strategy.