Manufacturer Unlocks Growth With Unified Customer and Product Data

This leading manufacturer of thermal management systems embarked on a multi-year strategy to elevate shareholder value by identifying and accelerating revenue growth from their most valuable customers, products, and suppliers. However, this manufacturer struggled to segment their most valuable assets due to fragmented data that blocked their understanding of customer, product, and supplier dynamics.

The company enlisted Wavicle’s expertise to create a data strategy and master data management program that would allow them to capitalize on key customer opportunities and ultimately grow revenue. With a holistic understanding of their data, the business would be able to identify the top 20% of customers, products, and vendors that are accountable for 80% of their revenue, following the Pareto principle, and subsequently capitalize on opportunities to increase their revenue and margins.

The manufacturing company estimated that by focusing on their top 20% of customers, products, and suppliers, they would be able to grow revenue by 8% and margin by 12% in the next two years.

Issues stemming from isolated data repositories

As part of this manufacturing company’s strategic growth, it acquired companies across Asia, Europe, and Central America. Each of the newly acquired companies brought along their own enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and data management tools, resulting in isolated data silos. This fragmentation led to data inconsistencies, duplicates, and gaps. To generate actionable insights and make strategic decisions, the manufacturer had to invest substantial manual effort into data transformation and processes to reconcile data from these many different systems.

To address these challenges, the manufacturer engaged Wavicle’s data management experts to create a unified data repository to transcend data silos, address inconsistencies, and eliminate manual reporting efforts. Combined with a strong master data management tool, this would allow the business to gain a complete and accurate view of their worldwide data to determine the specific customers, suppliers, and vendors with the most revenue potential.

Unifying data for unlocking strategic growth

Wavicle first conducted a robust assessment of the manufacturing company’s existing data systems and needs. This included in-depth discussions with their entire team to gain an understanding of their current systems and their most critical data use cases.

Guided by the insights gathered from the assessment, Wavicle’s consultants developed a strategic data framework for the manufacturer’s data and analytics needs. The business knew they wanted a Microsoft environment, so Wavicle designed an Azure-based framework that connected the multiple ERP systems of the acquired companies, using Azure Data Factory for data storage, Profisee for master data management, and Power BI for reporting. This well-structured framework ensures seamless integration of disparate ERP systems into a unified framework within Azure, enhancing data management and reporting capabilities.

Wavicle consultants effectively designed a tailored data infrastructure that fulfilled the manufacturer’s need for unified data access. Using Azure, Wavicle developed a cohesive data architecture to centralize all information sources while also implementing crucial tools. This included the delivery of a data governance framework to ensure the adoption of best data practices across the organization.

Furthermore, Wavicle collaborated with the data owners across the company to create a master data management program using Profisee to create a definitive golden record of customer, product, and supplier data.

Custom data strategy opens avenues for greater revenue growth

Wavicle played a pivotal role in formulating a data strategy that guided this manufacturer to realize their financial goals and prioritize their most valuable revenue streams. Plus, a strong master data management program transformed the company’s perception of customers, products, and suppliers by providing a single, complete record of essential data points, ultimately enhancing their operational approach.

Now, the manufacturer has unified global data that can deliver clear insight into customer, product, and supplier specifics across continents, factories, and ERP systems. Wavicle designed the company’s Azure-based modern data infrastructure to provide the foundation needed for a future-ready data and analytics program that is capable of handling complex analytical questions about operations, customers, and much more. With the ability to spot critical insights and trends worldwide, the company can concentrate their endeavors on driving strategic growth to meet key revenue and margin goals today and in the future.