About Boyd
Boyd Corp (Boyd) is a leading innovator and manufacturer of engineered material and thermal solutions to maximize the performance of 5G infrastructure, data centers; electric and autonomous vehicles; cutting-edge personal healthcare and diagnostic systems; aircraft and defense technologies; and next-generation electronics and human-machine-interface.
With $374 million (2021) in annual revenues and 37 locations spread across North America, Europe, and Asia, Boyd is a truly global corporation.
Challenge
As part of its growth strategy, Boyd has steadily acquired companies across the world. In addition to unique innovation, design and manufacturing capabilities, each of these locations have their own IT infrastructure, including ERPs, which produce a large amount of data in varying formats.
When Boyd approached ExistBI, they wanted to solve the problem of poor data transfer from 26 facilities to their headquarters in the United States. With 18 different ERP systems, delays due to different time zones and missing data, Boyd was eager to work with a company that could help them get a unified and 360 view of all their data so they could improve operations and decision making.
Specifically, the company was looking for answers to questions like:
Inventory
- How much inventory did they have for each product at each location?
- What was the profitability of the products in inventory?
Sales
- How many opportunities were in their sales pipeline at each location?
- What was the performance of the sales team?
- What was the customer score for each of their clients?
Ordering
- How many orders were fulfilled or waiting to be fulfilled at each location?
- How much did each customer order?
- What products did customers order?
Finance
- What is the average time it takes for invoices to be paid?
- How many invoices are overdue?
- What is the average invoice value?
- What is the distribution of invoice values?
Solution
Data warehousing – Microsoft SQL Server
After the initial consultation, ExistBI began the process of unifying the data across multiple locations. ExistBI chose Microsoft SQL Server database as the Data Warehouse. Microsoft SQL Server offers many benefits including scalability to handle large volumes of data. It can efficiently manage and process data warehouse workloads, providing the ability to handle growing data sizes and accommodate increased user demands.
SQL Server also offers indexing, query optimization, and parallel processing capabilities, which are essential for improving query response times and overall data warehouse performance. Its robust security features, including user authentication, role-based access control, and data encryption, maintains compliance with industry standards and regulations, such as HIPAA or GDPR, which is crucial when handling sensitive data from around the world.
The SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) allows for multidimensional data modeling and enables the creation of complex OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) cubes for efficient and fast querying of large datasets.
Finally, the solution allows seamless integration and interoperability with other Microsoft tools including Microsoft Excel, Power BI, or Azure services.
ETL – Informatica Cloud Data Integration
ExistBI chose the Informatica Cloud Data Integration as ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tool. It offers a wide range of connectors and adapters for seamless integration with various data sources and applications. The tool is also designed to process and transform large volumes of data efficiently and it optimizes performance through parallel processing and intelligent data partitioning techniques.
In terms of data transformation and cleansing capabilities, Informatica Cloud Data Integration offers a comprehensive set of capabilities. A visual interface allows users to design data transformation workflows, making it easier to define complex data manipulation logic without writing extensive code.
Finally, the platform includes data quality features that help identify and correct data anomalies, inconsistencies, and duplicates. It facilitates data profiling, standardization, and validation, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of data during the ETL process.
Reporting and analytics
Microsoft Power BI was the tool chosen for data analytics and reporting. Power BI provides a wide range of interactive and customizable visualizations, such as charts, graphs, maps, and tables so users and decision-makers can quickly gain insights and understand complex data patterns quickly.
The intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy for users to connect to various data sources, transform and shape data, and create interactive visualizations and reports with minimal technical knowledge.
Finally, Power BI supports real-time data streaming and integration so users can monitor and analyze data as it flows into the system. This allows for timely decision-making or for monitoring operational metrics.
Results
The enterprise data warehousing solution designed and implemented by ExistBI using Microsoft SQL Server, Informatica Cloud Data Integration and Microsoft Power BI allowed Boyd to have a complete view of operations across all their global locations and answer many of the questions that were outlined at the beginning of the engagement.
The C-suite was so pleased with the outcome that they extended their engagement with ExistBI and have collaborated on many projects including:
- BI & Data Warehouse strategy consulting
- Redesign their data warehouse model
- Integrating 18 ERP systems
- Working alongside Mckinsey planned and implemented Data Science, Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics projects
- Salesforce integration, consulting and support
- Develop data masking templates for delivering sensitive content to data warehouse
- Development of processing unstructured data sets
- Provide operational analytics for procurement and finances
- Sales support in development of quotes and billings demand forecasting solution
- Informatica Consulting, maintenance and support for Informatica Cloud, Data Masking, Master Data Management (MDM)
- Microsoft Power BI consulting and training
- Tableau training
Are you ready to transform your data capabilities? Book a free consultation with our experts today to learn more about how ExistBI can help with your data warehouse project.
