Download PDF
Information Builders > Case Studies > Dahl Digitizes the Enterprise From Traditional Reporting to Modern Analytics
Information Builders Logo

Dahl Digitizes the Enterprise From Traditional Reporting to Modern Analytics

Technology Category
  • Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
  • Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries
  • Construction & Infrastructure
  • Retail
Applicable Functions
  • Procurement
  • Sales & Marketing
  • Warehouse & Inventory Management
Use Cases
  • Inventory Management
  • Supply Chain Visibility
Services
  • Data Science Services
  • System Integration
The Challenge
Dahl Finland Ltd., a leading wholesale supplier of HVAC, public utility, and pipe products in the Nordic and Baltic regions, was facing a challenge with its existing enterprise resource planning system (ERP). The ERP system had rudimentary reporting capabilities and was not user-friendly. This led to workers throughout the enterprise struggling to access, analyze, and view accurate and consistent business data. The company also used Microsoft Excel to generate additional custom reports outside of the IT department. These manual methods of reporting were time-consuming and generated inconsistent data. The company needed a solution that could modernize and rationalize their analytics system to deliver more comprehensive and accurate information.
About The Customer
Dahl Finland Ltd. is a leading wholesale supplier of HVAC, public utility, and pipe products in the Nordic and Baltic regions. The company is a subsidiary of the Saint-Gobain group, a world-leading construction products supplier. Since its founding in 1995, Dahl has grown from a small supplier of HVAC products to a nationwide organization employing more than 500 people in 32 offices. The company provides industrial products to contractors, hardware stores, and equipment manufacturers throughout the Nordic and Baltic regions of Europe. Dahl's main competitor is a well-established company that uses analytics to gauge market trends, and to compete, Dahl must work smarter to understand each customer’s order history and product preferences to better predict individual and collective demand.
The Solution
Dahl Finland Ltd. decided to use WebFOCUS to retrieve information from the ERP system and generate interactive dashboards, InfoApps™, and parameterized displays to meet the needs of sales, purchasing, financial administration, and warehouse management. The company selected WebFOCUS because it was user-friendly, versatile, had a robust security architecture, and was backed by comprehensive services from Information Builders’ Finnish partner, InfoBuild Ltd. The company used WebFOCUS to create an analytics environment that serves hundreds of users in sales, warehouse management, procurement, and finance. The environment includes interactive dashboards, InfoApps™, and parameterized forms that allow employees to customize their views of the data to meet the requirements of this demanding, fast-paced business.
Operational Impact
  • Developers produced more than 4,400 analytics assets in just three months – an achievement that would have taken 14 months using the previous system.
  • WebFOCUS has spread quickly throughout the organization, with users expressing excitement about how easy it is to learn and how quickly they can create impressive things with it.
  • WebFOCUS has replaced and improved some of Dahl’s previous management reports, including two types of daily sales reports that help managers keep track of which products are moving, at what volume, and in which regions.
Quantitative Benefit
  • In just three months, Dahl produced more than 4,400 analytics assets with WebFOCUS, which would have taken 14 months using the previous reporting system.
  • Creating a custom analytics display now takes less than one minute, significantly saving time compared to the previous system where it took up to 30 minutes to create each report.

Related Case Studies.

Contact us

Let's talk!

* Required
* Required
* Required
* Invalid email address
By submitting this form, you agree that IoT ONE may contact you with insights and marketing messaging.
No thanks, I don't want to receive any marketing emails from IoT ONE.
Submit

Thank you for your message!
We will contact you soon.