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Alteryx > Case Studies > Digital Transformation and Automation of Internal Auditing at Merlin Properties with Alteryx
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Digital Transformation and Automation of Internal Auditing at Merlin Properties with Alteryx

Technology Category
  • Analytics & Modeling - Big Data Analytics
  • Analytics & Modeling - Data-as-a-Service
Applicable Industries
  • Buildings
  • Retail
Applicable Functions
  • Logistics & Transportation
  • Quality Assurance
Use Cases
  • Inventory Management
  • Retail Store Automation
Services
  • Testing & Certification
  • Training
The Challenge
Merlin Properties, a leading Spanish Real Estate Investment Trust, faced a significant challenge due to the number of assets and the complexity of the data to be processed. The company needed a way to analyze and audit its financial and non-financial information efficiently. The starting point was a dynamic and complex business, with many different technologies coexisting and a large amount of data from multiple sources. The aim was to aggregate external supplier data sources and bring them right up-to-date, in order to have information from all suppliers in real-time. This posed a problem for Merlin Properties on three levels: extracting and processing data, visualizing that data in a more structured and organized way, and carrying out detailed data analysis to help with decision making.
About The Customer
Merlin Properties is the leading SOCIMI (Spanish Real Estate Investment Trust) and is among the 10 largest Real Estate Asset Investment Groups (REITs) in Europe. The Company’s main activity is the acquisition and management of quality Commercial Real Estate Assets, focusing on offices, retail, logistics and data centers. After 8 years in the Market, Merlin Properties’ portfolio has approximately €11,390 million in Real Estate Assets, spread over 150 office buildings, 14 malls, 55 logistics warehouses, 3 hotels and 4 data centers under construction.
The Solution
Merlin Properties embarked on a project for the Digital Transformation and Automation of the Internal Audit Department, with the help of Alteryx and PwC Spain. The project aimed to have greater control over the data to identify internal errors and issues, reduce costs by accessing all data at a cheaper cost, and prevent fraud. Alteryx provided a tool that could be used by the business side of the Company, a platform that any business user could take advantage of. The goal was to democratize data analysis and management. Merlin Properties set out other objectives including the digitization and automation of key processes within their Internal Audit, the definition of dynamic scorecards on key processes and creating scorecards to track the status of Internal Audit work. All this had to be done semi-automatically, a process that would run without the need for external intervention.
Operational Impact
  • Through the Transformation Process, Merlin Properties has significantly boosted efficiency by automating processes and reports, and removing errors produced by human interaction and manual processes. The consolidation of data and reports across the company eradicated duplication and inefficiency, freeing up Internal Audit resources for other tasks. The transformation also allows the monitoring and control of the company in near real-time, granting users the ability to analyze different concepts, ranging from the performance of an entire Division to the correct execution of a bookkeeping entry. This is vital, because there’s no need to wait for Quarterly Reports – valuable reports can be generated at any time. The automation and transformation project at Merlin Properties has given the Internal Audit Management Department access to all the Company’s relevant information, fully up-to-date and automatically incorporated into a single platform, which greatly improves the Team’s work rate.
Quantitative Benefit
  • Automated 10 financial processes using Alteryx
  • Significantly reduced the use of resources through automation
  • Removed errors produced by human interaction and manual processes

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