Improved Data Management and Performance Tracking for a Multinational FMCG Company

Our Client

A multinational fast-moving consumer goods company with headquarters in Dubai, UAE. The operations span 190+ countries.
Products are spread across categories such as Beauty and Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutrition, and Ice Cream.

Here are some of the concerns shared by the client:

Gain better sales and financial performance insights on their new project.
Current data storage system had to be revamped as it was a shared server.
Solution required for the stakeholders to monitor topline performance such as targets achieved in a particular period or by a specific team.
A solution to manage and gauge the performance of sales representatives in various stores and other metrics.
Required a better way to track competitors’ activities (promotional offers, advertisements, etc.) and detect untapped opportunities.

The steps that we followed to execute our solution were as follows:

Requirement Gathering:
We discussed and noted all the requirements of the stakeholders. We understood the business model and overall functioning of various segments of the organization. About 22 detailed reports were created.

Data Model:
A scalable and less cumbersome data model with quality data and better insights was built. This model requires less maintenance and new data can be added easily without any hassle.

Data Cleaning:
Unnecessary segments were removed for better clarity. We removed redundant columns, rows, and special characters (data massaging) and renamed the parts where applicable.

Extract Transform Load (ETL):
We carried out ETL using Power Query on cloud (Dataflow, Power BI’s new feature). Data was extracted from the source (OneDrive for Business) and transformed as per the requirement (eg. changing data types of a few columns, replacing null values, etc.). Next, the data was loaded to Power BI using the Dataflows connector
Note: The ETL process was done once. The Dataflow was used to build new reports.
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Data Storage:
Data was stored in OneDrive for Business and segregated into sub-folders as per the requirements. As a proof of concept, the endpoint of OneDrive was fed directly to the Dataflows as data input. After the approval from the stakeholders, we fed the data to an Enterprise Data Warehouse we built, which is more scalable.

Dataflow:
Since multiple Power BI reports were required, we used Dataflows. Dataflows can be integrated easily with BI tools and provides a platform to build reusable data preparation solution.

Report and Visualization:
Multiple reports were built using the same Dataflows and were customized to align with the brand color palette. Real-time visuals, graphs, charts, etc. were inculcated to understand the data better and get actionable insights.

The solution provided full transparency which helped in improved management of sales processes, financial activities, staff planning, etc. The sales targets were achieved within half the estimated time period.
Data management became efficient with the introduction of MS stack technologies like SharePoint, OneDrive, Power BI, and more.
Better monitoring of competitors’ activities helped the organization to find opportunities in neglected but potential domains. The organization’s market share increased by 7% by end of FY.
The reports and visualizations helped in identifying performance trends. The organization increased the resources and budget in the segments and areas that were performing well. This move increased the revenue flow from those areas by 29% when calculated at the end of FY.