Case Study
Life Science Company
Life sciences company improves data reliability and saves time through automated data pipelines
Case Study
Life Science Company
Life sciences company improves data reliability and saves time through automated data pipelines
Background
A leading distributor of life science products wanted to improve their overall business operations. They have hundreds of employees and over a dozen branches across Canada and the United States. Historically, they used centralized reporting and KPIs to manage each of the branches.
Effectively, they used the reports as a scorecard to capture KPIs around functional areas of their business such as operational expenditures, inventory, staffing, and customer service.
Background
A leading distributor of life science products wanted to improve their overall business operations. They have hundreds of employees and over a dozen branches across Canada and the United States. Historically, they used centralized reporting and KPIs to manage each of the branches.
Effectively, they used the reports as a scorecard to capture KPIs around functional areas of their business such as operational expenditures, inventory, staffing, and customer service.
The Challenges
Running these monthly and quarterly reports took weeks to produce and put a heavy burden on the finance team. Since the reports required a lot of manual labour, errors and omissions occurred, which jeopardized the reliability of the data. In the event of a reporting error, it was difficult to retrace their steps to discover where the error had occurred.
Often, the only viable solution was to begin the reporting process all over again, which was costly and time-consuming. By using Excel, they limited their ability to gain full insight into the business operations. For instance, it was not clear why a branch received a certain score, and more importantly, what could be done to improve it.
The Challenges
Running these monthly and quarterly reports took weeks to produce and put a heavy burden on the finance team. Since the reports required a lot of manual labour, errors and omissions occurred, which jeopardized the reliability of the data. In the event of a reporting error, it was difficult to retrace their steps to discover where the error had occurred.
Often, the only viable solution was to begin the reporting process all over again, which was costly and time-consuming. By using Excel, they limited their ability to gain full insight into the business operations. For instance, it was not clear why a branch received a certain score, and more importantly, what could be done to improve it.
The Results
Infostrux designed a solution that improved and automated their reporting.
Branch managers receive daily updates on their branch’s performance. In addition to this vital insight, which is now available in near-real time, it also drastically reduces the workload from the finance department. It used to take weeks to run these reports; now they are available in seconds.
We also improved the reliability of the data by creating automated data pipelines. They are now less susceptible to human error. The Infostrux solution also addresses the issue of having to redo the reporting and analysis when there was an error.
It used to take weeks to run these reports; now, they are available in seconds.
Today, if there is any uncertainty about the data, they can review the logic and understand how the data is being utilized.
The reports now offer a lot more granularity by allowing users to drill down into the data. For example, a branch manager can click on billed hours for the branch, then drill down into the individual technicians to see how many hours each of them has billed.
The Results
Infostrux designed a solution that improved and automated their reporting.
Branch managers receive daily updates on their branch’s performance. In addition to this vital insight, which is now available in near-real time, it also drastically reduces the workload from the finance department. It used to take weeks to run these reports; now they are available in seconds.
We also improved the reliability of the data by creating automated data pipelines. They are now less susceptible to human error. The Infostrux solution also addresses the issue of having to redo the reporting and analysis when there was an error.
Today, if there is any uncertainty about the data, they can review the logic and understand how the data is being utilized.
The reports now offer a lot more granularity by allowing users to drill down into the data. For example, a branch manager can click on billed hours for the branch, then drill down into the individual technicians to see how many hours each of them has billed.