Sales Data Reconciliation and Cloud Cost Assessment for an International Retail Group
Client:
International retail group operating across retail and e-commerce through multiple subsidiaries.
Challenge:
Ahead of a critical group valuation deadline, management needed a reliable view of sales and operational performance across subsidiaries. Sales data from seven CRM systems did not reconcile with the main ERP and accounting systems. The existing data platform also incurred high costs, with limited visibility into optimization opportunities.
Key Success Metrics:
- Identified $40,000 in potential monthly cloud cost savings during a six-week assessment.
- Reconciled sales data from seven CRM systems with the main ERP and accounting systems.
- Reduced the generation time of key management reports by 40% while reducing reporting load on transactional databases.
Business Challenge
Fragmented sales data and an expensive data platform left management without a reliable consolidated view of subsidiary performance before the group valuation.
Inconsistent sales and financial data
Sales figures from CRM systems did not align with records in the main ERP and accounting systems. These discrepancies made it difficult to establish a consistent reporting basis across subsidiaries.
Limited visibility ahead of group valuation
Management needed a consolidated, reliable view of subsidiary performance to support the upcoming group valuation. Fragmented data and unresolved discrepancies limited confidence in the available reports.
High data platform costs
The existing data platform incurred high cloud costs. The group needed to identify the causes and prioritize opportunities to reduce spending while improving data quality and reporting.
Architecture and Tech Stack
Reporting was consolidated on Snowflake, with transformation logic in dbt and management reporting in Looker.
Snowflake
dbt
Looker
Implementation and Solution
A team of four engineers, led by Bartlomiej Staszkiewicz as Lead Architect, delivered the six-month engagement. It began with a six-week assessment and continued through data reconciliation and improvements to data models and reporting.
Platform and cost assessment
Assessed the existing data platform, reporting issues, and cloud expenditure. The six-week assessment identified opportunities for potential monthly cloud cost savings of $40,000.
Data validation and reconciliation strategy
Defined the approach for validating sales data across seven CRM systems and reconciling it with the main ERP and accounting systems.
Sales data reconciliation
Investigated and resolved reporting discrepancies between CRM, ERP, and accounting data to establish a consistent basis for management reporting.
Data model and reporting improvements
Improved data models and reporting processes, reducing the generation time of key management reports by 40% and reducing reporting load on transactional databases.
Six months, including a six-week assessment. Four engineers, led by Bartlomiej Staszkiewicz as Lead Architect.
Results (ROI)
The assessment quantified where cloud spend could be reduced, reconciliation restored a consistent reporting basis, and management reports ran faster with less load on transactional systems.
$40,000 in potential monthly cloud cost savings identified
The six-week assessment identified opportunities for potential monthly cloud cost savings of $40,000.
Sales data from seven CRM systems reconciled with ERP and accounting
Reporting discrepancies between CRM, ERP, and accounting data were investigated and resolved, establishing a consistent basis for management reporting.
40% shorter generation time for key management reports
Improved data models and reporting processes reduced the generation time of key management reports by 40%.
Reduced reporting load on transactional databases
Moving reporting workloads off transactional systems reduced the load they carried.
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