Imagine if car manufacturers could monetize their data and collaborate with retailers to improve consumer’s driving experience or cars on road sending sensor data back to auto manufacturers, helping them with their R&D and innovation roadmap
In the 80s, the move from wind down windows and key locks to electronic windows and automated locking mechanism was seen as quantum shift. But today, with driverless cars and smart telemetry devices; automatic traffic alerts and seamless navigation, technology is at the forefront, positively disrupting the consumer experience. The Internet of Things, as we know it, is becoming truly pervasive with data being tracked and utilized in so many aspects. But what is clearly enabling this potpourri of smart options is Analytics. We are in the middle of an analytics renaissance for the smart car. Getting their delivery and logistics strategy spot on is critical to e-commerce companies. Imagine if they could analyze the drivers, and understand who is an aggressive or passive driver, or who is the most efficient with fuel usage. A driver’s performance could be key to driving delivery efficiencies. This is possible today because of Analytics.
Similarly, imagine if car manufacturers could monetize their data and collaborate with retailers to improve consumer’s driving experience. Or cars on road sending sensor data back to auto manufacturers, helping them with their R&D and innovation roadmap. This is possible today because of Analytics. Current automobiles are capable of sending a huge amount of data. Realizing the same, Indian multinational automobile manufacturing corporation headquartered in Mumbai, Mahindra & Mahindra wanted to improve its data analysis.
Founded in 1945, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited (M&M) is an Indian multinational automobile manufacturing corporation headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is one of the largest vehicle manufacturers by production in India and is a part of the Mahindra Group, an Indian conglomerate with over US$ 16.2 billion in revenue and more than 155,000 employees around the world. Historically, M&M had been managing their data through the SAP platform. However, reporting was static and the team were using Microsoft Excel to analyse the data.
“The existing reports were not working. It was time consuming and we needed a solution that would help render the data into a more consumable format for our users,” said Richard Desouza, Head of IT at Mahindra & Mahindra.
M&M started looking for alternative business intelligence solutions. “We were introduced to the QlikView business discovery platform. Working with QlikView partner, Team Computers, M&M ran a proof of concept to understand how the platform worked and what could be done with the data. We ran a 1-1 comparison between QlikView and a range of alternative solutions including Spotfire, Tableau and SAP Hana. Having reviewed the merits of each platform we felt that QlikView platform would have the biggest impact on the business, particularly in regards to data rendering and the way we could consume the data,” said Desouza.
M&M found that the QlikView platform had a strong support from its staff members, which supported a smooth rollout of the platform. Desouza said, “We said at the outset that before we implement a new technology, we need the support of our users. Without that user buy-in, deployment would be difficult regardless of how good the solution is.” QlikView platform was rolle out in less than 12 weeks at M&M.
Minutes instead of days
Since deploying the QlikView solution the M&M team have seen a dramatic decrease in reporting times. “Using our previous solution we would aim to release our sales figures along with other financial figures on the first day of the month. However, the process of finalizing the data, extracting it and forming some form of analysis was taking around four days to produce, meaning these reports were often late. Using the QlikView platform our accountants can now access real-time data and can analyse that data in far greater detail than previously possible, told Desouza.
Data visualization
Data visualization and rendering was a key factor in the decision to deploy QlikView. A user can simply click on a number and they can immediately drill down on the figures to a transaction level, which was not possible with our previous SAP environment, told Desouza. He also added that using QlikView, M&M can now match its inventory levels to production levels. For example, they can match the number of tyres currently held in stock against their bill of materials and this will then inform M&M how many vehicles it can produce from this stock inventory.
“The second part to that is that we can then use the platform to review these numbers against our original production plan and determine our excess stock levels. This enables us to take corrective action immediately and ultimately helps us reduce our inventory costs,” Desouza added.
