Challenge
Prior to partnering with Zap, Smiffy’s faced significant data-related hurdles due to disparate systems and manual data consolidation, leading to reporting inconsistencies. Over time, it became abundantly clear that there was a severe lack of integration within the disparate data systems, leading to an inability to extract meaningful insights into holistic business analysis.
Phil explained, “Loads of people just had to keep exporting the raw data from Dynamics NAV, and there were different figures going around because different people sliced and diced the data in different ways.”
“People could never actually understand what they were looking at, as one person might include one thing, and another would exclude it. So, there was always a difference in figures, and it was quite hard and manual to report on things.”
Echoing Phil’s sentiments, Rob stated, “Another challenge pre-Zap was looking at data from different systems in a collective way. As Phil alluded, there was a lot of exporting data and not having a tool to umbrella the systems together so they could communicate. This made it difficult to look at data from one side of the business alongside data from another side and extract meaningful insights.”
The exhaustive manual manipulation of inconsistent, raw data made the reporting process inefficient and prone to frequent human error.
Solution
Smiffy’s data transformation began with their partnership with Zap, who guided them in their transition from Excel to Power BI reporting through the standardization of datasets and reports.
Zap Data Hub created a cohesive data ecosystem for Smiffy’s, empowering them to unify their disparate data sources and eliminate their reliance on cumbersome manual data exports.
Rob expressed his approval of Zap’s methods, saying, “Having that one system where we can pull all the data through and push them into Power BI reports is really handy for the business, as they’re all effectively looking at the same thing - the same data with the same filters.”
Paired with Zap Data Hub’s impressive flexibility, Smiffy’s is destined for ongoing innovations in its field thanks to the benefits of unified data sources.
Zap’s unified data hub facilitated Smiffy’s transition from relational to tabular data models, which ensures seamless integration with Power BI. Users can now create ad-hoc reports without the help of IT. This level of standardized data management became a catalyst for unprecedented success for Smiffy’s.
Smiffy’s success with Zap’s support inspires others to utilize their unified data hub. “As I transition to a new role, I’m considering bringing Zap Data Hub to my new company. I think the tool itself is one of the best middleware tools I’ve used in my time, and the support package that comes with it is superb.” - Rob Davidson, Former Head of Reporting.