Turning raw Data into delicious insights – Unlocking Signature Foods' potential with centralized information and powerful visualizations
As a well-known maker of various appetizers, Signature Foods made analyses based on various decentralized data sources inside Excel. It was then important to harmonize and visualize the data from these sources. Rockfeather helped Signature Foods implement Power BI in combination with Zebra BI to visualize information effectively, introduced the IBCS®, and workflows were automated with Power Automate. In addition to implementing the tools, Rockfeather supported the data & analytics team in building the necessary data competencies through coaching, training + recruitment. So that Signature Foods can currently continue to develop independently.
Data gathered from several products
Signature Foods, known for Johma Salades, Heksn’Kaas, Vlammetjes, and more, has to deal with various operational and financial systems as a manufacturer for appetizers. All the data from these products was stored decentrally in different Excel files by the data team. This required a lot of copy and pasting, which is enormously time-consuming and error-prone. The result was a lack of strategic, tactical and operational insights. On a day-to-day basis this means that there was a lack of central insight into the performance of the various brands at group level across the axes of net sales, gross profit, gross margin %, volume in tons, consumer units and gross sales, among others.
From a table to a dashboard, action and results!
Signature Foods wanted to get rid of different Excel sheets and decentralized data. From now on, there had to be “one source of truth”. This way, people can look at the data with the same pair of eyes at a strategic, tactical and operational level. Rockfeather implemented three tools at Signature Foods, Power BI, Zebra BI and Power Automate on top of an Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse.on top of an Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse.
Power BI is Microsoft’s data visualization tool and allows users to easily connect, edit, and visualize data from different sources. In addition, sharing information is easy with different roles and permissions between users. Finally, templates ensure that Power BI reports are easy to put together.
On top of that, the combination of Power BI with the Zebra BI add-on also ensures that reports comply with IBCS® standards. This accelerates the analysis speed of reports and enables management teams to make more accurate decisions.
Lastly, to keep end users continuously informed, Rockfeather also created Power Automate flows that send weekly emails summarizing and providing small insights from the data within Signature Foods.
Future-proof training
In addition to introducing these various tools, Rockfeather also believes that companies should be able to stand on their own two feet when it comes to data maturity. To make this a reality at Signature Foods, Rockfeather trained and coached the data team on how to use Power BI, Zebra BI, Power Automate, and make reporting in IBCS® standards. This allows Signature Foods to not only provide consumers with the best appetizers right now, but to continue to do so in the future.
The result?
With the implementation of Power BI, Zebra BI, Power Automate, and IBCS® reports, Signature Foods has the right information available on both a daily and a monthly basis, which is also automated for the Commercial, Finance, and Management teams. During the daily activities, these tools help Signature Foods to work in a more data driven way. During the periodic performance reviews, this means that the company is able to adjust based on a combination of data and common sense. Curious about the story of Signature Foods? Watch the video at the top of the page.