Many companies are in a transitional phase: While on-premises data warehouse environments continue to deliver reliably, demands for self-service, AI capabilities, and the integration of unstructured and semi-structured data are on the rise. In the Microsoft ecosystem, SQL Server (on-premises), the Azure Data Platform, and Microsoft Fabric overlap – leading to issues such as decision-making bottlenecks, fragmented proof-of-concepts, and inconsistent skill sets.
Integrated data analytics are indispensable for companies today. The combination of Microsoft Business Central and Power BI offers a flexible, powerful solution for analysing central ERP data. Business Central covers core processes such as finance, purchasing and warehousing and is deeply integrated into Microsoft 365. This article highlights how a direct connection can be established, what advantages it offers and where the challenges lie.
What if you could simply ask your data model: "Why is the contribution margin of product group XYZ so low?" - and get a well-founded answer? GenAI and tools like Claude, Copilot & Co. promise exactly that. But how well does it really work? And what does this mean for data experts, power users and governance? An experience report between fascination and responsibility by data & analytics expert Marco Nielinger.
nwb Verlag has been a valued customer of noventum for many years. In the publishing house's BI landscape, it worked classically with SQL Server, SSIS and SSAS - in our established DWH layer model, but not yet with the noventum Data Platform Accelerator (nDPA) and therefore with inflexible, layer-based loading via nested SSIS packages. The aim of a current project was to introduce the nDPA Orchestrator in order to modernise existing ETL processes and make them more flexible. However, before the orchestrator could begin its work, a tedious task had to be completed: the dependency analysis of around 500 SSIS packages.
In today's data-driven business world, data-driven decision making is crucial for global organisations. Sonepar Deutschland GmbH recognises the relevance of this approach and relies on Microsoft Power BI as an effective reporting and analysis tool. As a long-standing partner of Sonepar, noventum consulting already successfully helped to redesign and consolidate the company's central data warehouse in 2018. We have now taken the next step in our collaboration: the implementation of Power BI to improve reporting and analyses.
Companies are increasingly recognising the inevitability of Self Service BI (SSBI), but not infrequently they fail to implement it and therefore cannot fully exploit its potential. With this contribution we want to answer the following question: Which factors must be fulfilled so that the cooperation between the central BI organisation and users in the specialist areas - the so-called "power users" - works and both sides benefit from each other?
With Composite Models, Microsoft significantly expands the application spectrum of Power BI for business departments in companies. At the same time, a very powerful tool for self-service BI is created for the central business intelligence and IT departments in order to give the departments new freedoms and possibilities while taking their governance guidelines into account. The article is therefore aimed at both responsible and advanced users of Power BI Desktop in Controlling as well as those responsible in central IT or Business Intelligence. Used correctly, composite models open up a new world for self-service BI.
At noventum, we very often deal with the connection of SAP systems to Microsoft-based data platforms. Both on Azure with ADF and Azure SSIS or locally with SSIS and often with XtractIS from Theobald.
The supreme discipline of data extraction from SAP is the connection of data via SAP BI Content Datasources.
The project team of the analysis platform "CLAIR" of our long-standing customer Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister (ZSVR) has been awarded 2nd place in the category "SME" for the "Best Data Project Award" at the VOICE ENTSCHEIDERFORUM 2022 in Berlin.
With more than 400 members, VOICE - Bundesverband der IT-Anwender e. V. is considered the largest community of digital decision-makers in the German-speaking world, serves as a network for CIOs of leading companies from a wide range of industries and promotes professional exchange and the strengthening of IT user interests.
As "Director Senior Azure Analytics Architect", Felix Möller has worked for the technology group Avanade for the past five years and has now returned to noventum consulting to contribute his experience to the consultancy. In his last role, Felix Möller worked as an architect and project manager in large Azure Data Platform projects for German corporations. In the future, he will increasingly lead noventum BI customers into the cloud and bring the experience from the corporate world to SMEs.
SAP systems offer advanced interfaces, which on the one hand provide delta mechanisms. On the other hand, these bring together a wide variety of base tables in order to simplify processing. This functionality can be accessed with the help of Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services and the 3rd party component XtractIS from Theobald. We have used this technology successfully many times in the last 10 years (e.g. BRITA).
The topic of data protection is gaining importance for many companies in the lockdown due to the accelerated digital transformation. The use of adequate collaboration tools is increasingly becoming a decisive success factor in times of social distancing. At the same time, the legal framework conditions are tightening due to the so-called "Schrems II" ruling and its effects on international data transfer. In this situation, how can we remain capable of action and data protection compliant at the same time?
Since 2019, manufacturers and distributors of packaging have had to register in the LUCID packaging register of the Stiftung Zentrale Verpackungsregister Stelle (ZSVR) and indicate which packaging has been placed on the market and to what extent. With the mass of messages and parameters that arise, the data evaluation is particularly complex. In order to create and commission this, the ZSVR Foundation commissioned the IT management consultancy noventum consulting.
Microsoft Power BI has been on everyone's lips for several years now under the keyword "Self-Service BI" and contributes significantly to the perception of the Microsoft Data Platform as a leading analytics and business intelligence platform. In order to maintain and expand its leading position, Microsoft is making significant investments in the further development of the platform and is constantly increasing the range of functions via short, sometimes monthly release cycles.
The EU has developed a new privacy / data protection law, the “EU General Data Protection Regulation”. It has been in full force since May 2018 and there is still uncertainty among a lot of companies and their data protection officers as to what is actually required by the new regulations and what kind of impact they will specifically have on their data processing processes. Especially in the big data and business intelligence environment, fundamental conflicts of interest arise and widely spread paradigms regarding data retention and analysis will potentially have to be put into question.
The following article provides an overview regarding the fundamental requirements of the GDPR and the obligations arising for companies and for the data protection officers, and outlines a possible approach to comply with these requirements. In addition, the impacts of the regulation are discussed in the business intelligence context and it is shown, based on the example of the Microsoft SQL Server platform, how the requirements of the new EU Directive can be covered by features of modern database management systems.
The family-owned company BRITA, based in Taunusstein, Germany, is a leader in the field of drinking water optimization and is represented on all five continents. It operates a complex data warehouse to meet its diverse commercial requirements. By upgrading its SQL Server software to the latest version of 2016 SP1, the company is now able to use the various new functions of the Standard Edition and to remain technically up to date with justifiable effort.
An intelligent analysis of customer and online user data enables targeted and customer-oriented marketing. The prerequisite for this is that the implemented data structures and selected analysis methods and BI tools are coordinated with each other and fit together well. A medium-sized publishing company used the DWH and BI architecture introduced in 2013 to expand its data-based marketing activities. As in the previous BI projects, noventum's consultants were also responsible for developing a data model for marketing, which will also serve as a central basis for future analytics requirements.
From the construction of the first prototype in their own garage to becoming one of the world market leaders for combined heat and power plants (CHPs) – that's the interim balance of the 2G Group from the Münsterland region. The rapid growth and increasing internationalisation bring along new challenges for control and operation, as well as, in particular, for the Controlling specialist department. In order to also satisfy all future requirements in this dynamic environment efficiently, the company started the enterprise data warehouse project "2G-Facts" in late 2014 with the support of the IT management consulting firm noventum consulting GmbH. Today, 2G is already using the new business intelligence platform in select application cases in various commercial and technical specialist areas and is therewith excellently positioned also for future requirements and for increasing demand for information.
At the end of 2013, the Herne-based publishing house NWB Verlag, too, reached the point of completely rethinking its current BI solution approaches. Jointly with the BI team of noventum consulting GmbH, a fundamental renewal of the BI architecture was achieved in the process. Subsequent to the implementation of an enterprise DWH as basis for reporting and analysis, the quality improvement of the planning processes was scheduled for 2015. Due to the successfully completed project, the comptrollers of NWB Verlag are now able to present more detailed and more flexible planning results that are of higher quality, and can do so at considerably reduced effort.
Marcus Pothmann, noventum consulting, gave a presentation on "Versioning and Configuration Management" at the 27th meeting of the German-speaking DataStage UserGroup (DDSUG).
Für eine erfolgreiche strategische Unternehmenssteuerung ist die präzise Kenntnis der Fakten in den eigenen Unternehmensabläufen ebenso wichtig wie die statistisch aufbereitete Kenntnis des konkreten Realisierungsgrades qualitativer Unternehmensziele. noventum consulting untersucht, wie Kennzahlensysteme die Steuerung von Rechenzentren und IT-Dienstleistungen unterstützen können.
The measurement of performance and service quality is becoming increasingly important in the IT services business in view of growing competitive, price and cost pressures. At the same time, quality management systems such as ISO 9001 and EFQM demand the implementation of suitable key performance indicator systems.
The IT infrastructures of companies of different industries - in particular of those in the financial sector - must adhere to an increasing number of internal and external requirements. Among them are requirements from statutory rules and regulations (Sarbanes-Oxley Act), standards (PCI DSS, COBIT), norms (ISO/IEC 27001), and internal requirements. These must be taken into consideration on the strategic level as part of IT governance and have to be implemented via corresponding processes, resources, and guidelines on the operational level.
The BRITA family company, headquartered in Taunusstein (Germany), is represented on all five continents as globally active provider in the area of drinking water optimisation, with subsidiaries, shareholdings, and partner companies. Corresponding to the structure of its group of companies, the company needed a central reporting, analysis and - in the future also - planning solution for the quick, automated mapping of the monthly financial statements of the whole group of companies.
The creation of data warehouses allows for relying on standardised elements at different spots. Depending on the project, there is a high degree of standardisation in some layers while others contain customer-specific business logic throughout. To implement the standardised layers as quickly as possible and in high quality means – for each project – a stable basis and motivation for the often difficult individual aspects that have to be worked on subsequently.
WGZ BANK, Geno Bank Consult and GAD did, with the support of noventum, jointly develop a new solution for credit risk reporting. In this, it was possible to show that an automated data management system and a standardised report template do not necessarily have to represent a contradiction to bank-specific requirements.
„Standardisation in the actual meaning of the word means a unification of metric, types, methods or other things. The objective is the creation of joint standards respectively parameters (for instance in case of tools, production components or software components)." That‘s what Wikipedia has to say. What significance does standardisation have in a highly customer-specific consulting environment such as the setup of business intelligence solutions?
In companies, the HR indicators gain more and more importance as a strategic instrument. As such, meaningful strategic indicators are presented to executive management in an appealing fashion. In this, indicator reports are not to be considered compliance documents but rather an organisational communication tool. Only when the recipient received an informative and coherent document can strategic measures be derived therefrom and/or objectives pursued.
Originally interconnected via the proximity to the MicroStrategy BI tool, the tool provider Thinking Networks and noventum consulting are growing closer and closer together as a homogeneous solution provider. After first joint project successes and a joint presence at MicroStrategy World in Barcelona (Spain) in July of this year, noventum has considerably driven forward the integration of the two best-of-breed tool providers for business intelligence and planning. The result of this activity: the „CPM Excellence Suite“.
A growing number of companies have been integrated into domestic as well as international company group structures. These days, the increased complexity of the business landscape can only be managed properly with automated IT architectures, because the quarterly and/or annual reports of the parent company and those of the subsidiaries as well as the consolidated financial statement of the company group are closely intertwined with one another and must comply with complicated domestic and international regulations.
In certain specialised areas, classic corporate performance management tools successfully perform their duties. For this reason, the current solutions in the marketplace include numerous specialised CPM tools that have been designed to fulfil the requirements of a certain area of specialisation or a specific BI Task.
At the end of May, two intense days of joint business development and planning of future activities brought together Thorsten Schmidt and Thorsten Nimbs of noventum consulting with their partners of MicroStrategy and Thinking Networks in Warsaw. The place of the meeting was the Global Delivery Center of MicroStrategy Poland (GDC). Motivated by numerous successful projects, both parties intend to expand and intensify the partnership of many years already.
The dibera consulting company, a subsidiary of the LVM insurance company, and noventum consulting have made plans for a consulting partnership for the insurance industry. dibera, which is established in the insurance sector, as well as noventum consulting with its technical and strategic BI consulting approach, want to jointly put their expertise to use in future projects. Uwe Rotermund, managing director of noventum, and Thomas Koschlig, managing director of dibera, emphasised at a meeting the good fit of both companies. Thorsten Schmidt, who has technical responsibility for BI consulting at noventum, is happy about how well the companies complement each other. „At noventum, to date, we have successfully completed very sophisticated and large BI projects. With the intimate insurance know-how of dibera, we are jointly the ideal consultants for the insurance industry.-
The asset management unit of a power utility bears responsibility for guaranteeing the security of the supply as well as for the long-term development and maintenance of the grid. In this, the focus is, on the one hand, on the development of maintenance and investment strategies that require an assessment of the grid components and a determination of their condition. On the other hand, budgeting and the planning of measures in coordination with the overall business planning comprise the second focal point.
Independent of the management system used, the requirements posed to a tool for business management are the same. The purpose always is to support a corporate performance management cycle (PDCA cycle = Plan -- Do -- Check -- Act). The challenge is to ensure an overall picture for executive management.
In the implementation and consolidation of data warehouse (DWH) solutions, the decisions regarding a specific architecture, the software to be utilised, and BI governance are of strategic significance. Nevertheless, this issue is often considered very subjectively and the decision is influenced only by a few people – e.g., is software manufacturer ABC market leader in this industry.
What does a performance measurement system have to do with quality? Anyone who intensely deals with this topic will soon find out: a great deal. Performance measurement system that is the new term for an indicator system. For a long time already, indicators and/or statistical measured values have been the undisputable proof for the quality of a product or process that is specified in advance.
noventum consulting is conducting Business Intelligence Maturity Assessments based on a methodology that is utilising the Information Evolution Model to identify and measure an organisation’s current level of BI maturity. With this information, you can increase the value driven by Business Intelligence Investments and also achieve a competitive advantage.
Business decisions are based on data. It is quite a challenge to manage data cross-departmentally, to protect it, to use it profitably, and while doing so, to adhere to statutory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Basel II or HIPAA. According to a 2008 Gartner study, only 10 % of all businesses succeed in their first attempt to implement efficient processes that master this challenge.
novum: Mr. Schmidt, let‘s start with one of the biggest challenges, data management in a Business Intelligence context. How are you positioned for this?
