Keyrus has partnered with a leading SA tyre manufacturer on its journey to implement cutting-edge business intelligence (BI). Sumitomo Rubber SA (SRSA) has rolled out Tableau, a world-leading BI tool to support self-service data analytics and presentation capabilities. The access to powerful data analytics allows users to create their own custom digital assets, including dashboards and reports, to improve reporting efficiency, agility and user productivity.
Challenge
Like many local companies, SRSA’s former BI solution did not meet the ever-increasing demands of business and the manufacturer recognised the need for a best-of-breed BI platform. Its previous BI solution was primarily used to download data into Excel, where users had limited access to use the data in various ways.
Leading data and digital consultancy, Keyrus, won the tender to migrate SRSA from its previous BI system to Tableau.
“We pride ourselves on our ability to recommend the best BI platform for our clients and facilitate the migration. We are extremely happy to have been awarded this project as it confirms our expertise is recognised by the leadership team of Sumitomo Rubber SA,” notes Adam Walker, General Manager at Keyrus.
Solution
Keyrus implemented an on-premises Tableau Server, utilising existing infrastructure and complying with SRSA, and its parent company, Sumitomo Rubber Industries' (SRI) strict global security standards.
Keyrus is one of Tableau’s key partners’ and premier reseller in the EMEA region and employs specialists who are Tableau certified consultants with vast business and Tableau practical experience.
The SRSA BI migration project included the redesign of multiple reports in Tableau Desktop, which were published to the Tableau Server for user acceptance testing (UAT).
Keyrus supported SRSA with the change management process that educated business users on the new platform and encouraged buy-in. Several educational ‘roadshow' sessions were held to create excitement about the new platform and to positively enhance any change management concerns.
An inherent part of the project delivery included an extension enablement programme that focused on online and in-person training sessions. “A key success element of these training sessions was that they were curated to use SRSA’s data and business requirements. This made the training content relevant and relatable to business users,” explains Craig Andrew, Head of Data & Analytics at Keyrus.
Benefits
By resourcing Keyrus, SRSA business users benefit from Tableau’s self-service capabilities that offers a user-friendly interface, data integration and exploration, advanced analytics and visual tools. It also significantly reduced the reporting process time and data agility allowed users to make any changes needed easily and quickly.
“Keyrus has strong expertise in BI and data management, which is key for us when choosing a partner in our digital transformation drive,” comments Johan Henning, CIO at SRSA. “Their support on gaining user buy-in and ensuring adoption was essential to ensuring success.”
“The project stimulated users to think differently about how to engage with the data to gain competitive edge. They can now create better visualisations to answer burning questions in the business market and are able to leverage that intelligence to drive our objectives,” summarises Henning.
“Business users can easily understand what the data says, and create their own digital assets, including dashboards and reports,” notes Walker.
Although the scope of the project was a BI tool migration, a like-for-like switch, users have recognised the advantages offered by Tableau. With Tableau being rolled out in January 2024, SRSA business users have embraced an important journey of data culture and are seeing the value of what a leading BI tool has to offer. Discussions around integrations to other technology tools and driving a mobile agenda are all being realised.
“We celebrate Sumitomo for their recognition of the need to upgrade their business intelligence competence,” adds Walker.
He explains that while many South Africa companies recognise their legacy technology has reached end of life, they remain wary about selecting a new BI tool and migrating their data, processes and users.
“This caution often stems from fears about change management and insufficient technological competence. Keyrus is ideally positioned to address both concerns and assist throughout the entire process of data architecture to effective decision intelligence,” he concludes.
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