For VELUX, the Danish maker of roof windows, skylights, and more, data is a fundamental part of their strategy. Find out how SAP Data Warehouse Cloud helps VELUX bridge on-premise and cloud data sources, while also empowering business users.
VELUX Empowers Business Users With SAP Data Warehouse Cloud
For more than 75 years, VELUX has been bringing daylight and fresh air into people’s lives with their line of products. While the Danish manufacturer’s products are physical – roof windows, skylights, and the like – their data is one of their key assets.
With this data, they can gain a deep understanding of their customers in the 40 countries, where they have a sales presence. Data shows when these customers are most likely to remodel their home, reveals what the pain points are, and determines what products are resonating. Now, thanks to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, this data is easier than ever to leverage.
We now have a tool at hand that goes far beyond the modeling capabilities of a BI tool. We can give our business users flexibility and also make sure that we govern and protect the data.
Andreas Madsen, Senior Data and & Analytics Partner at VELUX
Defining the Data Problem
VELUX sought out an end-to-end view of all their data for both IT users and the less-technical business users. Providing self-service modeling and reporting capabilities would be a huge benefit for business users. After all, it’s the business users’ models and reports that help make the strategic business decisions that shape VELUX. As important as this data is, the whole process was too slow and inflexible.
Normally, IT would create all the queries based on requests from business users. These queries contain complex calculations of dimensions and measures. They would need to be precisely mapped out in terms of requirements. If the business user needs to change anything, the whole process needs to be repeated. This takes too much time.
With self-service modeling and reporting, business users can handle everything on their own, using the most business current data within a well-defined environment. This could be done without offloading data from the systems into spreadsheets or other tools.
On-Premise or in the Cloud: Why Not Both?
VELUX brings in data both from on-premise sources and the cloud. Their on-premise data warehousing solution provided by SAP BW and BW/4 HANA is operating extremely efficiently, despite having complex authorizations in place. VELUX’s goal was to create a hybrid data management strategy that builds off their existing on-premise investments.
Velux saw that too many solutions on the market require on-premise data to be moved into the cloud to consolidate both sources. They wanted to make sure this wouldn’t be the case.
They were relieved to know that SAP Data Warehouse Cloud can be used for a hybrid data management strategy. The solution seamlessly connects and integrates different systems without replication thanks to its virtualization capabilities.
In the future, VELUX has the option to move everything in the cloud if they wanted, providing ultimate flexibility for the user. SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, being an enterprise-grade data warehouse, could handle this transition.
Giving Business Users Freedom and Flexibility
With SAP Data Warehouse Cloud able to support a hybrid data management strategy, VELUX began empowering their business users. Onboarding was made easy thanks to a wealth of enablement material, from detailed guides to a community of users that help each other.
Onboarding is a first important step, but usability is what VELUX was really looking for in a solution. Their expectations were exceeded. After working with our counterparts on the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud team, we know that this simplicity a top priority for them as well. We are all working towards the same overarching goal – creating a product that is designed for the business user.
Andreas Madsen, Senior Data and & Analytics Partner at VELUX