Tableau for transparency
When Ilari Kosonen began working as Tammer Brands' CFO a couple of years ago, the ambitions of the Board of Directors and owners were clear: they wanted data to be more transparent.
"Previously, it was only possible to see one perspective at a time – either brands or product groups – but it was not possible to explore the data comprehensively in relation to any one dimension. We are a brand company that lives by its products, so data needs to be precisely understood. We concluded that it was not worth continuing with the old-fashioned reporting system. We evaluated our options, and Tableau was the clear technological choice. This led us to choose Knowit as our consulting partner," says Ilari Kosonen.
Previously, the data was in several places, and some of it needed to be retrieved manually and consolidated in Excel spreadsheets. It was clear that the company did not want new software to maintain, instead preferring an easy and cost-efficient SaaS cloud service.
The project started by collecting data from the ERP, product information system and in-store point-of-sale system into a data warehouse built on top of Snowflake. Dbt was also included, as it provides transparency during the source data conversion phase and, if necessary, helps to trace the data path and manage different versions of the data model. When the data models are described and documented in dbt and the logic is visible in version control, it is easier for new people to begin working with data. Tableau was chosen as the tool for visualising analytics because of the ease of use for less technical users. Alteryx has also been used for some specific cases, such as automatically generating certificates of conformity.