The interactive data analysis

A business intelligence solution makes it possible to carry out joint evaluations of all and very large volumes of data in the company and to pursue a successful corporate strategy in a targeted manner. At the end of the presentation phase, Sintron-Polymec AG chose the widely used VisualCockpit product from Simba n³, which combines state-of-the-art technologies in its solutions. During the introduction and training period, the employees received strong support from the staff of iq's & consulting GmbH, which has been assisting the company with IT issues for many years.

Where can I find the important information?
Who of you doesn't know the situation: It's vacation time, an employee is still sick and you also have to take care of setting up a new machine yourself. And just now the management wants to have exact and detailed figures, which you have to collect laboriously. Where are they stored and how do you get the right values from other files together so that the result is meaningful enough?

In order to be able to make competent decisions, companies are dependent on well-founded information stored in their IT systems. However, this information is usually so extensive and stored in different places, often in independent systems, which cannot correspond with each other, so that it is difficult to filter out the right ones and also to find the successful starting point of the analysis. In addition, you still need the extensive knowledge of the IT experts, who usually do not have the time just then. This makes the analysis very inflexible and cannot be completed in the desired time.

Taken on their own, data have little or no value. The true value only arises when it is linked with other information. The goal is to generate value from data. This connection can easily be achieved with the help of a "Business Intelligence (BI)" solution, as offered by various companies.

Cross-application evaluations
Sintron-Polymec AG has three different software solutions for handling administrative processes in-house, but the three packages only speak to each other to a very limited extent. The use of the new BI software VisualCockpit from Simba n³ allows the design of cross-application evaluations. Until now, these had to be filtered out from repeated and time-consuming extracts from the individual applications and evaluations - for example, from Excel files. With the additional VisualCockpit software, data from the production control center can now be combined with logistics and CAQ data and put in relation to each other. This is very valuable in the phase of ongoing adaptation of business processes, it allows a complete overview of the results of targeted measures.

With VisualCockpit, exactly these tasks can be solved quickly and without complex programming via a single user interface. In addition to the easy-to-understand graphics - a picture is worth a thousand words - all data is available as tables and can also be output or exported as a report at any time.

Making data graphically visible
VisualCockpit is designed to find patterns and anomalies in complex data, regardless of how much prior information is present in the data. For this purpose, VisualCockpit uses graphics and tables as the primary means of gaining insight.

With the help of the DataWarehouseBuilder, all data from the various heterogeneous source systems such as ERP, CRM, CAQ, MES, SAP or other databases, PDF or text files are extracted and bundled and made visible in the VisualCockpit. In the process, the data is transformed into valuable information. This means that the data is linked to each other in terms of content and is therefore also suitable for carrying out your own ad-hoc analyses in any desired data depth. The interactive graphics and tables are also what distinguish VisualCockpit from other BI systems. Through the new approach of Active Data Modeling (ADM) - a specialty of VisualCockpit - this product achieves excellent interactivity. Since only the basic data is used, the system is extremely flexible.

In addition, VisualCockpit makes it easier to work actively with the evaluations. The drill-down function is not possible without programming in the static re-ports on which the usual software packages are based. With VisualCockpit, the data can thus be further and further detailed. If problems arise, they can be investigated without much effort. Another advantage are the many different dynamic slide types. Working with interactive graphics makes it possible even for those unfamiliar with IT to obtain any information from the DataWarehouseBuilder with intuitive queries and to analyze it without great effort.

Achieve improvements from process data
In addition to the usual hard figures from the financial world, process data accumulates in every company from which revealing information can be obtained. For example, how high is the risk of a malfunction? Or the assessment of quality and reject rates. Or the analysis of capital commitment in warehouse and production.

With VisualCockpit, the production orders can be analyzed with regard to the respective production sequences. On this basis, new and more efficient concepts for production planning and material flow can be defined. Sintron-Poly-mec AG has numerous, manually maintained evaluations and key figures that are currently drawn from the various systems.

Furthermore, only limited resources are available for the design of reports. However, this makes flexible evaluations all the more important. After a one-time effort, the use of VisualCockpit allows a very flexible adaptation of the evaluations to current issues. Readability is always guaranteed due to the very simple drill-downs and the level of detail can also be reduced again after successful projects. In contrast to classic reports, which are usually used but have increasingly struggled to keep pace with growing requirements, once detailed they are always detailed and can only be adapted to changing needs with a great deal of effort. VisualCockpit does not have such rigid structures.

Secure external data storage
The main benefit that Sintron-Polymec AG derives from the system is the secure external data storage and processing of the figures. This allows evaluations via systems with the most diverse databases; in the case of Sintron-Polymec AG from Oracle, MS-SQL and Excel. The regular data extract from the live systems does not necessarily allow for an up-to-the-minute evaluation - for this you go into the respective systems. In return, however, you receive an evaluation which is very fast in itself and which certainly does not affect the active systems.

Kilian Hunziker, Managing Director of Sintron-Polymec AG, sums it up: "VisualCockpit still requires healthy IT knowledge in setting up the structures and basic queries, but it is very easy and intuitive to use for day-to-day business. Not to forget the significant time savings. With the software, we can also spontaneously scrutinize individual customer and supplier relationships. In addition, critical issues can be monitored effectively. Here we received excellent support from the project team at iq's & consul-ting GmbH, who have been assisting us with the application of our CAQ software for years. The hardware requirements remain within manageable limits and allow for evaluations that are decoupled from the basic system without further burdening it. In addition, any errors that occur in the design of the evaluations never jeopardize the effective business figures. This increases the 'willingness to take risks' when playing with the evaluation and thus the acceptance by many users in the business."