Efficient use of Business Intelligence and Azure Cloud

Keeping your IT manageable. That's what we all want. Organize your IT as efficiently as possible to increase quality and reduce costs. Humanitas is a national volunteer organization that helps people change their situation on their own. Even on-premise technology that no longer met the need and they were ready for a transition to the cloud. Humanitas asked TeamValue for advice about their then existing BI tooling. Humanitas discovered the benefits of a Power BI platform and embarked on the “Move to the Cloud” process with us. The result? A BI development street fully equipped in accordance with the principles of the Golden Path. Humanitas is thus at the forefront of their industry, but also beyond, with this new BI platform.

“Accessible, cost-efficient, secure and scalable in the cloud. From valid data, systems that really talk to each other to One Button Deploy and real-time reports. At Humanitas, we are only at the beginning of the possibilities where TeamValue is our technical support and asset.”
- ICT Humanitas Team Leader - Mark Hagen

The Value

Understanding the value of data. Collect these in the right way and then be able to send them. Unnoticed, we are often on a gold mine of data. HRS supports the department directors, paid and volunteer coordinators and other volunteers and professionals from the districts and the National Office in their daily work and their mutual cooperation. Several separate internal and external data sources are unlocked and were first separate on a server. These were hosted by another party but had to be unlocked on their own platform, and that became possible with Power BI and Azure. All these data sources are hosted by various cloud suppliers. This also moved the entire data warehouse to the cloud.

We then started building reports that are now displayed directly in the HRS. Accountview, the finance system, is also included. A concrete wish, and which was not possible before, to have the reports and dashboards transparent by the volunteers themselves from HRS can be fulfilled with Power BI. At Humanitas, but also among several customers, there was a demand for insight into financial data in order to have real-time insight in the future, to be able to make forecasts but also to be able to make immediate adjustments. For the end users, in this case the volunteers, everything is now clearly accessible via the same portal.

“Xander may know our BI tooling better than we do by now and therefore also has a good idea of our organization... that's a nice compliment! After all, we are not only working on mathematical sums, but we create solutions for colleagues, volunteers and suppliers. We understand each other!”
‍- Humanitas Application Manager - Ruud Kuijpers

The Team

Since our existence in 2014, Humanitas and TeamValue have known each other. Before we started the 'Move to the Cloud' process. In the early years, we created a central database and dealt with Visionplanner, Pyramid and SQL, among other things. When Humanitas was ready for that, we held a Metaplan session with Business Controllers to look at a scalable IT infrastructure and specific BI. During this period, we have always managed the environment. This also makes Humanitas one of the longest-running customers of Bizure, a subsidiary of TeamValue. Dynamic management of your Business Critical Applications based on XLA.

TeamValue team members work on location and remotely with the Humanitas team. This is how we come up with solicited and sometimes unsolicited advice. By migrating to the cloud in 2019, the security level of the environment has also become increasingly higher. Bizure monitors security, quality, cost management and resiliency. We call this Agile management and is native to cloud-based BI projects. Challenging each other is therefore part of the collaboration. TeamValue's team members are open in the way of communicating, straightforward, are experts in their field and are also strong in executive and advisory roles. They are always approachable.

In 2014, we started our cooperation from a trial and error method. That was intensive. As the process progressed, our collaboration became more and more effective. TeamValue got more and more knowledge about our organization and we got more and more knowledge about BI. Xander regularly came in, solicited and unsolicited, with advice or a golden tip!” - Humanitas Application Manager - Ruud Kuijpers

The result:

1. Cost reduction through Pyramid's switch to the new Power BI platform and flexible, scalable and less costly IT through the use of Microsoft Azure. We went to the cloud on a low-cost basis and Humanitas itself is able to release what TeamValue has built.
2. Workshops BI were given to present how the platform is functionally organized and to translate it into practice and teach users how to make reports themselves.
3. The irrefutability of data is guaranteed and data can always be traced. For example, TeamValue not only supports Humanitas but also other IT partners that connect to the platform.
4. Tooling such as Azure Functions, Azure Data Factory, Azure SQL Database, and Power BI are standardized and centralized. All data sources are read into the database and made accessible to users via the central data factory in Power BI. Via Power BI Embedded, the dashboard is now displayed directly within the Humanitas intranet.
5. At Bizure, we monitor continuous costs and benefits based on Agile management via an XLA so that we can scale up and down.
6. The implementation along the route of The Golden Path was done by TeamValue. One Button Deploy within the BI platform is now possible with zero down-time.
7. Information is only accessible to those who are entitled to it for business value reasons. All data is fully auditable. From a data governance point of view, BI as a Service is extremely important to Humanitas. Personal and finance data is always safe in the Azure Cloud.

Humanity & TeamValue

The very first customer since TeamValue was founded! In the 'Move to the Cloud' process, we initially focused on redesigning the BI structure. Logically, we therefore look at business-critical applications. We have now reached the point where everything can be managed based on valuable data insights, and we are now looking at how the teams can take the platform and Power BI reports themselves to a higher level in the next phase. This requires a business transformation. Conclusion: a progressive BI platform and a nice collaboration.

“We understand that we are a different kind of customer from our non-profit background. TeamValue is flexible, thinks along with you and sets up a valuable way of working according to the Golden Path. We do not have our own technical capacity in our IT department. We consciously choose to leave that to an external party. One with an understanding of IT, but also an understanding of process and people!”
‍ - ICT Humanitas Team Leader - Mark Hagen

Interested?

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