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Planning, forecasting and reporting for IT service centres

Client

ITDZ Berlin

Category

Public sector

Date

Since 2018

Technical solution overview

  • Reporting and planning
    Board Webclient
  • Data Warehouse/ETL Tool
    MS SQL
  • Operative pre-systems
    SAP

Lengthy, decentralised and resource-intensive planning and forecasting processes are a thing of the past at IT-Dienstleistungszentrum (IT Service Centre) Berlin! Here you can read how the centre has achieved this.

Economic planning | Economic forecasting | Reporting | Public administration | Workflow-driven


Company profile

The IT Service Centre Berlin (ITDZ) was created in 2005 from the rebranding of the State Office for Information Technology (LIT) and has been the central IT service provider for the state of Berlin ever since. As such, the ITDZ and its more than 900 employees perform various tasks in the areas of data and telecommunications. This includes the operation of two data centres, a fibre optic network covering almost 1000 km, many processes required for administrative work and IT infrastructure services. As a municipal IT company, the ITDZ has a political mandate and acts within a legal framework. With modern information and communication technology (ICT) and the know-how of their IT experts, they are driving forward the digitalisation of Berlin’s state administration in a targeted manner. The declared goal: a modern service orientation towards citizens and companies.

Starting position

The ITDZ Berlin uses the ERP software SAP as its commercial system. Before the project started, employees only had access to the system’s internal standard reports, which were, however, firmly focussed on one aspect. This meant that more in-depth analyses could only be carried out to a limited extent in this tool and the options for providing users with up-to-date reports were very limited. In most cases, the data was ultimately analysed in the Excel spreadsheet program. However, the exported SAP data first had to be enriched with master data and then customised according to the needs of the end user. This tedious and decentralised process was used for both the monthly reporting and the planning processes (forecasts and business planning). As this process was no longer sustainable for the employees, nor was it possible to realise punctual business planning, the ITDZ decided to introduce an independent and professional BI solution.

Objective

The aim of the project was the initial introduction of a professional BI/CPM system to simplify the work of employees in the reporting and planning process. A particular focus was placed on creating reports centrally and easily, as well as being able to analyse data quickly according to various evaluation dimensions. For planning, the ability to enter planned values was the top priority. In addition, the economic planning was finally to be implemented on time, for which only two months are available each year.

In order to achieve these goals, a software decision was made by the ITDZ in the run-up to the initial project. This was done with the support of an external team of consultants during several internal consultation rounds. The renowned BI software Board was chosen. The decisive factor was not only Board’s stable market position, but also the HTMLS-based programming and the software's extensive planning options.

Client solution

With a project team consisting of two ITDZ employees responsible for the project and three linkFISH consultants, the data architecture consisting of an MS SQL Data Warehouse (DWH), corresponding ETL routes and the front-end reports were implemented in Board within a week. This was made possible by a prior intensive preparation and conception phase in which the module was planned with dedication and the relevant employees were trained for the realisation of the project. Since the successful completion of the first module, regular expansion stages have followed, so that various areas are now mapped in Board:

  • Cost reporting for the specialist areas/departments with regard to cost centres, internal projects and investments
  • Sales reporting
  • Business planning (sales, cost centre and action planning, etc.)
  • Forecasts
  • The project control centre

In total, more than 230 users are already using the programme - and the trend is rising. The system is managed by two technical controllers.

Customer benefits

Once the infrastructure had been set up, it was possible to load the data from SAP into Board completely and clearly within just a few days. As the data was now structured and transparent, master data errors in the upstream system were immediately recognised and could be easily detected and rectified. Due to this constant monitoring, the data quality from the upstream system could be sustainably improved. New errors are now also recognised immediately and can be corrected quickly. The new system also reduces the workload for users, as the creation and distribution of reports takes significantly less time. This leaves you more time for qualitative controlling tasks.

Due to these tangible successes, Board is being used by an increasing number of employees, who are also continuously developing and improving the BI tool. The common data basis and transparency created as a result, as well as the standards developed, also lead to significantly increased reliability. Decentralised individual solutions, for example with Excel, are largely a thing of the past. Authorised persons can now access all current and relevant reports and plans directly in Board at any time. With the help of Board, it is also possible to carry out and successfully complete business planning within the time available.

We are very happy to have such a committed and competent partner at our side in linkFISH! Together we were able to quickly implement Board for the first time, which was much easier than with heavyweights such as SAP or Oracle. We were also able to achieve results much sooner with Board. Now we have a tool that has the same future-proof functions as the big manufacturers.

Mr Stephan Wittenbecher, Corporate Controlling (Central Service)