The Customer
Collision Auto is a West Coast-based B2B auto parts distributor that supplies parts across multiple locations, focusing on efficiency, pricing accuracy, and operational scale.
The Project
Cloud Data Warehouse Modernization On Snowflake
Overview
Collision Auto, a West Coast-based B2B auto parts distributor, partnered with Improving to modernize their cloud data warehouse using Snowflake. The project aimed to consolidate disparate data sources, enhancing the company's ability to analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) and make data-driven decisions. This modernization effort focused on centralizing revenue data from multiple ERPs, improving overall data visibility, and enabling more accurate pricing strategies and inventory management.
The Business Problem
Collision Auto faced a significant challenge due to its reliance on multiple ERP systems, which resulted in fragmented data. This fragmentation made it difficult for the company to gain a comprehensive view of their revenue metrics, inventory, and sales performance. The CEO and Chief Revenue Officer sought a solution that would enable them to consolidate this data, improve pricing strategies, and ultimately increase their operational efficiency and profitability.
Our Solution
Improving's approach involved centralizing Collision Auto's data using Snowflake's cloud data warehouse capabilities. We began with extensive sales calls to understand the client's requirements and goals. Our solution included building a data lake to serve as a central repository for data storage and future data science experiments. We integrated data from multiple ERPs into Snowflake and used Power BI for data visualization. This approach ensured a scalable solution, allowing for dynamic pricing and improved decision-making based on consolidated data.
Technologies & Methodologies
Snowflake: Centralized cloud data warehouse for scalable and efficient data storage and analysis.
AWS S3 Buckets: Initial data storage and integration with Snowflake.
ERP Integration: Extracted data from multiple ERP systems using custom APIs.
Power BI: Used for data visualization and reporting to provide actionable insights to the business.
Data Lake: Central repository for storing structured and unstructured data, enabling future data science experiments.
Incremental Progress: Agile approach to deliver incremental progress and manage client expectations.
The Business Benefits
Improved Data Visibility: Enhanced reporting capabilities and operational visibility by consolidating data from multiple sources.
Better Margins: Enabled more accurate pricing strategies and inventory management, leading to improved profit margins.
Operational Efficiency: Streamlined data analysis processes, reducing the time and effort required to gather and analyze data.
Informed Decision-Making: Empowered the leadership team with accurate and timely data, facilitating data-driven decisions.
Enhanced Inventory Management: Improved ability to manage inventory by identifying slow-moving items for discounting and fast-moving items for price adjustments.
Foundation for Future Growth: Created a scalable data infrastructure to support future data science initiatives and advanced analytics.
Partnerships
This project was executed by the Improving team, with no additional external partnerships involved. Our internal collaboration and expertise in data modernization and cloud solutions were key to the project's success.
Lessons Learned
Fail Fast: Adopt a fail-fast approach to identify pain points quickly and iterate on solutions.
Expectation Management: Effectively manage client expectations to ensure alignment on project goals and deliverables.
Client Guidance: Provide clear guidance to clients on the value and scope of the project to prevent misunderstandings.
Incremental Progress: Show incremental progress to maintain client confidence and engagement.
Adaptability: Be prepared to adapt to industry-specific software and custom APIs for data extraction.
Communication: Maintain open and frequent communication with the client to address any emerging challenges promptly.
Why Improving
Collision Auto's cloud data warehouse modernization project on Snowflake resulted in significant improvements in data visibility, operational efficiency, and profitability. By consolidating and centralizing data from multiple ERPs, we enabled better pricing strategies and inventory management, laying a strong foundation for future growth and advanced analytics. Our unique approach, leveraging the capabilities of Snowflake and AWS, ensured a scalable and efficient solution, demonstrating our commitment to delivering high-quality, data-driven business solutions.
