Nagel-Group embraces a data-driven culture with Microsoft Data, Analytics, and AI solutions

For Nagel-Group, the future of logistics is digital. Using smart solutions and state-of-the-art technologies, the logistics company is on its way to running a fully data-driven business. 

Revitalizing the current platform and improving self-service 

In 2020 the IT landscape was characterized by many constraints. It comprised more than 150 different database systems for transport and warehouse management data, as well as SAP, ERP, and CRM data, with insufficient quality and no possibility for consolidated reporting.

The SAP’s business warehouse performance was too limited, development times were too long, and a self-service culture was lacking. The poor flexibility led to high usage of Excel and Access-based tools with the associated operational risks. Since financial and controlling data would still be processed in SAP, it was also a strong desire to have a data platform that was open to other technologies and able to combine the data from SAP with operational data for better insights. 

Furthermore, the existing IT landscape did not provide a basis for AI-based models, something Nagel was keen on bringing into its ecosystem. 

With Michael Lütjann joining the board of directors as Chief Information Officer and Florian Seffert as Innovation Manager, the company’s technology goals shaped with the new IT strategy: a modern, cloud-based data platform was needed to meet the business demands, prepare for the future, and support data-driven decisions. Nagel’s Business Intelligence Competence Center (BICC), led by Jörg Reineke, worked to bring this vision to life. 

Bringing data together with the right tools

With the individual requirements above in mind, the company began to compare possible solutions and the decision for Microsoft was made. 

Open to other technologies and enabling analytics based on multiple operational data sources, the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform, with a focus on Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics and Microsoft Power BI, seemed to be the perfect choice for Nagel-Group. Power BI provides highly performing reports while also offering a strong self-service approach and seamless integration with other Microsoft tools. Azure Synapse Analytics is a great business enabler for Machine Learning and AI Services. 

Convinced by further Azure Cloud benefits like scalability, cost-optimization, and feature richness, Nagel-Group started looking for a respective Microsoft Partner. They found Obungi GmbH from Hamburg, a six times certified Microsoft Gold Partner with a strong focus and Advanced Specializations in Data, Analytics, and AI. Together, Nagel-Group and Obungi set out to build out the new platform.

Starting the journey with Obungi’s Data Strategy Assessment* 

Nagel-Group and Obungi started off their journey with Obungi’s Data Strategy Assessment (DSA). The DSA is a structured and interactive process based on four components: Business Review, Status Quo Analysis & Envisioning, GAP Analysis & Target Definition, and Roadmap Planning & Cost Estimation. 

In the review phase, Obungi’s experts first built up an understanding of Nagel-Group's business goals and needs before starting to analyze the data infrastructure.

“In order to meet a client’s needs in the best way possible, it is necessary to not only focus on technical solutions, but also to look at things from a strong business perspective,” says Torsten Wanka, one of Obungi’s Managing Directors. 

The status quo analysis includes the examination of the current data structure and the identification of potential risks and chances. With these insights Obungi created a target state-of the-art landscape and a prioritized implementation roadmap including a cost estimation.

Building the target landscape as a basis for decision making

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After the solution assessment was complete, an analytics architecture based on Microsoft Azure Data Lake, Azure Synapse, Azure Machine Learning and Power BI Premium (Gen2) was built. These components form the backbone for the Analytics landscape.

The implemented solution enables the integration of over 150 data sources ranging from warehouse and transport management system data in Oracle databases to financial and controlling data in SAP to CRM data in Microsoft Dynamics. By integrating these sources, the landscape met the logistic company’s initially defined requirements to combine financial with operational data. 

The infrastructure enables all raw data from different sources to be managed in one place: Azure Data Lake Storage. After being cleansed and enriched the data is used in Azure Synapse Analytics for complex data transformations and data modeling. Technically, the transformations are performed using pipelines in Azure Synapse Analytics, which enable both the low-code approach and, if required, more complex transformations programmatically (e.g., via SQL, Spark, Python, etc.).

In addition, some use cases around Data Science and Machine Learning were defined and implemented using Azure AI components (e.g., Azure ML, Azure Cognitive Services, etc.).

Faster decisions and widespread data access with Power BI

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Based on the curated data from Azure Data Lake and Azure Synapse Analytics, the data is made available to the business users via Power BI Datasets. In contrast to the past, each user can easily analyze and visualize the data in Power BI without having an IT background. 

Reports and dashboards can be created independently and enriched with calculations and additional data, if required. Obungi regularly conducts two-day workshops with Nagel’s BICC team to enable employees to get started with Power BI and make use of all functions. 

The new architecture brought significant improvements for Nagel-Group in many different areas and departments:

• Improved reporting: Power BI, with its strong performance and self-service approach, enabled faster, better, and device-independent reporting. Among other improvements, this is a huge step forward for the sales department, which can now work with mobile reports that contain combined insights from Microsoft Dynamics 365 and SAP.
• Faster decision making: The possibility to combine and analyze all data through Azure Data Lake Storage and Azure Synapse allows business stakeholders to make more profound and faster decisions.   
• Innovative chances: The access to more data also paves the way for a major improvement in customer support. Nagel-Group’s track & trace app can now be enriched with information from operational transport systems, allowing for real time tracking. 
• Self-service approach: Power BI is now the main channel for over 500 employees, who can create and consume their own reports, which is more than three times as many as before.

Next steps on the data-driven journey

Nagel-Group and Obungi GmbH are not only looking back on a successful collaboration so far but will continue to pursue Nagel-Group’s mission to becoming a fully data driven company together. 

“Digitalization is an ongoing process, which is why we have many more projects in our pipeline in order to accomplish our goal to become more and more data-driven and always stay innovative,” says Jörg Reineke, BI Team Lead at Nagel-Group. “Obungi has been called one of the best in Data, Analytics, and AI. This has been proven to be true, as the collaboration works extremely well.”

Looking ahead, Nagel-Group plans to have more and more systems connected to the Azure Data Lake. The organization also hopes to introduce more Microsoft Power Platform Technologies, such as Power Apps, Dataverse and Power Automate. Nagel-Group is also keen to establish a stronger data governance aspect to its platform and hopes that the introduction of a data catalog and data lineage via Microsoft Purview will help assist with that. 

Torsten Wanka sums up the collaborative effort between Nagel-Group and Obungi: “Nagel-Group is a prime example of how to develop into a data-driven company with a modern, innovative mindset. For Obungi, it is important not only to support the implementation of Azure and Power BI with technological expertise, but also to act as a sparring partner for the business and IT side with new ideas and to demonstrate the self-service possibilities.” 

*Obungi GmbH’s Data Strategy Assessment made it to the finals of the Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards 2022 in the category Solution Assessments. Obungi GmbH was the only German company to make it to the finals in this category along with two other companies worldwide out of over 400,000 partners.