Eurowag achieves instant access to actionable data with Azure Synapse Analytics

For over 25 years, Eurowag has been a leader in the road transportation industry, offering its customers products and services based on modern digital technologies, ranging from conventional and alternative fuel payments, electric vehicle charging and toll payment, to tax refunds, telematics and navigation, to a range of financial services and advice on switching to alternative fuels and drives. Its trusted fleet management system is used by more than 95,000 drivers and provides access to over 15,000 fuel stations across Europe. “Our vision is to create a digital platform that streamlines all processes in the transportation business,” describes Václav Dorazil,  VP of Data and Digitalisation at Eurowag. 

A major part of this vision is to enhance access to streams of business-related data. “The key piece of the puzzle is the telematics data, which shows the flow of trucks across Europe using our services,” illustrates Dorazil. “This information helps us improve our services and understand our client needs better, examining their efficiency, how to reduce mileage to reach destinations, how to reduce the production of CO2 emissions, and offering load matching possibilities.”

Previously, Eurowag relied on an on-premises solution for analyzing data, which was mainly focused on finance-related information. “We saw that our on-premises solution was not scalable enough to support our growth in standard finance operations,” shares Dorazil. “We wanted to bring all business-related data together and plug and play new data sources from various regions with every acquisition. Moving to the cloud and creating a unified data platform held the answer to all of our questions for growth and scalability.”

Establishing a bird’s-eye view

To achieve its goals, Eurowag reached out to its long-time strategic partner Microsoft and implementation partner Adastra Czech Republic to deploy Azure Synapse Analytics, bringing its data together in a comprehensive digital platform. 

Eurowag gained faster, more reliable access to time-sensitive or actionable data. “The speed with which we can simulate and finish financial processes has increased,” notes Dorazil. “What’s more, we have a significant improvement of around 80 to 90 percent in data availability. Before, we had two or three incidents a day of data structures not being processed or data not being available for the finance team. Now, we have just one incident per week.” 

Data access is not only faster but also richer, with multiple streams of data now accessible simultaneously with Stream Analytics. Eurowag started running real-time analytics on data from different sources, speeding up the time to insights and enabling the company to respond faster to different circumstances. 

Moving faster, becoming smarter

Another differentiator is Azure Synapse Analytics’ unified experience for developing end-to-end analytics solutions, which enabled Eurowag to significantly reduce project development time. “We're just starting a project for digital freight forwarding,” shares Dorazil. “For us, this means setting up the basic environment, helping our teams with documentation, and letting them plug and play. For this specific project, that means saving roughly two months on costs and implementation. We value the ability to prototype new solutions quickly.”

Eurowag has also observed a broader shift in the company's perspective. David Kalab, Division Director of Adastra Czech Republic, shares, “Firstly, they've switched from being reactive to proactive in technology. Historically, the team viewed data as an obstacle to its decision-making. Now, they're one step ahead of the business.” 

As a result, Eurowag has been leveraging data to strategically run its business. Dorazil adds, “We have the technical capability and it's up to us to change the mentality of people and enable them to be truly data-driven. We've made a two-decade technological leap in just one year.” 

The transformation has also sparked a shift in mindset and morale within the team. “We've proven to people that change is possible. This is what I’m proud of as a manager,” adds Dorazil. “We've shown that with a reasonable budget and a true team effort with Microsoft and Adastra, we can effect change. We've turned doubters into believers.” 

The employees at Eurowag are also happier that they no longer have to worry about patching solutions or setting up servers. Instead, they can focus on what their data roles are truly meant to be—gleaning meaningful business insights for critical decision-making.

Forming strong partnership for the future

Looking back, Dorazil appreciates the assistance received during a complex migration. “We have a dedicated architect from Microsoft who invests his time and effort to help us. Similarly, Adastra offered us hard skills in combination with an understanding of our data structures and business, all of which contributed to our data team’s effectiveness," Dorazil shares. “No single company can completely stay updated with everything. That's why, for us, a true partnership is key for our long-term strategies.”

Staying true to this spirit, Eurowag continues to work with Microsoft to build its team’s expertise by pursuing certifications, career paths, and assistance in implementing new technologies. ”We want to help our team grow, scale, and keep pace with all the trends and what is happening in the market. We expect parts of our architecture to be replaced as new, better technologies are introduced, and that flexibility and readiness for change are critical. And we get that readiness through upskilling with Microsoft,” Dorazil concludes.