Carglass

On to even better performance with Power BI and Azure

If you want to provide the best service, you have to search non-stop for improvement. That search is easier when you know exactly what is happening in your organization. And why. Carglass understands that. To ensure better information provision within the windscreen repair company, Inergy implemented Microsoft Power BI. Patrick Hakkesteegt, Operations Development Manager at Carglass talks about this project.

Correct control information for better performance

He is referring to the fact that Carglass has initiated a number of interrelated projects this year to future-proof the organization. "That trajectory consists of several initiatives, including tightening internal governance to best organize ourselves around the customer journey and our services that have broadened over the years," he says.

We are also working on organizing our standard operating procedures even more tightly, with a structural monitoring and improvement cycle. We also have our employees follow Lean training so that they can continuously improve hard and soft aspects of our organization. An indispensable element for continuous improvement is having correct and quickly available management information. This is why the implementation of Microsoft Power BI is a crucial part of this entire improvement process."

From fragmented to single source of truth

"Carglass wants to be able to manage short-cycle," Patrick explains. "For that reason, we need to have a quick and accurate view of developments in our operational performance." Previously, there was little in the way of "quick visibility into developments. "All the information we needed to steer the organization was there, but it was totally fragmented. Reports came from everywhere: from Excel to SQL Server Reporting Services (SRSS).

It was laborious to get an integrated picture of overall performance at a glance. In addition, in-depth analyses were time-consuming. That did not fit into our image of a company that can react quickly to developments in the organization and the market. In addition, we were keen to reduce our large number of data environments. All information should be available within one environment so that we have a single source of truth."

Power BI in the cloud

Inergy went to work to provide the Operations department of Carglass with all its management information in Power BI from Azure, Microsoft's cloud. Patrick: "Inergy takes care of unlocking and processing the data so that it is suitable for Power BI. They also design all dashboards and tailor the reports to the responsibilities of each end user. Once the project is complete, they also take on the management." To make the project manageable, it was divided into three parts.

"We started implementing our productivity and conversion measurement tool. That has now been completed. The next step is to incorporate the customer journey into Power BI. That will immediately give us a clear picture of where our improvement potential is: where things are going well and where we can do better. Finally, all financial data still needs to go into Power BI."

Everyone is enthusiastic

The choice of Inergy did not come out of the blue. "Inergy was already helping us maintain the on-premise data environment," he explains. "And they simply have the qualities and the knowledge of Power BI to make this project a success." By now, several employees are already working with Power BI.

"Everyone is excited about what is possible and how it looks. For example, we can now easily filter relevant information, share it among ourselves and export it to Excel or PowerPoint for a discussion. That saves us an incredible amount of time. Having so many options at our disposal takes some getting used to. We're still mostly figuring out exactly how everything works and can be interpreted."

Super users in all departments

In the long run, the entire organization needs to get started with Power BI. "We started with the Operations department, because that's where the highest need is," Patrick explains. "But eventually the entire organization has to work with it. We are therefore already providing training for super users in various departments, including the Customer Contact Center and Marketing. The idea is that we keep expanding the number of users."

On to better performance and service

Carglass has taken the first steps towards even better internal control. There is still a long way to go, but one thing is certain: the possibilities of Power BI are going to bring a lot. "Everything we are doing now is intended to set a movement in motion within Carglass. A road to an even better organization where service for our customers always comes first. And with the help of Power BI and Azure, we are making that happen."