About the client
Our client specializes in commercial offices, life science, healthcare, structures and hospitality projects. They operate 9 offices located throughout Northern and Southern California, Washington, and Illinois. Founded in 1996, it is a $600 million company and ranked among the best in commercial interior construction.
Client Situation
Financial reporting for seven separate entities and consolidated statements was challenging due to excessive data in Excel sheets, making it difficult to extract useful insights. Quarterly and yearly budgets were prepared meticulously for each entity, but the process was hindered by lengthy data preparation, sometimes taking several days for just one report. Manual analysis added to the difficulty, making it hard to interpret and draw meaningful conclusions from the data. Creating consolidated year-on-year reports for each financial year was also daunting.
Complexity
- The manual ETL process took over 5 hours for data refresh.
- Creating 100+ reports with more than thousand variants in the month-end was time consuming.
- Reports developed in Excel resulted in loss of actionable insights.
- It took 18 to 20 hours to run a reporting pack manually.
- The company has seven entities – each entity had its own financial reporting pack.
Cognida.ai Solution
Our team spearheaded a solution that would not only streamline this process but revolutionize the way financial insights were accessed and utilized. The implementation of month-end accounting and finance dashboards using augmented analytics marked a significant breakthrough.
These user-friendly dashboards, accessible via browsers and mobile devices, replaced the necessity for numerous reports, presenting a simplified, visual depiction of the company’s financial status.
Ten tabs seamlessly replaced thousands of variants, ensuring a comprehensive yet easily navigable experience. Role-based access security was enforced to maintain confidentiality, granting executive management a unified view and allowing controllers to delve into journal entry-level details.
The laborious manual ETL process, consuming over 5 hours for data refresh, was supplanted with an automated system, directly extracting, and transforming data from the business system. This not only saved time but also eradicated the need for costly data warehouses.
Why the Cognida.ai approach works
In the fast-paced world of commercial interior construction, agility and accuracy are the most critical. Our collaboration with this industry leader showcases the immense potential of harnessing technology to not only address pain points but set a new standard for excellence in their industry.
- Data visualization tools consolidated 100 reports into 10 dashboards for better monitoring of key metrics and focused strategic planning
- We understood the complexity of the entire system and developed actionable insights dashboard in four weeks.
- Business Intelligence (BI) tools provided real time updates and a unified view of organizational data, thus creating a single version of truth.
Business Impact
- 3-click access reduces data retrieval time by 50%
- 95% reduction in time to create the reports.
- 30% increase in productivity due to real time updates.