Industrialisation and democratisation of big data
GEODIS launched its partnership with Sopra Steria with four clear objectives: improve company performance; strengthen and optimise performance reporting on all business levels; construct and roll out an entirely new data infrastructure; and successfully onboard business units to transition to this single, unified Enterprise Resource Planning tool.
GEODIS sought in Sopra Steria a partner with comprehensive data knowledge, both strategically, to understand the potential applications and conceptualise the structure of the solution, and operationally, with the technical capacity to build a new structure that would industrialise financial data management.
Previously, each ERP system used its own data labelling, therefore the core challenge was to unify and harmonize the definition of each data set for more than 100 referentials throughout all regions. This meant data was consistent and comparable and all business units were speaking a common language.
The first step, gathering the raw financial data into a centralised data pool, was completed in just six months – a remarkably quick turnaround - before then being transformed into a series of financial indicators, which could be visually represented.
Parallel to the creation of the data infrastructure, Sopra Steria worked hand-in-hand with GEODIS to adapt their internal business mindset to incorporate Agile methodology, essential to their digital transformation.
Company-wide application potential
The new MAB system had a staged roll-out to GEODIS business units internationally, first to nine units less than 18 months after the project was first launched, then to a total of 71 six months later.
A total of 170 GEODIS teams now have access to the MAB’s financial performance reports, such as P&L dashboards, with more set to benefit as the project continues. The MAB interface has already been used in 3 business performance reviews.
The MAB project has automated much of the reporting process, easing performance monitoring and freeing up time for higher-value data analysis, and providing a more robust base for business decision-making.
For GEODIS, the potential of the project reaches far beyond only financial management. The project has laid the foundations of an entirely new data strategy that puts data at the heart of the company’s operations.
Having such control of data can be applied to all manner of business functions, dramatically improving not only internal performance but also the services offered to third-party external logistics clients.
It also opens up the potential for data to become not only responsive but a critical predictive tool.