Qlik Cloud empowers leading electrical contractor to see the bigger picture.
Solution Overview
Customer Name: Hunt Electrical Corporation
Industry: Manufacturing
Geography: USA
Function: Finance, Sales, Supply Chain Management
Business Value Driver: Reimagined Processes
Challenges:
Obtain an overall view of large and complex contracts
Combine and compare datasets from dispersed systems
Make better use of data for business decision-making
Solution:
Conducted an in-depth analysis of the market and implemented Qlik Cloud.
Results:
Detailed analysis of purchase orders improves procurement and supply chain
Single view of data supports more efficient working in the field
Data-driven decision-making will increase competitiveness
Need for single view of dispersed data
Founded in 1965, Hunt Electric Corporation is an electrical design, build and maintenance company based in Bloomington, Minnesota. With 1,400 electricians and 200 office staff, it undertakes large-scale projects across the USA including major healthcare and educational facilities, complex data centers, solar energy installations and a host of other contracts. Hunt projects can span years because of their complexity and the logistics generate huge quantities of data which was increasingly difficult to access and track.
“The main issue is that we have had substantial growth. Previously, we were small enough to use institutional knowledge within the company, but it has become difficult to view what is going on across the whole organization,” explains Barry Doerscher, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Hunt Electric. “It’s about making all of the data visible to everyone.”
The company wanted to combine and compare multiple scattered datasets and make better use of the information to improve decision-making.
SaaS implementation in one day
Hunt had no business intelligence (BI) or data analysis software so Doerscher’s first priority as the new CIO was to find a solution. Having previously used QlikView, he included Qlik in a comprehensive evaluation of all the main BI and data analysis tools on the market and following demonstrations, Qlik Cloud was the choice.
“What I like about Qlik is that getting data into the system is substantially easier than all the other products,” says Doerscher.
The decision to take the software as a service (SaaS) cloud route was part of a company-wide SaaS drive. By moving away from in-house delivery, Hunt has already reduced close to 100 servers down to just 25 so did not want to buy new machines to run Qlik. Implementation was done by management consultants Pomerol Partners which specializes in data analysis and data-driven business solutions and services and it continues to work with Hunt as it develops its Qlik landscape. Making use of the existing SaaS environment meant that the system was up and running in just one day.
Comprehensive oversight of any job
For its proof of concept (POC), Hunt used Qlik Sense to streamline a complex work in progress (WIP) report but its first major project was to create a prefabrication dashboard. Complex underground conduits are part of Hunt’s on-site work. It pre-manufactures them then ships them to the site but it was struggling with purchase orders, invoices and pre-orders.
“Qlik Sense has improved the situation immensely,” explains Doerscher. “We grabbed three or four different systems and sucked them into one spot so we could see all the information on any order. We have also started to reconcile our purchase orders (POs) from there and this helps us with our supply chain. From the aspect of seeing what is going on Qlik has been massive for us. The guys in the field say it is 100 times easier and 100 times better with just one spot to go to.”
The company has also used Qlik for deeper analysis of its POs and is embarking on sales and operations pipeline and labor forecasting solutions. Qlik has also been good news for one large client whose regular metrics reports used to take 16 hours to extract from the ERP system. Previously, they were compiled once a month but automated access to data means the customer now has access to them every day. Staff at Hunt Electric are now comfortable in the knowledge that they can use and trust data to improve their own working lives and to provide better customer service as
Qlik developments continue.
“We have some ten systems throughout a lifecycle process and we are 40% of the way through an important project to pull that all together so we can see the whole lifecycle of any job,” says Doerscher. “We would also love to have a customer dashboard so they can see the current status of their project. Using Qlik to quickly and easily bring data together from multiple systems and compare it is incredible for us and we are all excited to think about the new possibilities.”
“From the aspect of seeing what is going on, Qlik has been massive for us. The guys in the field say it is 100 times easier and 100 times better with just one spot to go to.”
Barry Doerscher, Chief Information Officer, Hunt Electric Corporation
About Qlik
Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. Our cloud-based Qlik Active Intelligence Platform delivers end-to-end, real-time data integration and analytics cloud solutions to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik does business in more than 100 countries and serves over 38,000 active customers around the world.
About Pomerol
For over a decade, Pomerol Partners has delivered Qlik solutions to customers in the UK, Europe, Africa and the US. It assists with any stage of an implementation from licensing and design right through to post-production support and training.