Analysts were able to reduce the total reporting time by 70% and build dashboards for new customers 90% faster than with Excel and Access.
Industry: Consumer Package Good
Data Stack: Microsoft Azure, Designer Cloud, Databricks, Tableau
Region: Global
Reduction in reporting time
Reduction in data pipeline build time
Order processing errors proactively resolved
In order to supply the right product quantities to its retailers, PepsiCo must constantly calibrate sales forecasting. Any given sales forecast may incorporate warehouse data, store stock data or promotional forecast data, all of which is provided by retailers in a variety of different file formats and delivered to PepsiCo using a variety of different methods. The name of the game for PepsiCo is speed—prepare a sales forecast fast enough, and the team could anticipate a spike in demand and increase product shipments. But under Microsoft Access and Excel-based processes, the huge amount of time required to prepare this data meant that analysts only leveraged it once a month (or not at all), which risked under or oversupplying retailers.
PepsiCo built a Microsoft Azure data lake that allows for centralized data storage and access. Analysts trained in Excel and SQL easily adapted to Designer Cloud and can now prepare and standardize diverse retailer data significantly faster for visualization in Tableau. Due to Excel’s size limitations, PepsiCo analysts often had to stitch together multiple spreadsheets; with Designer Cloud, PepsiCo can see the full picture of its data and quickly spot any errors or inconsistencies. Since spending less time spent on data preparation, PepsiCo analysts are now able to dedicate the majority of their time analyzing data and predicting trends, driving more value for the company.
Analysts were able to reduce the total reporting time by 70% and build dashboards for new customers 90% faster than with Excel and Access.
Less time spent on collecting, cleaning and preparing data means that analysts now have time to create dashboards for more customers including online retailers.
Designer Cloud’s visual profiling capabilities allow the team to easily identify gaps and outliers in the data to get ahead of larger issues.
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo’s product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 23 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.
“Designer Cloud brought an entirely new level of productivity to the way our analyst and IT teams explore diverse data and define analytic requirements. Our users can intuitively and collaboratively prepare the growing variety of data that makes up PepsiCo’s analytic initiatives.”
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