Improving & Systemising Financial Reporting
at Joseph Joseph with Power BI
Customer
Joseph Joseph
Products and Services
Power BI
Industry
Retail
Country
United Kingdom
Downloads
Case Study PDF
January 2024
AT A GLANCE
Joseph Joseph, an Innovative Kitchen and Homeware Products Designer, embarked on a journey to modernise its financial systems.
The brand’s origins trace back to the visionary twin brothers Antony and Richard Joseph, who set out on their design journey in 2003, creating their debut product — a glass chopping board.
Over the years, the brand has experienced exponential growth, yet its core values, rooted in functional design, sustainability, and commitment to quality, have remained unwavering.
In pursuit of this transformation, they sought a partner capable of addressing critical challenges and optimising their financial reporting processes.
These challenges included labour-intensive manual reporting, uncertainties during system migration, and the need to adapt to their rapid growth trajectory.
With no analytics platform and starting from scratch, Joseph Joseph remained committed to finding a solution that was accessible, adaptable, and tailored to their unique requirements.
WHY ARREOBLUE STOOD OUT
Arreoblue emerged as the ideal partner due to our unwavering commitment to understanding Joseph Joseph’s processes and delivering a collaborative, iterative solution. Key differentiators included:
Diverse Expertise: We assembled a cross-functional team comprising delivery managers, developers, and architects to collaboratively provide a comprehensive solution that aligned with Joseph Joseph’s current abilities and future goals.
Use Case-Centric Integration: Our solution prioritises practical use cases and minimises the usage of technical terms.
System Architecture Design: We spoke to the IT team and the Commercial Finance team at Joseph Joseph to understand their existing skills and desire to own the solution independently once the migration had completed.
The migration of historical data was deemed out of scope for the new system, however management reports still needed to show year on year data comparisons.
Using Microsoft Power BI and Power Automate, Arreoblue were able to design a solution where:
- Business logic and data transformations could be maintained and operated by the commercial finance team using familiar skills.
- Historical data was combined with data from the new system in a semantic model, enabling flexible analytics.
- PDF reports tailored to management requirements could be automatically generated, saving hours of manual work.
- IT and operational tasks were minimised by using Software-as-a-service components throughout the system design.
Tailored Strategy: We implemented a solution specifically designed to align with Joseph Joseph’s unique skill set, optimising the use of low-code platforms. This solution showcased Joseph Joseph’s capabilities and empowered them with cutting-edge technology, future-proofing them and allowing them to leverage these assets across other projects.
Partnership-Based Approach: Arreoblue fostered a strong partnership with Joseph Joseph, collaboratively working to achieve the client’s objectives, grounded in mutual understanding and trust.
Rapid Response Capability: We operated a Dual-running strategy, facilitating a speedy turnaround of discrepancies or investigations.
Best Practices: We take pride in adhering to high-quality control standards, and as such, we always exercise best practices during implementation.
Explain and Empower
Our collaboration with customers ensures a deep understanding of their data, facilitates adaptation to domain changes, and provides comprehensive training on modern platforms. We are committed to making complex processes easy to understand and implement for our clients.
CHALLENGES FACED BY JOSEPH JOSEPH
Labour-Intensive Manual Reporting
Joseph Joseph's manual reporting processes proved to be resource-intensive.
System Migration Challenge
The transition to S4HANA SAP posed significant challenges. Ensuring minimal disruption to reporting processes was a top priority for the client and, thus, was a primary consideration in our solution. The client also wished to migrate their legacy data.
To tackle the challenges of Joseph Joseph’s S4HANA SAP transformation, Arreoblue utilised Power BI’s full reporting and analytics suite. Our solution encompassed the following elements:
THE ARREOBLUE SOLUTION
Data Integration
After thoroughly analysing Joseph Joseph’s legacy data, we successfully developed an efficient plan to integrate it with S4HANA SAP. This approach has enabled us to perform more in-depth data analysis and visualisation, which has resulted in valuable insights and informed decision-making for our team.
Automation with Power BI
By automating their processes, we reduced manual workloads, allowing the Joseph Joseph team to concentrate on strategic initiatives.
S4HANA SAP Migration
Our team successfully integrated data from their previous software provider and SAP for seamless distribution, pricing, and management.
Future-Proofed Analytics
Implementing the analytics solution at Joseph Joseph yielded invaluable insights and streamlined processes, significantly enhancing access to critical information. This strategic move not only positions Joseph Joseph to readily embrace cutting-edge technology but also ensures their future resilience. The solution is skillfully designed to be user-friendly, incorporating low code capabilities to expedite adoption and utilisation. It has also empowered the Joseph Joseph team with foundations for broader use cases.
WINNING FORMULA
Our collaboration with Joseph Joseph was incredibly close, with continuous engagement of customers and users through daily calls and team channels. This interactive process was not only productive but also enjoyable, as it allowed for swift decision-making. The synergy was mutual, with the Arreoblue team gaining an intimate understanding of Joseph Joseph’s business, enabling them to interpret requirements effectively, while the Joseph Joseph team acquired technical knowledge and adapted to the technology seamlessly.
Our team went above and beyond to fully comprehend the legacy system, enabling us to integrate Joseph Joseph’s data with SAP data to establish a solid central source of truth. To solidify the success of the Power BI solution and ensure a seamless transition to the new system, we provided Joseph Joseph with extensive training and user-friendly handover documents. Finally, we created easy-to-follow guides and videos to empower them to utilise Power BI for reporting purposes effectively.
RESULTS
Joseph Joseph successfully transformed their financial reporting, significantly reducing manual efforts and streamlining their processes.
The Power BI-based solution has future-proofed their analytics and reduced the time required to gain valuable insights. Arreoblue’s approach, characterised by collaboration, open communication, and a partnership mindset, ensured a successful implementation.
Arreoblue’s flexible, customised, and user-focused solution has not only addressed Joseph Joseph’s immediate challenges but has also positioned them for sustainable growth and success in their industry.
“Arreoblue have helped us achieve our goal of greater value for our customers through enhanced financial reporting and streamlining of processes” said Terry Jordan Director of IT & Systems at Joseph Joseph. "This partnership represents our dedication to improving business decisions using data.”