Blog – Abylon https://www.abylon.hu Data Analytics, BI & Collaboration for modern enterprises - Abylon Consulting Thu, 22 Feb 2024 16:14:52 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.abylon.hu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-abylon_favicon-32x32.jpg Blog – Abylon https://www.abylon.hu 32 32 Five Biggest Challenges in Financial Planning https://www.abylon.hu/blog/the-five-biggest-problems-in-financial-planning/ Wed, 07 Feb 2024 09:29:14 +0000 https://www.abylon.hu/?p=15139 Our new blog post uncovers the top five challenges of Financial Planning, from Excel file consolidation to data quality issues, that sap precious time and focus from organizations.

The post Five Biggest Challenges in Financial Planning appeared first on Abylon.

]]>

Intro

In our latest blog post, we delve into the five most significant hurdles faced in the realm of financial planning, ranging from the tedious manual consolidation of Excel files to the daunting task of ensuring data quality. We’ll explore how these issues not only consume valuable time but also detract from the core activities that truly add value to your organization.

1 - Manual consolidation of Excel files

When your operation expands beyond a solo venture, financial planning becomes a collaborative effort. Initially, companies tend to plan using individual Excel files, which are later merged by controllers and FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) colleagues to create a comprehensive overview. 

This is what I mean by “manual consolidation of Excel files”

While this is a standard process for startups and small companies (actually, below a given size it’s overkill to do it otherwise), it becomes inefficient under tight deadlines or when it proves too costly or labor-intensive.

2 - Resistance to New Planning Tools

This leads us to our next big problem. Once you decide to go further and change to a more sophisticated planning tool UI/UX problems arise. Let’s be honest: users who typically provide the initial data during the planning phase, have a day-time job and might be more familiar with Excel than a new, possibly web-based, tool designed for planning (the one you plan to replace Excel). 

Learning a new tool just to input new data… That’s too inconvenient. Forcing this will potentially lead to conflicts, at least. (Not to speak of the costs of a web-based UI, and the development, and testing during the implementation phase of such a system)

3 - Challenges in Tracking Progress

Let’s say that you tackled the above. You created a data pipeline which can read from multiple files. You may be able to track, which file arrived when, and which has been consumed when. But, do you have a method, to keep track of which numbers have been approved?

Oh, you mean… This is part of the job who provides the files?

This means, you are not tracking the entire process, and you have no proof, if something has been approved, or not… Without a clear method to track approvals and updates, you lack visibility into the process.

Progression tracking in advanced tools facilitate better tracking of each data point’s status, ensuring a transparent and verifiable planning process.

4 - Your experts doing avoidable tasks

A well-designed system can help avoid tasks that detract from efficiency, such as:
  • Preparing the Excel files for the planners. Pulling the reports only relevant to them, and what they can see. This is what we call: Row Level Security
  • Validating forecasted data on the granular level.
  • Updating reports for planners after changes.
  • Manually monitoring planning progress within the organization.
  • Managing the planning process through continuous requests for files, corrections, and updates.

5 - Data Quality issues

Everybody makes mistakes. Manual processes are error-prone, and while manual error-checking can reduce mistakes, but since it is also carried out by humans means errors can still occur. 

An effective system prevents flawed data being saved into the database, enhancing overall data integrity.

Read more on data validation

MORE ON DATA VALIDATION

The Paramount Issue: Time

Ultimately, all of the above add up to one huge issue  -> taking precious time away from you and your team. Time which could be a better spent on activities that add value to your organization, such as analyzing what happened, communicating the numbers, building narratives with the stakeholders, predicting the future.

We believe that being a true business partner like a CFO or a FP&A leader means focusing on these activities. Therefor it is a logical step to invest into a tool that solves all of the above problems, and maybe provides industry-specific solutions for you as well. Like a template and configuration possibilities to easily plan software licence sales.

Why Our FP&A Solution Stands Out?

Our Financial Planning Solution

  • is Excel-based,
  • has a mature core technology background,
  • has a rich feature set, like:
    – Master Data handling
    – ETL processing,
    – DataWarehouse building capabilities,
    – Custom and Predefined Excel-templates,
    – Common business logic taking care of the heavy lifting, and
    – Software license sales – specific templates

Our Philosophy

  • We don’t believe that “one-size-fits-all”.
  • We believe that tech-people should do their part, and finance people should do theirs
  • We believe in customizable, industry-specific templates
MORE ON ABYLON FPNA

The Ultimate Value of Financial Planning

The greatest value is that planning and finance creates a common ground for communication within an organization. Money is the language, every action in a business can be transformed, and communicated.
An FP&A/Controlling leader’s greatest value is supporting stakeholders within in an organization to be able to communicate based on a trusted, single source of truth that is accepted among the participants.

Everything else supports the above. What is everything else?

Analytics, Reporting, Month-end and Year-end closings, Planning and Forecasting.

More on Financial Planning and Analysis

For more information check out some of our other blogposts about the Rapid Platform and our FP&A solution Abylon Rapid Planner:

Author of the post:

Zsolt Kreisz - Financial Controller in the past, now BI Developer at Abylon Consulting.
Linkedin Profile

The post Five Biggest Challenges in Financial Planning appeared first on Abylon.

]]> Master data custom validation using the Rapid Platform https://www.abylon.hu/blog/master-data-custom-validation/ https://www.abylon.hu/blog/master-data-custom-validation/#comments Tue, 16 Jan 2024 14:58:23 +0000 https://www.abylon.hu/?p=15074 Use custom validation on Master Data to cut out avoidable time-consuming issues in your ETL pipelines and give instant error feedback to your Master Data Administrator!

The post Master data custom validation using the Rapid Platform appeared first on Abylon.

]]>

Cut out avoidable time-consuming issues in your ETL pipelines and give instant error feedback to your Master Data Administrator! We’ll show you how!

What is Master Data?

I’m assuming people who ended up on this post already know that, but just in case here is a quick overview of what is master data in case of FPnA.

(Feel free to skip this part!)

Master data is simply said essential, non-transactional data. Most of the time master data keep tracks of entities like customers, suppliers, products, General ledger, etc. and their attributes. They are mostly relatively slowly changing, and in on optimal world, they are kept and maintained in one place. ERP systems have them, Business applications have them, and Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse solutions use them as well.

In many cases, ERPs take care of the majority of master data, but sometimes more than one system has to access it, and even be able to maintain it.

If there are several systems with different “Master Data” like datasets, you have to keep track of the mappings of these. This is also a pretty common case when migrating from one ERP to another. For these purposes, Master Data like solutions – like the one in the Abylon Rapid Platform – outside of ERPs can be very helpful.

Giving instant feedback on editing Master Data

Give your Master Data Custom Validations with Abylon Rapid Platform! Enable fully custom SQL-based validations on your Master Data Tables!  

This functionality acts as a safeguard, preventing users from entering incorrect data and providing immediate feedback regarding the nature of any errors encountered. 

Why is this so important?

What can be avoided this way?

Consider a scenario where you discover during a crucial Year-End close that your report is missing data from the previous month. How is that possible? This could be due to an error made by someone modifying the master data, which wasn’t caught in time, resulting in report failure.

Here's what went wrong: 

  • A column had to be updated together with adding new data. The administrator failed to do that, and nothing prevented him/her from saving the wrong data.
  • The error appeared in the system later, but the system wasn’t monitored by the same person. This led to several days of downtime in the reporting system.

Why data validation is important in case of FPnA?

Reports and data pipelines often depend on some form of Master Data management. This could involve handling original Master Data or mapping data between two systems. These custom validations cannot (always) be done using simple database constraints.

Common situations where custom validations are beneficial include:

  • You must track the validity of records. Usually this needs manually adjustable From->To date columns, and you must check that if a new record appears with the same business key, the validity dates align with each other.
  • Dependence of one column's data on another, e.g., "Column A cannot be X if Column B is Y."
  • Within a certain group of data, an ordering has to be in place, or the values added cannot exceed a certain amount. For example: a group of data record’s value column should always be equal to 1 (when talking about percentages)
  • Restricting data in one table's column to the values found in another table's column.

Now consider the additional time spent without Custom Validations:

  • The lag between adjusting master data and running the ETL pipeline.
  • The delay from the error report being sent and read.
  • The time taken to gather information, consult key users or developers for support.
  • The time for key users or developers to identify the issue and contact the Master Data owner.
  • The Master Data owner making the necessary adjustments and rerunning the ETL pipeline.
With the custom validations implemented, users are prevented from saving incorrect data. They immediately receive feedback on any mistakes made, bringing the issue to a swift resolution. End of story.
Source: dilbert.com

Summary

Incorporating custom validations on master data through the Abylon Rapid Platform can save significant time and effort, leading to more accurate master data and a smoother, more efficient planning process. This feature not only enhances data accuracy but also streamlines workflows, making the entire planning and reporting process more effective and less prone to errors.

By automating validations and providing instant feedback, the Abylon Rapid Platform ensures that data integrity is maintained, reducing the likelihood of costly and time-consuming mistakes. This proactive approach to data management is key in today’s fast-paced financial environments, where the accuracy and timeliness of information are critical for making informed decisions.

MORE ON ABYLON FPNA

For more information check out some of our other blogposts about the Rapid Platform and our FP&A solution Abylon Rapid Planner:

Author of the post:

Zsolt Kreisz - Financial Controller in the past, now BI Developer at Abylon Consulting.
Linkedin Profile

The post Master data custom validation using the Rapid Platform appeared first on Abylon.

]]> https://www.abylon.hu/blog/master-data-custom-validation/feed/ 1 Unleashing the Power of Excel: From VBA to Power Query https://www.abylon.hu/blog/unleashing-the-power-of-excel-from-vba-to-power-query/ Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:39:00 +0000 https://www.abylon.hu/?p=14958 In controlling and FP&A, tasks like analytics, reporting, and month-end closings in Excel involve significant data transformations from limited sources. Mastering Power Query offers the highest return on investment for such scenarios.

The post Unleashing the Power of Excel: From VBA to Power Query appeared first on Abylon.

]]>
(Image source: EXCEED Solutions)

In the world of finance, Excel is the undisputed king of data manipulation and analysis. It’s the go-to tool for financial professionals, and for good reason. When I began my journey of learning Excel for my work, I could hardly do more than create a project and utilize the built-in functions. Little did I know that this humble start would eventually lead me to discover a game-changing tool: Power Query. 

The VBA Odyssey

After mastering the basics, my next step was delving into the realm of VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) and macros. With this newfound knowledge, I embarked on a mission to “automate the heck out of my controlling work.” It was undoubtedly a challenging endeavour, and I even attended several macro/VBA courses to expand my expertise. These courses, while valuable, sometimes introduced coding concepts that seemed light-years ahead of my knowledge, like “pass-by-value” and “pass-by-reference.”

Over the years, I proudly automated almost everything my work required, with varying degrees of coding involvement. However, this path was not without its pitfalls. I encountered buggy scripts and faced arduous debugging sessions. Additionally, I found myself on an isolated island, as nobody around me shared my development experience. To make matters worse, IT support was out of the question, as they officially declined to assist.

The Power of Power Query

Then, as if by serendipity, I stumbled upon Power Query during a one-day course, initially just for fun. Little did I know that this tool would revolutionize the way I worked. Power Query’s capabilities quickly became evident as it effortlessly automated 90% of my tasks, rendering much of what I had done in VBA obsolete.

What truly set Power Query apart was its exceptional debugging prowess. It provided a visual and interactive way to inspect and manipulate data, a feature sorely lacking in VBA. Moreover, I soon discovered that Power Query wasn’t limited to Excel alone. It served as the backbone of other Microsoft tools like Power BI and DataFlow, opening up new horizons of possibilities.

Caveats and Considerations

Basic functionality

Before jumping headlong into Power Query, it’s essential to address a couple of caveats. If you or your team are still struggling with basic Excel functions, it’s crucial to emphasize building a solid foundation in those first.

Large datasets

Additionally, for handling vast datasets, be mindful of the trade-off between quantity and your machine’s RAM capacity. In some cases, even Power Query may struggle, necessitating the exploration of alternative tools.

Collaboration Considerations with Power Query

Another important consideration is that Power Query is not the ideal solution in scenarios where collaboration among multiple team members comes into play. When collaboration is a central part of your workflow, it’s essential to weigh the benefits of Power Query against the collaborative capabilities of other tools. 

The Secret Weapon for Large Datasets

When you find yourself grappling with an overwhelming amount of data, there’s another powerful tool you might already have at your disposal. In a forthcoming article titled “The Secret Weapon on Your Computer Never Used for Large Dataset-based Reports,” I will delve into this hidden gem that can handle massive datasets with ease. Stay tuned for more insights on this game-changing solution.

Conclusion: The ROI of Power Query

In the world of controlling and FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis), we often find ourselves dealing with analytics, reports, and month-end closing tasks in Excel. These tasks require extensive data transformations from limited raw data sources. When you encounter such scenarios, my bet is that the greatest return on investment for your controlling and FP&A team lies in mastering Power Query.

Power Query not only streamlines your processes but also equips you with the tools needed to conquer complex data challenges. It’s the bridge that connects Excel to a world of advanced data manipulation, enabling you to work smarter and faster than ever before. So, if you’re ready to take your financial analysis game to the next level, embrace the power of Power Query – it’s a game-changer you won’t want to miss.

MORE ON THE DOCUFLOW PLATFORM

Author of the post:

Zsolt Kreisz - Financial Controller in the past, now BI Developer at Abylon Consulting.
Linkedin Profile

The post Unleashing the Power of Excel: From VBA to Power Query appeared first on Abylon.

]]> UK market here we go – Abylon’s International Ascent https://www.abylon.hu/blog/uk-here-we-go-abylons-international-ascent/ Mon, 30 Oct 2023 11:14:42 +0000 https://www.abylon.hu/?p=14681 With immense pride and excitement we're announcing our next significant milestone: expanding internationally, beginning with the opening of our new office in the United Kingdom.

The post UK market here we go – Abylon’s International Ascent appeared first on Abylon.

]]>

Announcing Our UK Expansion and Career Opportunities

Opening up our UK office

In the ever-evolving world of business, dynamic growth is not just an aspiration but a testament to a company’s resilience, innovation, and commitment to excellence. At Abylon, we’ve embodied these principles, and it’s with immense pride and excitement that we announce our next significant milestone: expanding internationally, beginning with the opening of our new office in the United Kingdom.

Our decision to expand comes on the heels of a remarkable period of growth for Abylon. In the past two years, we’ve been recognized twice on the Financial Times FT 1000 list, highlighting Europe’s fastest-growing companies. Additionally, we’ve made our mark on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe list, showcasing our progress as one of the region’s rapidly evolving technology firms. These accolades aren’t just badges of honor; they reflect our team’s hard work, adaptability, and commitment to our vision. Coupled with our successful ventures across central and southern Europe, these achievements have laid a strong foundation for our leap into the UK market.

Stepping into the UK isn’t just about geographical growth; it’s a strategic choice to immerse Abylon in a market known for its diversity and economic vibrancy. The UK presents unique opportunities and challenges, and we’re eager to adapt our approach to meet the specific needs of this new audience. Our goal isn’t just to transplant our existing model but to evolve it, ensuring we remain as responsive and innovative in the UK as we have been in our existing markets.

Abylon career opportunity in the UK

As part of this new venture, we’re looking to hire an Account Executive/Sales Manager who understands the nuances of the UK market. This role is crucial — it’s about building relationships, understanding local dynamics, and adapting our offerings to meet regional demands. We need someone who’s not just experienced in sales and account management but also someone who’s ready to take on the challenge of introducing Abylon to the UK.

We’re proud of what we’ve achieved at Abylon, but we also know that our people are the key to our continued success. As we step into this new market, we invite professionals who are excited by the prospect of growth and change to join us. If you’re looking to be a part of a company that’s writing its next chapter, we encourage you to consider joining our team.

For those interested in being a part of our UK journey, we’re looking forward to hearing from you. Visit our careers page for more information about the role and how to apply. Here’s to a new chapter in Abylon’s story, one we hope will be as rewarding and successful as our journey so far. 🌍🚀

Linkedin Facebook Youtube

Follow our social accounts for more news and technical insights!

Found this post interesting?

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates of similar post and news!

Other popular posts

The post UK market here we go – Abylon’s International Ascent appeared first on Abylon.

]]> Data warehouse project using the Abylon Rapid Platform https://www.abylon.hu/blog/data-warehouse-project-using-the-abylon-rapid-platform/ Wed, 04 Oct 2023 10:32:50 +0000 https://www.abylon.hu/?p=14437 The story of how a junior BI consultant with minimal work experience build a complete data warehouse, data marketplace and populated it with data all within 3 weeks using the Abylon Rapid Platform.

The post Data warehouse project using the Abylon Rapid Platform appeared first on Abylon.

]]>

Automated SQL Data Warehouse project done in 3 weeks with minimal prior experience

Data warehouse implementation - easier than expected

As a junior BI consultant with 10 months of work experience, I was given the task to build a complete data warehouse, data marketplace and populate it with data.

Considering that I had little experience in the field, this task promised to be a time and energy consuming challenge. I did have some help from a senior colleague who monitored and supported me during the process, but this did not change the fact that I had to understand and complete a complex process without any prior experience.

All I had to do was:

  • understand the steps of the process,
  • define the structure of the data warehouse, the objects to be fetched from the source system,
  • and put them into a simple Excel-based configuration file.

By setting up the configuration file properly, the creation of the new data warehouse could be almost completely automated. 

The parameters I needed to set up the configuration were the availability of the different source systems, the objects to be fetched from them, any changes to the objects (e.g. columns of a table, data type of a field, name), how they are loaded, how they are historized and other optional parameters, the steps of the ETL processes that load the data, and the availability of the target system. Having all this in one place allowed me to quickly check and modify the structure if changes were needed.

After definig the metadata, the Rapid Platform was able to automatically create the different database layers (stage, data warehouse, data marketplace), by running a PowerShell command, on the specified target server, which in my case was an MS SQL database server.

The benefit of the solution lies not only in the ease of use for Business Intelligence developers, but also in the significant time saving (and therefore cost reduction) that it brings. The time and energy freed up through the automations could be spent on deeper analysis of the task and the data, and through that on tasks that actually create business value, such as designing and refining the right data model and subsequently producing analytical reports on those models.

MORE ON DWH AUTOMATON

A few words about the environment

In a Microsoft stack-based development environment, a data warehouse automation solution can be easily implemented with the Abylon Rapid Platform. 

Quick overview of process of generating a data warehouse and the software used during the project:

  1. Using MS Visual Studio, the configuration files for the data structure, the server connections and the project environments, can be easily accessed and modified. There is also a configuration file that stores the connections and environments.

  2. After loading a specific tool from the Rapid platform, I used a simple PowerShell command to generate the files defining the STAGE, DWH layers as part of the solution.

  3. After creating the build in Visual Studio, running another Rapid Platform command, the given data model structure is deployed to the given SQL server (if the connections are defined correctly). I then created the different OLAP models, which I could build in Visual Studio as well as in Tabular editor. I could then deploy this to an Analysis Services server using an separate command.

  4. After that, I only needed to transfer the data. The “how” I already defined in the configuration file. The stored procedures for transferring data from the STAGE layer to the DWH layer were automatically generated. The invocation of these stored procedures can be simply added as “execution plan items” to the configuration file as part of various “Execution Plans” that can be easily invoked and scheduled by a SQL job. The manually created stored procedures that fill the DM layer can also be added to the part defining the ETL process inside the configuration file and then can be run as part of the “Execution Plan” when runing the SQL job. This allows the loading of the entire data warehouse with a single job execution.

This created an automatically updating data warehouse with the necessary data historization available, as well as the OLAP cubes. After connecting to the latter I could starts generating the various analytical reports. 

Despite the fact that this was the first time I was using the Rapid Platform, and generally speaking I did not have much DWH experience, thanks to the flexibility and simplicity of the platform, the whole process, including the subsequent improvements required by the client, did not take more than 2-3 weeks.

The main benefits I have experienced

In addition to taking a huge burden off the shoulders of the developers, data warehouse automation is also a significant benefit for the customer, as it can greatly reduce the time and effort spent on an DWH implementation.

The benefits of automatisations

  • Massive time and energy saving
  • Reducing the number of human errors
  • No SSIS knowledge required, automatic mapping

Ease of use

  • Even a beginner with little experience in data warehouse building can quickly understand the user-friendly interface and find it easy to navigate.
  • It helps to understand complex processes in their entirety
  • Test explorer supports development, debugging

Flexibility

  • The Rapid Analytics platform is highly flexible. It can be quickly optimised for specific customer needs with a few minor changes.

More on the Abylon Rapid Platform

f you’re interested in our data warehouse automation solution built on the Abylon Rapid Platform, you may also find the following post, customer interview and case study interesting:

Author of the post

Zsombor Tamásovics - Junior BI consultant at Abylon Consulting
Linkedin Profile

Linkedin Facebook Youtube

Follow our social accounts for more news and technical insights!

Found this post interesting?

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates of similar post and news!

Other popular posts

The post Data warehouse project using the Abylon Rapid Platform appeared first on Abylon.

]]> Case Study: Sales planning automation https://www.abylon.hu/blog/case-study-sales-planning-automation/ https://www.abylon.hu/blog/case-study-sales-planning-automation/#comments Mon, 18 Sep 2023 13:15:49 +0000 https://www.abylon.hu/?p=14312 The story of how we managed to automate the process of sales planning at a large software company by radically minimizing the manual work of the financial controllers.

The post Case Study: Sales planning automation appeared first on Abylon.

]]>

Below, you’ll find a detailed case study that offers an inside look into a planning automation project we recently executed for a major software company. For this edition, we’ve opted for a more narrative approach to provide a personal and insightful perspective. We hope you find this storytelling format both enjoyable and informative.

Project Background

Sales planning can be a daunting task, one that Julie knew all too well as she stared at the 22nd Excel file that had landed in her inbox that day. The seemingly never-ending process required intricate calculations involving #deferrals, #sales, and #revenues, all of which were pivotal to the sales team, and therefore the whole company’s success.

In a software company where sales were tied to various software licenses, the complexity of sales planning was undeniable. For Julie and the rest of the colleagues involved in planning, this process was slow, ineffective, involved a lot of manual work and to put it nicely, it was far from enjoyable. 

Business Challenge: Data Preparation and Calculation Complexity

The first challenge lay in the preparation of historical data for each customer group. It was no simple task. Sales representatives had to input the number of units to be sold, but Excel couldn’t instantly recalculate what this meant for Sales Amount and Revenue Amount. This meant that both Sales Amount (Quantity * Price) and Revenue (Sales Amount +/- Deferrals) had to be calculated for every planning period. Furthermore, sales teams had to predict Renewal rates and Price increases for each product in their region, which directly impacted historical data.

The enormity of this task became apparent, especially for customer groups with hundreds of thousands of records requiring calculations. Excel, on its own, couldn’t handle the complexity.

Exploring Solutions

Two major directions were considered to tackle this challenge: bringing the planner closer to the “tech” or bringing the “tech” closer to the planner.

Bringing the planner closer to the “tech”:

This approach involved having planners embrace new technologies. However, it was evident that not everyone was tech-savvy, and expecting them to learn new technologies for a process that wasn’t their primary focus seemed impractical.

Bringing the “tech” closer to the planner:

This approach aimed to provide a user-friendly interface for planners. While promising, it raised questions about design, tabular data handling, frontend development resources, and the learning curve for planners. Questions like:

  • what kind of design should we use?
  • how should one address the tabular data? Save each line? Recalculate on every mouse-move?
  • how can we display effectively more than one kind of tables which are related to each other?
  • how many hours of a Front-End development is needed, when will they be available?
  • who will create the design?
  • how will the planners learn the logic of the new design, and the new frontend, if it’s not intuitive enough?

By choosing Excel as the frontend, we addressed many of these concerns.

Our Solution

Given the complexity of the project it seemed a perfect case for Abylon Rapid Planner – the planning module of the Abylon Rapid Platform.

The Rapid Platform itself is a flexible, enterprise grade productivity platform for building Microsoft Data Warehouse or Data Lake based analytical solutions. On top of the platform, we created easy-to-deploy business solutions for the most common BI and data analytics scenarios. 

The planning module we used in this case includes enterprise-grade financial and analytical planning, master data management, querying and scenario-analysis. 

Abylon Rapid Planner offers Excel’s functionality scaled to the enterprise level. Database connections, automated data validation and easy business template creation – all to minimize manual work.

Implementing Abylon Rapid Planner effectively resolved all the key issues, with the exception of incoming data cleaning, as per the client’s decision due to ongoing source system discussions.

MORE ON ABYLON RAPID PLANNER

Results

  • Data Accessibility and Security

With the Abylon Rapid Platform, everyone can access their relevant data from within Excel securely. Unauthorized access is prevented, ensuring data integrity. 

  • Instant Recalculation

Once data is provided, recalculation happens instantly, eliminating manual work. This has a profound impact on reducing manual tasks during planning and forecasting periods, as well as significantly reducing waiting times for Sales Planners. 

  • Streamlined Planning Workflow

The platform simplifies the entire planning process. It eliminates manual data sending, consolidation, and recalculation. Custom data validations ensure data consistency, and plan versions can be easily tracked. The result is increased confidence in data accuracy and alignment with approved plans. 

  • BI Ready Data

No additional automatization process or consolidation is needed in order to provide data to a Business Intelligence system, since the data is already organized and stored in a database, and is ready to be ingested. 

  • Master Data Management

The Abylon Rapid Platform offers a central master data management solution. It removes the need for manual updates, ensuring data consistency across the board.

  • ETL Functionality

Our platform provides ETL functionality (like mass upload) within Excel and beyond. It streamlines data upload and integration, eliminating the need for external ETL services. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Abylon Rapid Platform revolutionizes sales planning by addressing the challenges faced head-on. It ensures data accuracy, reduces manual work, and streamlines the planning workflow. Say goodbye to complex Excel files and embrace a more efficient, user-friendly approach to sales planning!

If you’re ready to transform your sales planning process, contact us today to learn more about how Abylon Rapid Platform can benefit your organization.

For more information check out some of our other blogposts about the Rapid Platform and our FP&A solution Abylon Rapid Planner:

The post Case Study: Sales planning automation appeared first on Abylon.

]]> https://www.abylon.hu/blog/case-study-sales-planning-automation/feed/ 3 New digital signature module for the Docuflow platform https://www.abylon.hu/blog/new-digital-signature-module-for-the-docuflow-platform/ Tue, 18 Apr 2023 09:34:07 +0000 https://www.abylon.hu/?p=12851 Certified electronic signature module added to the Abylon Docuflow platform New important feature added to the Docuflow platform We are pleased to announce that we

The post New digital signature module for the Docuflow platform appeared first on Abylon.

]]>

Certified electronic signature module added to the Abylon Docuflow platform

New important feature added to the Docuflow platform

We are pleased to announce that we have entered into a partnership agreement with Microsec Zrt, the leading provider of electronic authentication and signature services in Hungary. As a result of the partnership we can implement their electronic signature technology into our Abylon Docuflow workflow automation platform making it even more complete and easier to use for our customers.
From now on, all our business solutions built on top of the Docuflow platform are available with the e-Signó certified digital electronic signature. By implementing this technology decision-making during typical corporate document management processes requiring signature-confirmed approval such as procurement, contracting or regulatory management will become faster and more convenient. Using electronic signatures, these processes can be made more efficient and completely paperless, significantly speeding up decision-making.

More information about Docuflow’s e-signature module is available in the Abylon Solutions Digital Marketplace in the Abylon Store https://store.abylon.cloud

About the e-szignó electronic signature soltutions

Thanks to electronic signatures, it is now possible to create conclusive documents without using paper or pen. Forget paper contracts, printing, signing and mailing multiple copies of documents! Forget complicated and time-consuming paper-based administrative processes! Go digital, switch to electronic signatures!
The e-signature electronic signature solution allows you to create authentic, evidence-rich documents in an electronic environment, and deliver them from sender to recipient in a properly encrypted form, through a secure channel.

Eight reasons why you should switch to e-Szigno:

  • Because there’s no need to meet in person, send by post or courier.
  • Because you can create authentic, conclusive documents in a digital environment.
  • Because you can sign regardless of time and place.
  • Because it enables 100% paperless administration, which is cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
  • Because it meets all Hungarian and EU legal requirements.
  • Because it meets all the requirements for a credible eGovernment.
  • Because hundreds of pages of electronic documents can be signed by several people in a few minutes.
  • Because it can be copied indefinitely and all electronic copies remain authentic.

Abylon Docuflow - Faster, more efficient, compliance-friendly review and approval

Abylon Docuflow is a SharePoint-integrated workflow automation platform that helps  to make document review and approval workflows more efficient, transparent and complience-friendly.

The Docuflow platform allows the creation of custom review and approval workflows, but also offers ready-to-use solutions (modules) for the most common enterprise document management processes. Examples of such processes include regulatory management, procurement, contract management and management submission.

MORE ON THE DOCUFLOW PLATFORM
Linkedin Facebook Youtube

Follow us for more news and technical insights!

Other popupar posts

The post New digital signature module for the Docuflow platform appeared first on Abylon.

]]> Abylon is among Europe’s fastest growing companies yet again https://www.abylon.hu/blog/abylon-is-among-europes-fastest-growing-companies-yet-again/ https://www.abylon.hu/blog/abylon-is-among-europes-fastest-growing-companies-yet-again/#comments Mon, 27 Mar 2023 15:03:54 +0000 https://www.abylon.hu/?p=12687 Abylon is a Financial Times 1000 Fastest-Growing Company – yet again! Dynamic growth appreciated by Financial Times Coronavirus pandemic, turbulent global economic situations, growing labor

The post Abylon is among Europe’s fastest growing companies yet again appeared first on Abylon.

]]>

Abylon is a Financial Times 1000 Fastest-Growing Company - yet again!

Dynamic growth appreciated by Financial Times

Coronavirus pandemic, turbulent global economic situations, growing labor shortage in IT. Despite all of those difficult circumstances the dynamic growth of Abylon is still constant and we’re once again among the high-growing companies that are leading the pack!

As a recognition of this dynamic growth, after last year Abylon Consulting is once again included in Financial Times Europe’s fastest-growing companies list. The list contains the fastest growing companies in Europe. To be included in the list, companies must meet several criteria, and the ranking are based on the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue of the last 5 years. This year’s minimum CAGR cutoff was 36.5%.

That’s why it’s a big deal if a company makes the yearly list multiple times. It means that the early momentum of growth – usually typical for a young, start-up company – can remain continuous even after the first few years.

After last year’s 107th place, this year Abylon Consulting landed on the 203rd place, making us the 4th highest among Hungarian companies (after last year’s first place). Click here for the complete FT 1000 list!

Last year, after making the list, we said that “we hope that although we are on this list for the first time, it will not be the last”. We managed to accomplish this now, but we are confident that we will have something to celebrate next year as well!

Our position on the FT 1000 list is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire Abylon Consulting team. Another huge thank you goes to all our customers who trust us with their projects again and again. We will try our best to keep earning this trust!

Would you like to work at Abylon?

If you think you would like to work for at Abylon, take a look at our career page and our current open positions! If you don’t find a suitable position, you can still upload or send us your CV because there are constantly new open positions.

Linkedin Facebook Youtube

Follow us for more news and technical insights!

Other popular posts

The post Abylon is among Europe’s fastest growing companies yet again appeared first on Abylon.

]]> https://www.abylon.hu/blog/abylon-is-among-europes-fastest-growing-companies-yet-again/feed/ 7 Effective Master Data Management with the Abylon Rapid Platform https://www.abylon.hu/bi-hu/effective-master-data-management-with-the-abylon-rapid-platform/ https://www.abylon.hu/bi-hu/effective-master-data-management-with-the-abylon-rapid-platform/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2023 14:51:27 +0000 https://www.abylon.hu/?p=12381 What makes a Master Data Management solution effective? We look at the weaknesses of the "traditional" approach, discuss a few typical use cases and offer a suitable alternative.

The post Effective Master Data Management with the Abylon Rapid Platform appeared first on Abylon.

]]>

Effective Master Data Management with the Abylon Rapid Platform

Who needs Master Data Management?

If You already know, that you need Master Data management, feel free to skip this part and jump right here! This quick overview helps you to understand the business needs why a company might need a master data management tool and to provide some real-life business use-cases.

Imagine a Business Intelligence (BI)-system! – Ok, but how? – You might ask, and really, what is the substance in business terms of a BI-system (BI as Business Intelligence). I won’t be going into that in academic terms, but one way to look at BI-systems is that:

„A Business Intelligence system is a solution package, which gathers data from one or several source systems in order to create reports from it.”

Please also let me hereby express my apologies to true BI-developers. They probably have a much better definition, but for now, and for the sake of simplicity, let’s stick with this definition.

Imagine, that you have a BI-system. It works with data coming from various source systems, data like: users, customers, vendors, and so on.

Use case I. - Basic categorization

You want to categorize your vendors in a new way, to make a new report but in your ERP system (a source system for the BI in this case) there is no field or option currently for that kind of categorization, and it would take a lot of resources to add that field. This custom development  is not on the development road map, but you still have to create a report using this categorization. Maybe you have to build reports on this ground, maybe you have to build/develop even more operational stuff.

Use case II. - Tax report change

Imagine that for some reason the international tax-environment changes (or will likely to change very soon), and the reports you’re taking care of need a rapid readjustment for planning, but operationally you are not able to change the source-system’s tax-categorization data.

Use case III. - Integration of new ERP system

Your company is implementing a new ERP-system, but you have one or multiple legacy systems, which have dimension attributes (for example: categorizations of vendors) in the legacy system(s) and in the current bi-system, which are already in place, but the new system is based on a different logic, thus this kind of categorization will be replaced, but you don’t want to change all your reporting structures straight up since the new system will be implemented in the long-run, country-by-country. 

Use case IV. - Affiliates with different accounting systems

You are working with several affiliates who use various, custom accounting source systems and different book of accounts structures. However, you still need to create reports using their data. This means you need to manually consolidate all of this data and arrange it into your own data categories, dimensions and reporting structure.

Downsides of the "old-school" approach to Master Data Management

If you’re coming from business (as I do) your first idea to solve any of the above use cases is to gather all the data in Excel-files. Then, eventually put them in a some SharePoint folder and then share the Excel files across multiple users throughout the globe. Right? This is a legit approach right?

Yes it is, if you’re absolutely comfortable with the „Demons of the Shadow IT” haunting you utill the end of your practice at that company… I know what I’m talking about. I’ve built the shadow IT for years… Here are dome of the problems with this approach:

  • User rights management
To put it simply, who should be able to access the data, and who should be able to adjust it?
  • Multiple Access
How to manage if more than one user wants to work in it simultaneously? I know-I know: Excel is supposed to handle this. However we know there are issues there, like not saving something, if two or more persons are working on the same file at the same time.
  • Logging and history tracking
How to know, what has been adjusted, who made the adjustments or edited the data (God-forgive deleted or added data), and what was the value before those actions took place? Actually this is a very common issue, when more than one person works with data. How can one be sure, that nobody touches their data, or if someone touches it can be traced back, so maybe there will be a discussion about the causes of the matter.
  • Simple validations

How to validate the values? Okay, Excel’s data validation is a viable an option here. We use it too. The problem is, that it can be easily overwritten, so it’s not a bullet-proof solution.

  • Complex validations

What if there are more complex validation rules that have to be applied? Validation based on some sort of business logic.

Imagine that you can only add data in a column which is between the min and max values of another table’s column’s data. Like you have to set monitor sizes, and there is a possible minimum and maximum value stored somewhere based on the available stock. How do you handle this?

Business Intelligence with adequate Master Data Management

Let’s start with usability! Just like with any other IT solution, usability, and therefore the User Interface is a key factor. What’s the best UI in this case? If you are guessing I hope you got it right! It’s the one and only MS Excel. I’m not joking. Excel is still the most universal (and most popular) tool for every controller or even office worker dealing with data.

Of course it has it weaknesses, so we gave our usual Excel UI some superpowers! We connected it to a database through our Excel add-in available directly in Excel itself. So what are the benefits of that? Let’s see a few:

  • Universal usability

Since we are connected to a standard SQL database, this connection can be used for any other standard purpose like being a data source for your queries, reports, or BI-system built somewhere else.

  • Common ground for enterprises
The back-end of the solution is a standard SQL database so most changes or developments to the solution only require SQL knowledge. Considering most modern enterprises usually have their own architecture and database-administrator team and often a few BI professionals as well, it means that the customer itself can participate in the development or customization of their own solution.
  • Excel-based configuration
Once we are familiar with the solution, it is an easy task to configure and create new tables, or adjust existing ones.
  • Business users can take care of the data in Excel
Since the user interface is Excel itself, there is no need for business users to do any type of programming, they can simply take care of the data in Excel.
  • Logging and history tracking
The solution has a standard way of keeping track of history data, and logging events, including information on who viewed the data and when.
  • Key reference
You need to validate data based on columns in other data tables? No problem! All you need is a simple configuration setting to reference that column. Once configured, data will be validated inside Excel using its own validations, plus it will also be validated in the background. Additionally – and more importantly – the data will also be validated in the “background” (on the back-end, database level)
  • Complex validations

Simple validation rules are not enough and you need to have custom validations based on business rules? Again, no problem! Any rule that can be described logically (and is a straightforward logic), can be developed in SQL and placed in a custom validation script, so that your data can only have values which are allowed!

Modern enterprise-grade MDM in just a couple of weeks

I’m not a marketing person. I don’t like big words. I used to be one of those people who are ultimately the end-users of these solutions. Based on that experience I can say that once your company starts doing Master Data Management with the Abylon Rapid Platform is won’t just be a small step, but a huge jump toward efficiency. You will have a automated, flexible, easily customizable solution that radically reduces all the manual work related to any MDM-related task. 

Moreover, because our solution is built on top of Excel – a familiar and widely used tool for users involved in these tasks – the implementation won’t take more that a couple of weeks!

If you want to improve your Master Data Management and what you just read sounds interesting give us 30 minutes of your time to present you our solution and show you that all the above is not just talk!

I NEED MORE INFO

Author of the post:

Zsolt Kreisz - Financial Controller in the past, now BI Developer at Abylon Consulting.
Linkedin Profile

Found this post interesting?

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates of similar post and news!

Linkedin Facebook Youtube

Follow us for more news and technical insights!

Other popular posts

The post Effective Master Data Management with the Abylon Rapid Platform appeared first on Abylon.

]]> https://www.abylon.hu/bi-hu/effective-master-data-management-with-the-abylon-rapid-platform/feed/ 4 Abylon Consulting on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list https://www.abylon.hu/blog/abylon-consulting-is-on-the-deloitte-technology-fast-50-list/ https://www.abylon.hu/blog/abylon-consulting-is-on-the-deloitte-technology-fast-50-list/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2022 14:14:39 +0000 https://www.abylon.hu/?p=12152 Abylon Consulting is listed on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe 2022 list that ranks the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in Central Europe.

The post Abylon Consulting on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list appeared first on Abylon.

]]>

Abylon Consulting making the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list

Abylon is once again among the fastest growing companies in the region

Christmas came early this year for Abylon. We’re super proud to announce that after making the FT 1000 list (Financial Times list of Europe’s Fastest Growing companies) in early 2022 we’re ending the year making the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe 2022 list. That means that Abylon Consulting remains one the most dynamically growing company both, in Central Europe and in Europe overall. Check below for more information on the Deloitte Techology Fast 50 list or download the full official report. 

Once again we would like to thank all our colleagues here at Abylon Consulting for their hard work, dedication and creativity that are the foundations of our success. We also like to thank the growing number of our clients who keep choosing us (most of them again and again) for their projects and without whom we definitely wouldn’t  be on this list.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 CE list

“The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 in Central Europe is a programme that recognizes and profiles fast growing
technology companies in the region. The programme, which is now in its 23rd year, ranks the 50 fastest growing public or private technology companies. The Technology Fast 50 award winners must meet a number of criteria and then they are ranked based on the revenue growth over the last four years.

Our story and our Solutions

Abylon Consulting is a young and rapidly growing software development and consultancy company. We offer innovative IT solutions for collaboration, business intelligence and data analytics. Our solutions range from modern data warehouse and business intelligence tools, through Power BI-based planning tools, to enterprise document management and workflow automation solutions.

We have a long history with Microsoft (our founders and management are all ex Microsoft) hence many of our solution are based or tightly integrated with the relevant Microsoft data analytics and BI products.

For more information on Abylon visit our About us page.

CHECK OUR SOLUTIONS

Found this post interesting?

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates of similar post and news!

Linkedin Facebook Youtube

Follow us for more news and technical insights!

Other popular posts

The post Abylon Consulting on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list appeared first on Abylon.

]]> https://www.abylon.hu/blog/abylon-consulting-is-on-the-deloitte-technology-fast-50-list/feed/ 11