Abylon

Senior/Lead Data Engineer

Zoltán Zicherman — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 12:29:40 +0000

About Abylon

Abylon Consulting is a rapidly growing and innovative IT solutions provider with a strong focus on providing innovative BI solutions and consulting services. We have high expertise in Microsoft and Azure data analytics and BI products, hence many of our solutions are based on or tightly integrated with the relevant Microsoft products.

Data Analytics drives about 70% of our revenue. We have a strong, proven history for modern Data Lake house / data warehouse and advanced analytics solutions on Azure (Azure Synapse, Fabric, Databricks, Power BI / Power Platform) in multiple sectors (Energy, Utility, Bank, Transportation). Our Rapid FP&A product extends the capabilities of Microsoft with enterprise level financial planning and forecasting, which we believe can be major revenue stream for us in the future.

We are currently seeking a highly skilled Senior Data Engineer with expertise in Modern Data Warehousing, Big Data projects and Microsoft SQL Server and Azure-based Business Intelligence solutions.

If you would like to find out more about us, visit our About us page or our LinkedIn page.

Your responsibilities

Designing and building data warehouses on cloud and on-premises Microsoft-based infrastructure for corporate clients
Serve as a technical leader and mentor, provide guidance on best practices, code reviews, and performance optimization
Cultivate strong relationships with clients, handling client issues and serving as a trusted advisor on data engineering matters
Taking responsibility for project quality from project planning onwards
Performing development and consultancy tasks as part of the projects
Translating business requirements into technical specifications
Keeping our products up to date together with the team
Building models and data pipelines, transferring, loading and cleansing data, creating analyses
Optionally creating data visualizations and reports in Power BI

You are the perfect candidate if you have…

5+ years of proven experience as a Data Engineer with a focus on Modern Data Warehousing and Big Data projects
Strong proficiency in data warehousing in Microsoft SQL Server and experience with Azure-based BI/DWH solutions and related infrastructure
Strong SQL programming skills
Experience in an agile environment
Higher education degree in IT/business field
Good problem-solving skills, analytical thinking and client-oriented approach
Ability to efficiently manage multiple tasks and projects in a fast-paced environment
Clear, concise communication skills with a strong command of written and spoken English

What’s in it for You?

Hybrid work: Our modern office is in the 13th district, near the Göncz Árpád city center, in the Agora HUB. We usually meet at the office once a week, but you can also work from home.
Home Office support: We provide monthly support to help you create high-quality office conditions at home.
High professionalism: Our colleagues have great expertise, and we support and encourage professional initiatives. Of course, it is also important to us that we feel good while working.
Flexible working hours: Did you only get a morning appointment at the car service? Do you need to pick up your child from kindergarten or do you have other errands during the day? No problem! We work with flexible working hours as long as the task is completed.
Sports benefits: We encourage and support various forms of physical activity and sports among our employees. You can use the well-equipped, modern gym in the office building for free, and you can also use our company's own electric bicycles at any time. If you prefer basketball, soccer, or hiking, you will surely find partners with us!
Trainings: Continuous learning and development are important to us.
We also provide “SZÉP card” benefits and reward your conscientious work with an annual bonus.

How to Apply?

If you feel like you would like to join us based on the description, all you have to do is send your Hungarian or English CV to our email address: job@abylon.hu

The post Senior/Lead Data Engineer appeared first on Abylon.

Five Biggest Challenges in Financial Planning

Zoltán Zicherman — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 09:29:14 +0000

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.

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

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:

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

Master data custom validation using the Rapid Platform

Zoltán Zicherman — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 14:58:23 +0000

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.

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

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

Engagement Manager for Data, Analytics & Cloud

Zoltán Zicherman — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 09:29:14 +0000

About Abylon

Abylon Consulting is a rapidly growing and innovative IT solutions provider situated within the European Union, with a strong focus on providing innovative BI solutions and consulting services. We have high expertise in Microsoft and Azure data analytics and BI products, hence many of our solutions are based on or tightly integrated with the relevant Microsoft products. Abylon Consulting is one of the proven Microsoft cloud solutions experts for BI and AI. In 2021 Abylon Consulting achieved Gold level partner status for Data Analytics, Project and Portfolio Management and Cloud Platform categories.

Our dynamic growth was recently recognized when Abylon Consulting made it to the Financial Times’ annual list of Europe’s 1000 fastest growing companies for two years in a row – 2023 and 2022, as well as to the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list in 2022. With a proven track record of success in Hungary, we are excited to bring our expertise and solutions to the UK Market. As part of this strategic expansion, we are seeking a dynamic and driven Account Manager to join our team and spearhead the growth of our services and clientele in UK.

If you would like to find out more about us, visit our About us page or our LinkedIn page.

Position Overview

We are actively seeking an Engagement Manager (Data, Analytics & Cloud) who has a wealth of experience in client engagement, with a focus on enterprise clients. The ideal candidate will have a background as a senior developer, senior consultant, architect, team lead or delivery manager, coupled with a solid foundation in technical consulting. This role involves spearheading technical teams, emphasizing expertise in delivery management, architecture and client interaction. Ensures quality delivery while maintaining customer satisfaction.

Your responsibilities

Lead and oversee technical teams, ensuring seamless project delivery and client satisfaction, own end-to-end solution delivery on the assigned account(s).
Accountable for the technical leadership regarding the delivery. Act as a single point of responsibility over any delivery related matters, including escalations, upsell, ramp-downs, etc.
Establish and manage long-term partnerships with the client(s).
Leverage your extensive experience to engage with a diverse clientele, managing multiple projects simultaneously.
Address client(s) issues and identify and manage engagement risks.
Act as a technical advisor, drawing upon your wealth of experience to guide and support both clients and internal teams.
Demonstrate proficiency in data world including Azure, Data Factory, Synapse and optionally Databricks, with a must-have expertise in SQL.
Support sales activities: participate in bid process, provide technical and management expertise to win bids.

Requirements

Previous experience in technical consulting or advisory roles.
Proven track record in client engagement and vendor management.
Background as a senior developer, senior consultant, architect, team lead or delivery manager.
Proficient in Azure services, Data Factory, Synapse, Databricks and SQL.
Ability to efficiently manage multiple tasks and projects in a fast-paced environment.
Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with diverse personality types.
Clear and concise communication skills with a strong command of both written and spoken English and Hungarian.

What’s in it for You?

Hybrid work: Our modern office is in the 13th district, near the Göncz Árpád city center, in the Agora HUB. We usually meet at the office once a week, but you can also work from home.
Home Office support: We provide monthly support to help you create high-quality office conditions at home.
High professionalism: Our colleagues have great expertise, and we support and encourage professional initiatives. Of course, it is also important to us that we feel good while working.
Flexible working hours: Did you only get a morning appointment at the car service? Do you need to pick up your child from kindergarten or do you have other errands during the day? No problem! We work with flexible working hours as long as the task is completed.
Sports benefits: We encourage and support various forms of physical activity and sports among our employees. You can use the well-equipped, modern gym in the office building for free, and you can also use our company's own electric bicycles at any time. If you prefer basketball, soccer, or hiking, you will surely find partners with us!
Trainings: Continuous learning and development are important to us.
We also provide “SZÉP card” benefits and reward your conscientious work with an annual bonus.

How to Apply?

If you feel like you would like to join us based on the description, all you have to do is send your Hungarian or English CV to our email address: job@abylon.hu

The post Engagement Manager for Data, Analytics & Cloud appeared first on Abylon.

Unleashing the Power of Excel: From VBA to Power Query

Zoltán Zicherman — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:39:00 +0000

(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.

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

AI-Based Regulatory Repository: The Control System of the Future

Zoltán Zicherman — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 14:48:16 +0000

AI-Based Regulatory Repository within the Docuflow platform

At Abylon, we are committed to innovation and staying ahead with the latest technology. In our pursuit of this, we continuously explore ways to integrate cutting-edge technology into our offerings. In keeping with this commitment, we are excited to announce a significant update to the Docuflow Document Routing and Workflow Automation platform. As one of our latest enhancements, the Regulatory Document Module has been upgraded with an AI-powered regulatory repository that uses the OpenAI language model.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent decades has opened up new possibilities for the automation of regulatory processes and intelligent decision support. The AI-based regulatory repository is an innovative approach that combines the latest developments in artificial intelligence with traditional regulatory frameworks, enabling organizations to respond more effectively to changing environmental and market challenges.

What is an AI-Based Regulatory Repository?

An AI-based regulatory repository is a digital toolkit that uses artificial intelligence to manage regulatory processes. This includes interpreting rules and regulations, monitoring compliance, and continuously adapting to regulatory changes. The system is capable of learning independently, constantly updating its internal regulatory databases, and adapting to new regulatory environments.

How Does the AI-Based Regulatory Repository Work?

The AI-based regulatory repository uses artificial intelligence to manage regulatory processes. This includes the interpretation of rules and regulations, as well as continuously adapting to requirements. The system is capable of learning independently and constantly updating itself with internal regulatory databases.

The AI-based regulatory repository fundamentally relies on three main components:

Data Collection: The system is capable of collecting and processing relevant regulatory documents, such as laws, regulations, and guidelines.

Analysis and Learning: AI modules analyze the collected data, identify key requirements, and learn from the data to improve regulatory compliance processes.

Automated Implementation: AI automates compliance processes, including decision-making processes and handling potential irregularities.

In practice, this means that users of the Docuflow platform’s regulatory module can now not only easily search within the internal corporate regulatory repository but also seek the assistance of an AI-based chatbot.

This Chatbot, utilizing the OpenAI language model, not only enhances contextual searching (enabling the search of documents or specific details of documents based on numerous characteristics) but also provides assistance with any questions related to documents stored in the regulatory repository. This innovation significantly reduces the time employees spend managing internal regulatory documents, facilitates the automation of regulatory processes, and supports intelligent decision-making, all while simultaneously improving the organization’s transparency and compliance.

Advantages of the AI-Based Regulatory Repository

Future Outlook

AI-based regulatory repositories will continuously evolve, and as more organizations adopt them, they are expected to bring significant changes to regulatory processes. AI will be able to predict regulatory trends, helping organizations achieve proactive compliance. The expansion and integration of such intelligent systems will soon be essential in corporate risk management strategies, as well as in governmental and international regulatory frameworks.

Therefore, AI-based regulatory repositories can play a key role in managing future regulatory challenges and become fundamental elements of modern business and regulatory infrastructure. The balance of innovation and foresight in regulatory policy can ensure that these systems create added value for both companies and society.

Abylon Docuflow Platform

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.

The post AI-Based Regulatory Repository: The Control System of the Future appeared first on Abylon.

UK market here we go – Abylon’s International Ascent

Zoltán Zicherman — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 11:14:42 +0000

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. 🌍🚀

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Five Biggest Challenges in Financial Planning

Master data custom validation using the Rapid Platform

Unleashing the Power of Excel: From VBA to Power Query

UK market here we go – Abylon’s International Ascent

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

Data warehouse project using the Abylon Rapid Platform

Zoltán Zicherman — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 10:32:50 +0000

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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

Ease of use

Flexibility

Case Study: Sales planning automation

Zoltán Zicherman — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 13:15:49 +0000

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.

Results

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Senior .NET Developer and Architect

Zoltán Zicherman — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 09:03:16 +0000

Abylon Consulting offers rapid and scalable solutions for areas essential for modern day companies. We offer innovative IT solutions and consulting services for collaboration, business intelligence, data analytics. Our software products range from modern data warehouse and business intelligence tools, Power BI-based planning tools to enterprise document management and workflow automation solutions.

Building on our successful projects and the growing number of happy customers, we are establishing ourselves as one of the most innovative IT companies in the region. Our dynamic growth was recently recognized when Abylon Consulting made the Financial Time’s annual list of Europe’s 1000 fastest growing companies for two years in a row, as well as making the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list in 2023.

Abylon is seeking an experienced Senior .NET Developer/Architect to join our expanding backend team. In this role, you will have the opportunity to work on a diverse range of enterprise projects. As a Senior .NET Developer and Architect, you will be involved in both greenfield application development and the enhancement of existing enterprise applications. Moreover, you will play a crucial role as a mentor in guidance of junior developers. The opportunity to directly engage with users who will be utilizing your applications will be part of your responsibilities.

Your responsibilities

Collaborate with agile teams to develop enterprise applications from inception, including architecture design and implementation
Write high-quality, functional code, ensuring robustness, scalability and maintainability
Implement best practices and coding standards, contribute to the team’s continuous improvement
Mentor and guide junior developers, fostering a collaborative and knowledge-sharing environment
Stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and advancements in .NET development and architecture.

Requirements

Extensive and proven experience in working with .NET framework and related technologies
Proficiency in ASP.NET Core and expertise in working with Entity Framework
Strong understanding and application of Agile methodologies
Fluency in Hungarian language to effectively communicate with local stakeholders
Intermediate English language knowledge
Familiarity with architecture styles/APIs, particularly RESTful APIs
Experience working with SQL Server databases
Demonstrated track record of developing applications for enterprise clients (nice to have)
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot and resolve technical issues effectively

What’s in it for You?

Hybrid work: Our modern office is in the 13th district, near the Göncz Árpád city center, in the Agora HUB. We usually meet at the office once a week, but you can also work from home.
Home Office support: We provide monthly support to help you create high-quality office conditions at home.
High professionalism: Our colleagues have great expertise, and we support and encourage professional initiatives. Of course, it is also important to us that we feel good while working.
Flexible working hours: Did you only get a morning appointment at the car service? Do you need to pick up your child from kindergarten or do you have other errands during the day? No problem! We work with flexible working hours as long as the task is completed.
Sports benefits: We encourage and support various forms of physical activity and sports among our employees. You can use the well-equipped, modern gym in the office building for free, and you can also use our company's own electric bicycles at any time. If you prefer basketball, soccer, or hiking, you will surely find partners with us!
Trainings: Continuous learning and development are important to us.
We also provide “SZÉP card” benefits and reward your conscientious work with an annual bonus.

How to Apply?

If you feel like you would like to join us based on the description, all you have to do is send your Hungarian or English CV to our email address: job@abylon.hu

If you would like to find out more about us, visit our About us page or our LinkedIn page.

The post Senior .NET Developer and Architect appeared first on Abylon.

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Case Study: Sales planning automation

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