How Ebro Benelux got a grip on their reporting challenges

At Ebro Benelux, a medium-sized food manufacturer known for a.o. its rice products (Bosto, Boss, Lassie, Tilda, …), the existing reporting approach worried the IT manager due to the proliferation of reports and the lack of uniform data definitions. What had once started as an efficient solution for data-driven decision-making soon grew into a jumble of dashboards and reports.

Therefore, Ebro Benelux was looking for an adequate way to introduce Power BI as their central tool for reporting and data analysis. 

• Inconsistency in key figures

  • Different departments created their own versions of revenue, cost and FTE reports, creating conflicting figures. The result? Discussions about which data represented the truth, rather than decisions based on facts.

• Duplicate and overlapping reports

  • Different teams built analogous reports with seemingly the same data, but with different values due to different filters or calculation methods.

• Lack of security and data access control

  • Confidential personnel and financial data was accessible to employees without the proper permissions, creating risks of data breaches and compliance issues.

• No uniformity in reporting

  • Dashboards varied widely in formatting, terminology and visualisations, making it difficult to present reports professionally to internal and external stakeholders.

• No central process for report requests

  • Employees built new reports on their own, without alignment or validation, which further increased proliferation and inconsistency.

To get the chaos under control, Ebro Benelux engaged JumpstartKPI to implement a Power BI Governance Framework. This included:

• Central Data Governance

  • A clear structure that defined which key figures and KPIs were considered a ‘single source of truth’, so that all reports worked with the same definitions.

• Standardised report layout

  • Introducing a Power BI template with fixed colours, fonts and layout, so that all reports looked professional and recognisable.

• Security and access management

  • Implementation of row-level security (RLS) and role-based access control (RBAC) to ensure that sensitive data is visible only to authorised users.

• Centralised report management

  • A report request process that validates new dashboards before they go into production, avoiding duplication and inconsistency.

• Licence management optimisation

  • An audit of current licences to eliminate unnecessary costs and ensure that every employee can use the right Power BI functionalities.

• Power BI Training

  • The report creators, data owners, data analysts and other persons involved in working with Power BI were trained via JumpstartKPI’s unique Power BI Training Program. This guaranteed that all participants speak the same language, understand the best practices for data modelling, understand the best way to manage measures, … .

Within three months, the company managed to transform their reporting environment to a powerful Power BI environment:

• All departments worked with the same key figures, making data quality discussions a thing of the past.

• Duplicates and inefficient reports were eliminated, saving time and costs.

• Sensitive data was correctly masked, ensuring the company met internal and external compliance requirements.

• Reports were given a unified look and feel, which increased their credibility and usability.

• Employees were given a clear request process, ensuring that only relevant and well-substantiated reports were added.

• The company saved on unnecessary licences and optimised their Power BI costs.

Without clear Power BI Governance, an organisation can quickly lose control of its reporting. By bringing structure to data management, security and report requests, an organisation can make the most of Power BI without chaos.

Training the more than 30 users brought them to the right level to fully understand each other and to adequately tackle each step of the reporting process.