Innovative data dashboard for amfori’s sustainability platform

amfori, a global business association, needed a more flexible and scalable data analytics solution but relied on a limited dashboard that restricted insights and control. ACA Group developed a self-service BI dashboard that enables users to access, analyze, and manage data independently. This business intelligence solution improves data visibility, supports real-time analysis, and increases operational efficiency by enabling faster, data-driven decision-making.

Challenge

amfori lacked flexibility and control over their data dashboards. Static dashboards and reliance on an external party for custom reports limited their ability to analyze data, respond quickly to member requests, and make data-driven decisions.

Solution

A new, user-friendly insights application was developed, built on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) with BigQuery as the data warehouse and Google Looker as the visualization tool. The solution enabled amfori to independently manage and customize their data dashboards.

Approach

Collaborated with amfori to analyze existing data and dashboard needs. Developed an integrated dashboard application within the existing Sustainability Platform. Leveraged GCP for scalability and Looker for enhanced visualization. Continuously enriched the dashboard with new data sources.

Result

amfori gained control over their dashboards through self-service BI, enabling internal teams to answer ad-hoc questions efficiently. Members accessed deeper insights into supply chains. The solution continues to evolve with advanced features like predictive analytics using AI/ML.

What's next?

Unfortunately, amfori was not 100% satisfied with their insights page and the data dashboards it contained. A first issue was that amfori did not manage this insights page themselves, and could therefore not make adjustments or consult specific overviews.

For example, when one of the members requested a specific report from a specific country or business partner, amfori always had to rely on the external party. In other words: amfori was not in control of the data and dashboards, but had to hand over the management and complete data to the external party. This led to inefficiency in communication and, ultimately, loss of time.

A second issue was that the dashboards were very static and contained only basic data. This means that a deeper analysis of data was not possible. However: knowledge is power, and amfori needed a more accurate and extensive dashboard.

We developed a completely new insights application for amfori. This new data architecture was built entirely on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) with BigQuery as the data warehouse. After all, the GCP offers many capabilities, both for ACA on the development side and for amfori as the customer. Thanks to its enormous computing power, the GCP works very smoothly, even when lots of data has to be processed. Additionally, GCP is extremely cost-effective to use despite its power.

To make the data available to the end users, we used GoogleLooker as a visualization tool. This tool ensures that we can improve the user experience for its users. Thanks to a Looker extension, users do not see separate dashboards, but all reports are integrated within the existing application.Because it is possible to have this application run on Looker from the backend, this simplifies the setup and maintenance of the application and is done automatically

We initially started by pulling in the data from the Sustainability Platform itself and displaying it in the new dashboard. The project is constantly evolving and the underlying architecture also supports this. After all, new external data sources are constantly being added to the application. This means that we can continue to expand the data we offer and let the dashboards grow with amfori.

Our new insights application offers members of amfori insights into their own supply chain as well as that of all their business partners.

Thanks to the self-service possibilities of our solution, internal users of amfori are able to quickly and easily answer ad-hoc business questions from members by using a drag-and-drop method. For example, a ‘country representative’ member can contact amfori with specific questions about statistics in their country and they can be answered quickly and efficiently. In addition, amfori has set up its own KPI dashboard for internal use, which provides an overview of activities that take place in the platform.

Thanks to self-service BI, employees - who have no affinity with data or don’t have technical knowledge - can get started with certain data themselves and easily set up and consult overviews.

The end result is a clear insights application with extensive reporting options, in which the management and storage of the data is entirely up to amfori itself.

The project continues to evolve and improve, because our insights application is continuously expanded with more information and visuals. Besides that, the amount of data in our data warehouse continues to increase.

This allows amfori and us to extract more and more concepts from the Sustainability Platform and ensures that we can offer the customer more and more insights into their own data.

Our data warehouse is also expanding with other external sources, such as Country Indicators from the World Bank. By adding these external data sources, we can continue to enrich the current data and expand our insights application.

We also continue to invest in innovation. The goal is to go a lot further than just descriptive analyzes and apply more innovative techniquesin the future. Together with amfori, we want to use more advanced insights, such as benchmarking and adding AI/ML to perform predictive analyzes about, for example, the quality of a monitoring. In concrete terms, we are currently setting up a proof-of-concept to see whether we can attach a quality label to a monitoring system based on AI / ML.

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Ready to transform your data strategy?

Let's collaborate!

Ready to transform your data strategy?

Let's collaborate!

Ready to transform your data strategy?

Let's collaborate!

Ready to transform your data strategy?

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