Data Warehouse Case Study: Building a Real-Time Analytics Platform for Financial Visibility

Situation: Five Revenue Reports, None of Them Matching

This growing mid-market company had defined an aggressive growth strategy and needed to operate more efficiently to remain competitive. To do that, they needed to overcome a fundamental data consolidation challenge. Executives and the board were looking at five different revenue reports — and none of them matched. Leadership had no clear picture of true revenue or expense numbers.

Compounding the problem, one business unit was losing at least $1M per year — but no one could produce the exact figure. Meanwhile, margins were shrinking and inventory was being managed reactively rather than strategically. The company was making critical business decisions without reliable data.

Challenge: 14 Years of IT Neglect, Siloed Data Across Every Platform

The client had no idea how to solve their business intelligence challenges or where to begin. On top of that, they had not invested in their IT infrastructure or technology platforms for over 14 years. All systems were outdated and out of maintenance. Data was siloed across SAP, their eCommerce platform, Salesforce, and warehouse management systems — with no integration layer and no common data model. The challenge was not just technical; it required a fundamental shift in how the business thought about data and decision-making.

Action: Two-Track Approach — Business Process Transformation & Data Warehouse Implementation

Full On Consulting worked with executives and business leaders to understand the challenges they were facing. It was clear the organization had no visibility into their data and no mechanism to make informed decisions. Our recommendation was to design and build a real-time data warehouse and leverage a modern analytics platform — laying the foundation for genuine business intelligence.

Full On Consulting developed an approach consisting of two tracks: business process transformation and technology implementation. On the business process side, we worked with executives and business units to shift their mindset from tactical, day-to-day decision-making to strategic, data-driven decision-making. This was a meaningful culture change. We facilitated workshops to define the metrics needed to run each part of the business — spanning operations, financials, sales and marketing, and divisional roll-up to overall corporate performance.

On the technology side, the data warehouse implementation integrated four existing platforms: the company's SAP ERP, Magento eCommerce, Salesforce CRM, and warehouse management system. Each held significant data — the problem was that it was entirely siloed. Full On Consulting's Data Management team designed an enterprise data model and implemented the integration processes to extract data from each platform and populate the data warehouse in near real time. We then worked with executives and business unit leaders to validate data accuracy and train them on the aggregated views available at their fingertips.

The team used a phased delivery approach to prove out the processes and drive adoption. Inventory management and operations were implemented first, followed by sales, then financials — the highest-sensitivity area and the one with the most conflicting legacy reporting.

Result: Real-Time Financial Visibility, a Single Source of Truth, and a $1M+ Loss Surfaced

The data warehouse and analytics platform gave executives and business leaders something they had never had: a near-real-time view of company and business unit financials, inventory turns, high-margin items, and other key operational metrics — all from a single, trusted source.

The five conflicting revenue reports were replaced by one. The board could now be briefed with accurate, consistent financial data. And with mobile access to the analytics platform, executives could see how the company was performing — down to the nearest minute — from anywhere.

Most significantly, the financial analytics capability surfaced the $1M+ annual loss in the underperforming business unit that leadership had known existed but could never quantify. With that visibility, they could act. These business intelligence implementation results — a true single source of truth, real-time KPI access, and previously invisible losses brought to light — represent exactly the kind of data analytics consulting results that Full On Consulting delivers.