As a supplier and installer of steel doors and joinery, Decran focuses primarily on the industrial sector. Their in-house production facilities allow them to closely monitor product quality and ensure fast delivery—a major advantage in industrial construction, where speed is of the essence. “We need to be very well informed about the workload coming our way so we can efficiently schedule employees and procure materials. Only then can we guarantee our fast service. Thanks to Power BI ”we gain the insights we need to inform our operational decisions.".
Thanks to Power BI, we can look into the future more quickly, but we also see the past in a different light.
Pieter Vangheluwe, Operations Manager
Across all departments
As an operations manager, Pieter uses the BI reports every day to predict the production forecast and workload he’ll face in the next 6 to 8 weeks and to adjust his schedule accordingly. But of course, he’s not the only one who uses Power BI.
Decran’s management reviews reports that provide financial insights, focusing on key metrics such as profit, loss, margins, and so on. And that sometimes leads to surprising insights, Pieter explains: “For example, Power BI made it painfully clear that the custom work we were doing generated a lot of revenue but no profit. We quickly made the call and decided to stop offering that service. It was a significant decision, but just like any other company, we obviously want to make a profit.”
The sales department primarily uses the BI reports to forecast how much they can sell each quarter; this data is then fed back to production, because higher sales naturally also mean a larger workload for other departments.
We definitely want to introduce Microsoft Power Apps as well, in order to further automate our processes and make our business even more profitable.
Project managers use Power BI to check the status of all their projects and can also be evaluated on their performance. “It’s important within an organization to know where different people stand. We also want to address this to keep our employees satisfied. Power BI ensures that this is done in a fair and objective manner.”
Because Decran has made Power BI accessible throughout its organization, all departments now have a clearer overview, and everyone can act proactively and with confidence.
The Power BI production forecast is based on real-time data
A major challenge for companies is making data and information accessible before it becomes hopelessly outdated. People often look at financial reports from previous quarters, but does that really keep you ‘up to date’? Such reports are updated only periodically, so you quickly find yourself playing catch-up. With Power BI, you can distribute data in real time throughout your entire organization. “We used to rely on historical accounting data, but with Power BI, you can retrieve data from your system much faster and thus act more quickly—before it’s too late,” confirms Pieter.
“We need to know where we stand at all times and in all situations, and if you’re working with outdated information, that’s not possible. Our reports are built using information and data from Dynamics 365 (formerly NAV) and are updated multiple times a day. So we’re always perfectly up to date. Thanks to Power BI, we can look into the future more quickly, but we also view the past in a different light.”
A supportive partner
When asked what advice Pieter has for other entrepreneurs who want to get started with Power BI, he doesn’t hesitate: “Use the right data and know where that data comes from. That’s important so you can trust your reports. You don’t necessarily have to create your reports yourself, but you should check them yourself. In the past, Alistar created all our reports, but now we do a lot of it in-house. After thorough training, we can now create reports on our own, and Alistar primarily serves in a supportive and advisory role. Specifically, this means that Alistar creates the underlying tables, and we extract the relevant information from them and compile it into reports and dashboards that are useful for our people.”
The Right Tool
The construction industry has been extremely unpredictable in recent years, and it’s difficult for companies to find their way in this volatile environment. “There are so many external factors beyond our control, but using the right tool can help us find our place in that world. We certainly don’t ignore our gut instincts, but we’re now primarily using them to decide which data we consider important and need to run our business as effectively as possible.”
Pieter also agrees that companies in the construction sector must continue to digitize and optimize: “There’s still a lot of uncharted territory we’d like to explore, such as AI and machine learning. But for now, our primary focus is on further expanding our Microsoft Suite, such as implementing SharePoint. At a later stage, we definitely want to also Microsoft Power Apps ”introduce, in order to further automate our processes and thereby make our company even more profitable."
