Barco: Modernizing SAP reporting with self-service and scalable governance
SAP BW
SAP BW/4HANA
SAP Business Objects
SAP Analytics Cloud
Barco is a global technology company that develops networked visualization solutions for entertainment, enterprise, and healthcare markets. Their products help enable compelling entertainment experiences, facilitate knowledge sharing and decision-making in organizations, and assist hospitals in delivering high-quality patient care.
The challenge
Barco already had a complex SAP BW environment with multiple reporting modules drawing from both SAP and non-SAP data sources.
There was a need to keep this environment aligned both with day-to-day reporting needs and with future requirements (e.g. more modern dashboards, more self-service, etc.).
Their existing front-end tools (like SAP Business Objects) and legacy/manual reporting flows needed modernization to support more agile use by business users.
They were planning a migration to BW/4HANA, so existing BW flows had to be gradually converted/optimized to be ready for that move.
Our solution
Introduced SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) as a modern front-end reporting environment on top of (but gradually replacing & augmenting) their older SAP BO setup.
Supported Barco in governance where business users have more ability/self-service but the central BI team maintains control over data sources, certified datasets, and standards.
Preparing the BW system for migration by converting existing flows to be optimized for BW/4HANA.
Deployed dashboards to be visible across the organization (e.g. via screens in headquarters) for better transparency.
The business value
More modern, user-friendly reporting tools allowing business lines to build their own dashboards & use insights more directly and faster.
Improved governance and consistency across reporting through certified datasets causing less depency on manual, error-prone spreadsheets or reports.
Readiness for future platform migration reducing risk and smoothing the transition.
Better visibility into internal operations, including tracking incident tracking, SLAs, etc allowing Barco to monitor and improve internal service.
Insights readily accessible to a broader audience more people through HQ screens, cultivating an excellence mindset.
