[C-Job](https://www.c-job.com) is one of the leading naval architecture engineering firms in the Netherlands, known for innovative maritime solutions. As data requirements for project planning, performance monitoring, and financial oversight grew, C-Job needed a more robust and unified analytics platform to enhance decision-making across its teams.
## Problem Statement
C-Job initially leveraged Power BI reports connected to four separate data sources:
- Hour-tracking (for resource allocation)
- Planning data (project timelines)
- Bookkeeping (financials)
- Sales data
While Power BI provided basic reporting capabilities, challenges persisted:
- **Complex Transformations Within Power BI**: Multiple transformation steps within Power BI made the process harder to manage and scale.
- **Siloed Data Sources**: Limited data integration and consistency across different systems.
- **Rigid Reporting Structure**: Lack of a robust data model hindered more advanced analytics and flexible reporting.
## Delivered solution
To address these challenges, a new data infrastructure was introduced to streamline transformation and optimize reporting:
1. Data extraction & Loading
- [[Hevo]] was implemented for extracting the majority of operational data
- SheetGo replicated the Excel Sheets in the client's Sharepoint environment.
2. **Data Transformation Layer**
- [[BigQuery]] was established as the **centralized environment** to consolidate hour-tracking, planning, bookkeeping, and sales data.
- [[dbt]] handled all **transformation logic**, ensuring data was cleaned, merged, and structured before reaching [[PowerBI]].
3. **Data Modeling & Schema Design**
- Moved away from ad-hoc transformations in Power BI, transitioning to a **dimensional star schema** in BigQuery.
- Fact and dimension tables were clearly defined, improving readability, query performance, and future scalability.
4. **Power BI Revamp**
- **Report Redesign**: Updated visuals and layouts improved user experience, highlighting key performance indicators around resource utilization, financial tracking, and project health.
## Results
With the new data architecture in place, C-Job realized several important benefits:
- **Streamlined Data Flows**: Centralizing transformations in dbt Cloud and BigQuery removed complexity from Power BI, simplifying maintenance and updates.
- **Improved Analytics Performance**: By leveraging the dimensional star schema, queries ran faster and reports were more responsive.
- **Consistent and Reliable Insights**: A single source of truth in BigQuery enabled accurate cross-departmental reporting for better collaboration and decision-making.
- **Enhanced User Experience**: The newly designed Power BI reports provided clearer, more intuitive dashboards, driving data adoption among project managers, finance teams, and executives.
%% Owner: Philip Boontje %%