Epical migrates Martela's data warehouse to the cloud - a new environment facilitates reporting
Martela has largely transitioned its IT systems to the cloud. When the company's ERP system was moved to the cloud, it was decided to also migrate the reporting environment to a cloud platform. Epical was a right choice as a partner.
Martela and Epical have a long history of collaboration: Enfo has been Martela's strategic reporting partner for years before Epical was established. Seven years ago, Martela and Enfo together undertook a significant database overhaul. At that time, the groundwork was laid for migrating the data warehouse to the cloud.
"Enfo played a strong expert role in the database overhaul as both a maker and a sparring partner. It was natural to choose Epical as a partner for the transition: Epical knows the environment and the people, so the project didn't start from scratch, saving time on induction," says Jukka Hagman, Martela's IT System Manager.
Stable reporting environment and more data than ever
The project started in August 2022, and the new reporting environment was put into production in May 2023. During the project, data was migrated from the old platform to the cloud, and Martela's systems were integrated into the new platform.
"The implementation of the new ERP required a lot of work, and it made sense to migrate the data warehouse to a new platform at the same time. There were many changes: the ERP system and the data warehouse platform changed, and the migration, integration, and configurations of the new system were done simultaneously. Despite some minor schedule challenges, we still managed to complete the project on time," says Arttu Kujala, Epical's project manager and lead developer.
As a result of the project, Martela gained access to a stable reporting environment where information is reliable and up-to-date. The project also opened up new possibilities for reporting.
"We have few disruptions, and there have been no exceptional breaks. With the transition to the cloud, we started using a data lake alongside the data warehouse, and we now have more data available for reporting than ever before," says Hagman.
The change brought significant savings to Martela in IT infrastructure costs. "We know how to organize cloud services in a way that minimizes expenses for the customer," Kujala remarks.
Old reports and systems replaced with new ones
Martela's old servers, systems, and reports were replaced with new ones when the data warehouse moved to the cloud.
"Reports had been directly coded on top of the old ERP system, so they had to be replaced with Power BI solutions. The essential reports were replaced during the project, but some less urgent ones are still in progress," says Hagman.
The project required harmonizing data areas because there are differences between the new and old ERP systems, even though they belong to the same product family.
"We have tried to understand these differences and align the information," says Hagman.
Epical utilized the Analytics Data Accelerator (ADA) tool in the project, which facilitated data loads, replacement of legacy systems, and master data management. ADA was developed along the way to serve Martela's needs, and Martela has also adopted the tool for its own use.
"ADA has served us very well in master data management. We can correct master data ourselves, and some functionalities are also used by the business. I find the tool easy to use," says Hagman.
Martela appreciates Epical's expertise and initiative
According to Hagman, the collaboration with Epical and also between Epical and the ERP vendor went very well.
I highly appreciate Epical's clear expertise and knowledge as well as their willingness and ability to take initiative.
“There were experts involved who hadn't participated in the previous database overhaul: the project was a good learning experience for them to delve deeper into our environment," says Hagman.
Communication in the project was easy, fast, and immediate. Documentation and discussions were carried out on Teams, which provided a lot of flexibility. Collaboration between Epical and the ERP vendor also worked well.
"When experts from both sides put their heads together, the end result was really good," Hagman praises.
Martela now has a modern data platform that will stand the test of time. However, data warehouses rarely remain the same in a company for long – new areas or dimensions of reporting may be introduced. Martela's collaboration with Epical will continue now with this minor development phase.
