BIX Tech

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Intelbras is a Brazilian company founded in 1976, in the state of Santa Catarina. Manufacturer of products and solutions in Security, Communication, Networks and Energy, the company operates in image management, condominium centers, in the manufacture of electronic security products, switches and on the telephone. I am responsible for the administration of the company's data environments.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BIX Technology?

We hired BIX to develop the BI for tracking and controlling calls.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Being BIX as one of the best BI consulting companies in the region and having in its previous work developed a similar BI.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The challenge was to capture all the information from a Dutch system using the Odata connection, transform this information following the premises and business rules and transform it into a visualization for quick analysis and management of the users of the app.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

1 Qlik developer consultant and 1 product manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Success was to achieve the expectations of end users on time and without scares.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

With regular meetings and holding a conversation group, there was good synergy between the teams.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The ability to absorb the user's need and transform it into the reading and development of the technical part requiring minimal internal support from the company

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

In this specific case, it would not change anything in terms of progress or development.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a FP&A analyst to a brazilian fashion company headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. My position mainly goal is to provide accurated financial analysis, support management decisions.

Our portifolio is composed by premium brands, with +280 phisical stores throughout the Brazil and a on going expansion to USA/Europe. The company is about 5.000 employes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BIX Technology?

For the past 10 years company's managerial reports were consolidated and built in Excel files. Currently, due to the new standards and company size, it's became inefficient to work with spreadsheets as a data source. We felt the need to chance to something more secure and structured.

What were your goals for this project?

This project was intended to restructure a data warehouse desinged to automate consolidation routines in order to accelerate elaboration and provide consistency to financial reports.

SOLUTION

How did you select BIX Technology?

BIX Tecnology had already developed other successful projects within the company, mostly in partnership with our tecnology department. Having a positive background in house helped us decide, but, besides that, they had experience in this particular matter.

Describe the project in detail.

The scope was to gather information from different sources and combine them into a single strucctured data warehoure. There were three major building blocks: revenue, taxes and expenses.

To each of them a specific routine was designed and automate, going from just select a few columns to complex apportionment by brand/channel. After the rules were determined, the data warehouse with historical data was populate and the routines were set to run periodically.

What was the team composition?

The team was composed by a BIX senior consultant and myself.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The project was concluded on time. The data warehouse was build sucsssefully, integrating steps and routines that took approximately 12/16 hours per month of manual work within a couple hours of computational effort.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication flow was the best possible. The team had a check-in meeting every morning to discuss the workplan for that day. Whenever something went down not as planned, the team would get together again to make the adjustments needed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The ability to understand and respect the client's needs, without making suggestions or trying to increase the scope so they can get a bigger project. I also like how they make every second available productive, which was essencial due to the busy period that the company was through.

Another factor that helped a lot was the proactive attitude the consultant took regarding information and validation, stepping in to other departments.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The schedule was a bit extensive to this particular goals. We agreed to an open schedule in the end, so there was no harm.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the systems coordinator at foundry headquartered in southern Brazil. Our company has about 1000 employees and we serve custom steel castings for clients all over the world.

I am responsible for overseeing the maintenance and development of our enterprise system and BI.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BIX Technology?

We are starting to leverage the features from a new version of our BI software that we recently acquired and we did not have any in-house engineers available due to recent downsizing.

With the increasing pressure for new resources and information to be made available in our BI platform, we decided to outsource the development for two analytic dashboards focused on cost data which was not easily accessible from our legacy system.

We were also looking for a company which would focus on training key users and do a proper knowledge transfer, so that the developments made were sustainable.

What were your goals for this project?

We aimed to have clear and well designed dashboards for logistics and maintenance costs so that we could develop better understanding of the cost behavior, look for cost reduction opportunities and develop a better know how for cost forecasting.We also wanted to train a team of internal analysts.

SOLUTION

How did you select BIX Technology?

We searched for potential BI partners and listed 3 candidates based on cases presented and feeedback from colleagues. We contacted each company and decided to go with BIX based on the quality of the cases presented, their willingness to properly train our staff and their price point, which we considered fair.

Also, they were very transparent on their proposal, which made us confident on their ability to deliver.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected Bix as our partner, we started with the project for a logistics costs dashboard, followed by the maintenance one.We had the additional challenge of our legacy system being custom made by a software house for more than a decade and being in constant development.

That meant having to deal with data structures and business rules that were not industry standard. We felt that Bix handled this situation very well.In both developments, we had a design phase, with constant input from the final user, followed by a development and feedback phase and finally de training and documentation.

What was the team composition?

We had project managers from both our company and Bix. Bix assigned one full time developer and we assigned one key user to each project. We also held meetings with our software developers or other users whenever needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We were able to pinpoint patterns for our logistic costs which were hurting our results and are in the process of reducing them. We estimate a 5% reduction based on data available. We are now better prepared to quote the freight costs to our customers, enabling our sales team to make more assertive decisions.

We are currently starting a project for 10% maintenance cost reduction based on the data we derived from the dashboard developed.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had no communication issues with the Bix team and had frequent updates and discussions.Bix has a great method and structure for updates and feedback. We held semiweekly short and structured meetings for development report, user input and feedback and challenges discussion.

This was critical to the speed, quality and work delivered.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The visual aspects and overall flow of information in the final work is superb. We were also impressed with the level of documentation and support provided. We truly consider this to be above our expectation levels.

The quality and easy-of-use of the dashboards is top notch.Also, their commitment to making sure the data is right is really impressive. We were able to find and document several business rules which were not written anywhere, and also a few bugs in the system.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I'm not sure whether I can really point to a measurable need for improvement. Sure everything can be done faster, but that might sacrifice quality, which is more important. Working with Bix was a delight.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

ASSEC is a self-managed Health Plan Operator registered at ANS with approximately 5,000 beneficiaries. I’ve been the president of ASSEC since 2018, with a mandate that goes till 2021.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BIX Technology?

We were going through a delicate moment where the control of everything was very outdated. They were archaic and, in some cases, even manual. As soon as we assumed we had the purpose of bringing innovative technological change within the Operator, we were introduced to business intelligence (BI) and BIX Technology.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BIX Technology got involved by presenting us with BI plans of strategy optimization, cost optimization, and fraud detection. They demonstrated how we could decrease our loss ratio, with a focus on and strict performance with our providers. Our other issues included accompanying patients’ high costs and identifying irregularities. BIX Technology guides and consults us by providing solutions to our problems.

What is the team composition?

We work with the operators responsible for the technical part. On the operational side, we do the work together to arrive at the expected results.

How did you come to work with BIX Technology?

We found BIX Technology, and they presented us with the OPME-DIGITAL tool which would facilitate our negotiations on the purchase of high-cost materials. The cost-benefit factors made us accept the challenge and choose to engage with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invest about $6,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing project started in May 2019. BIX Technology is our partner and gives us ongoing support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The results are surprising, mainly in terms of cost reduction, response time for performance, and almost-instant auditing. We do short-, medium-, and long-term planning through annual diagnoses presented by BIX Technology.

How did BIX Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was done in several "hands", with the objective of obtaining the best possible result. Communication was always clear and direct, and their team never exceeding the deadlines established. In the end, everything was accomplished within the contracted timeline.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our partnership with BIX Technology is excellent. They’re involved and committed to finding a quick solution to our problems as well as identifying the best solution and putting customer satisfaction first.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're an engine manufacturing company with a turnover of $2,050M and about 14,000 employees. I am a Senior Business Analyst, currently acting as Solution Owner of the Engineering and Procurement cluster.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BIX Technology?

We started with the implementation of the Cost Deployment Algorithm using Qlik Sense. The objective was to have visibility of losses in the production lines.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bix became involved as a partner in the strictest sense of the word. He got involved with the pains of our company with the clear objective of solving our problem, looking for solutions with a lot of resilience until reaching the goal.

What is the team composition?

They were involved from the CEO-level in understanding the project. Then it was passed on to the specialist and deployed with two other developers, all of them very committed to delivery.

How did you come to work with BIX Technology?

We were in the process of selecting companies to help us in the Business Intelligence journey. I've known them since college, and I've always had a lot of admiration for their work.

How much have you invested with them?

About Reais $150k. ($26,600.00 USD)

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in June 2018 and ended in December. It is an ongoing support collaboration.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The area really liked the solution. We managed to break the paradigm of Power BI being better / easier to use. The presentation and navigability were great, and we were awarded the most innovative company in Brazil in the Manufacturing category, ranking 3rd overall, by IT Forum in 2019.

How did BIX Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

They have very clear and objective communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their persistence in understanding the solution and not giving up until we reach the final result stands out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There could be increased availability of direct contact with the developer.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an administrative manager at Emdagro Servers Association – ASSEM.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BIX Technology?

The OPME DIGITAL tool was developed by BIX Technology, which was born with the aim of offering modern solutions for receiving quotes for Optoses, Prostheses and Special Materials (OPME), for health plan operators.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The company provided professionals to learn about the old process used by the Operator and start the development of the tool, using the Python programming language.

What is the team composition?

A group of three employees actively participated in the development of the project.

How did you come to work with BIX Technology?

We were already aware of other BIX Technology products. A search for solutions was carried out in the market and BIX presented the best solution—in less time and with the most accessible value.

How much have you invested with them?

The development of the project cost $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in April 2019 and ended in June 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

From the use of the tool, we were able to optimize the quotation process. We noticed an increase in competitiveness among suppliers, generating cost savings in the acquisition of materials and easier decision making. BIX has offered daily maintenance and support since the development of the project. They provide services quickly and offer practical solutions.

How did BIX Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

All the deadlines presented were fulfilled to our satisfaction. Online meetings were held and materials such as spreadsheets, copies of budgets, and supplier lists were sent via email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They presented a quick solution, with practicality and less cost for development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO at Paraíso Feminino, which is the biggest search engine and price comparator of fashion products targeted to the female audience.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BIX Technology?

We hired Bix to design a new database totally focused on data capture, organization and treatment.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal with this job is to be a company focused on data. As we have millions of interactions between users and products, we intend to generate analytical information on consumption and behavior from these interactions.

SOLUTION

How did you select BIX Technology?

We selected Bix because they have great expertise in the fashion e-commerce segment, which is the market where we operate.

Describe the project in detail.

We had a meeting to explain our need on time, after receiving and validating Bix's budget, we started the project with the analyst to project what data we were interested in capturing and separating it between transactional or analytical bank. At the end of the consultancy, we received the projection of this bank, as well as cost estimates and server indications and forecast for the size and cost of the machines. Too assertive for our need.

What was the team composition?

The team was composed of a data analyst.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have not yet implemented the database, the forecast is for December 2020.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project flow happened exactly as it was proposed and the deadlines met to the letter. A point to note is that we were meticulously listened to, which provided a totally satisfactory delivery and to the extent of our need.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

In addition to the technical quality of the professionals, what impressed me the most was their ability to listen and how much they go beyond 100% to deliver value without measure.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It was all perfect.

BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the president of Nohda Group. We control and own four labels, the most important of which are PatBo and Patricia Bonaldi. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BIX Technology?
BIX has helped us identify and change our business processes to allow us to continue to be competitive in the market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
We were a small company 15 years ago, and we’ve grown a lot in a short period of time. Our biggest challenge has been knowing how to grow and make the correct changes so we can continue to be competitive in the market. There are a lot of challenges when growing from a small to big company. You need to evolve and fix your problems, but you can't change everything at once or you’ll break the structure you had and lose your advantage when going to the next level.

BIX’s assessment was important in helping us identify key areas for improvement, especially in our operational process and structure. We identified the problems quickly and made the right changes to correct them in our developing and manufacturing processes, and it didn't take a lot of investment. We were able to put the right people in the right places. We also were able to determine what assets we had and the best way to use them. We used some tools, especially a cash flow tool that BIX developed for us, that integrated with our operational process. We did a lot with our business intelligence coverage. It was important for us to have data that showed us what was important for the business. 

What is the team dynamic? 
We had one analyst in-house, but they had developed everything with other behind-the-scenes workers.

How did you come to work with BIX Technology?
Our sales volume is in the medium range, but BIX did important work for another important group here in Brazil. I wouldn't say they’re our competitor, because they’re at a different level in terms of size. I heard a lot of good things about BIX, so I tried to bring them to our company to improve our situation.

How much have you invested with them?
Phase 1 was really short and cost us around $10,000. We focused on diagnosis and developing certain tools. Phase 2 of the process is more about implementation; the scope is bigger and it probably will involve more hours.

What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with BIX in February 2017. Phase 1 has been completed, and we’re negotiating Phase 2, regarding the implementation of a lot of the opportunities that we identified.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve had a lot of feedback. The organization structure was important to us, and the tool BIX made for us was important in the process overview. They also improved our strategic planning, which changed a lot of things for us.

How did BIX Technology perform from a project management standpoint?
Their project management skills were above our expectations. We worked with a senior analyst who I think is also one of the associates. We are happy because we have somebody with seniority who has brought us good results so far.

What did you find most impressive about them?
I have only good things to say about BIX Technology. For us, their work was game-changing. When you talk about consultancy, it’s difficult to have something that you can actually implement. I was happy with the results we had; everything they suggested was practical, and we implemented everything we could. We accepted and saw that we could make a lot of improvements on what we were doing. They were really good for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?
I can't say if anything could have been different. I think everything was fine and above our expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of commerce and digital for a big fashion retail company with almost 600 stores around Brazil. We have an e-commerce channel and retail stores. I work with technology to produce sales over the Internet and retail stores.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BIX Technology?

BIX Technology worked with me to build engagement for the stores. We needed a way to get sales data from our stores every day.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BIX Technology helped us conceptualize and develop the product. The main technology BIX Technology used was QlikView. I’m not sure how many developers they used because I contracted that service.

How did you come to work with BIX Technology?

I don't remember how we found BIX Technology. I started talking to them, we started working together, and it was good.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with BIX Technology in 2013–2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They were really good. BIX Technology developed what we needed quickly, and we didn't have any problems with the final product. We were amazed by the automatic nature of its features.

Our stores are really enjoying this product. All of our stores now have more data that they can use to their advantage. They have an easy way to see how sales are going, how they rank against other stores, and what approach they can use to sell a particular product. We can even identify which products had the highest sales in a particular day. It’s also really easy for the store’s management to provide a review.

How did BIX Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m not sure. I told my team what to do, and they worked with BIX Technology. I can say that there were no delays, and the product was delivered on time.

What did you find most impressive about BIX Technology?

The work was done quickly, and there weren't a lot of issues to fix. The process was straightforward, fast, and good. We didn't have any problems at all.

Are there any areas BIX Technology could improve?

I can't remember now.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Portobello is a tile company. We own around 150 stores that sell only our product. We also have another channel that sells to the construction business and home centers like Home Depot, but in Brazil. We used to have a business in the U.S. where Home Depot, for example, was one of our clients. I work as a pricing coordinator, specifically in the franchise business. My job is doing price analysis and meeting with the head of the company to decide which prices and strategy we’re going to use in our stores.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BIX Technology?

We needed development of business intelligence focused on the franchises, specifically the guys that own the franchise business (not the franchisee).

SOLUTION

What is the scope of their involvement?

They developed a business intelligence software where every store can check their marketing, commercial, and logistic KPIs. It was based on the Pentaho platform. They are also doing pricing business intelligence for us which has our pricing KPIs.

We also had a development that they did with us that focused on a relationship program where you get points similar to credit card points. The architect goes with the client in the store, and when the architect sells our tiles, they get relationship points or program points that can be traded for trips or electronics. They did this platform for us.

The technologies that I know they used were Pentaho, QlikView, and the relationship program, which I don’t remember the name of.

It’s about 4 people from BIX Technology working on our project.

How did you come to work with BIX Technology?

We checked other companies in the market, and their proposal was the best.

How much have you invested with BIX Technology?

For both the relationship program plus the franchise Pentaho platform, we paid $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started this project with them in 2014. It has been completed, but we still have evolving developments.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We increased tile sales by architects from 65% to about 75% with the admin relationship platform. For the franchise business, we can say that it’s responsible for our growth in 2016. It wasn’t a good year for Brazil, but we kept growing. We grew like 3%, and some of that is certainly because of the platform—franchisers can better understand their business, can act on solutions for problems, and strike more business and sales.

In Brazil, I contacted other companies that also have franchises, and I never saw business intelligence as good as ours. Usually, just the franchise company has access to all of the KPIs; however, we’re providing KPIs to the owner of the store. It’s unique in our country—I’ve never seen any platform like ours.

How did BIX Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very professional and good in their communication. They use Microsoft Project for project management. They do a weekly status meeting of the project.

What did you find most impressive about BIX Technology?

I would describe them as a very proactive company. They deliver our projects very fast. Almost all the time, the work gets done on schedule. The quality of the job is quite good. We don’t have to review a lot. All of them graduated from good colleges. Some of them even have other degrees. The good part is they’re an IT company, but they also have business knowledge, so we sometimes consult them for business decisions.

Are there any areas BIX Technology could improve?

Not that I can recall. I don’t have any complaints