Russell Mineral Equipment reinvents reporting with Power BI

Russell Mineral Equipment is the global leader for the design, manufacture, supply, servicing and operation of grinding mill relining technologies and services. Founded in 1985, Russell Mineral Equipment has grown from being a very small company, to one which proudly has equipment in more than 355 mine sites worldwide. Operating from its head office in Toowoomba, Australia, Russell Mineral Equipment has Regional Service Centres in Western Australia, South America, South Africa, North America and Canada.

Challenge

Russell Mineral Equipment decided to undertake a data warehousing project to improve the company’s reporting capabilities.

Traditionally, sales and operational planning teams had been using a series of complex spreadsheets to manage sales forecasting and capacity planning.

Reporting was built manually using data from multiple sources and there was no centralised business intelligence solution to create analysis and insights.

Generating sales pipeline reports was a time-consuming process requiring users to use different pivot tables and data sets to extract insights, which were then reviewed manually through a cycle of meetings with global stakeholders.

Solution

After a rigorous vendor selection process, Russell Mineral Equipment chose to work with DXC Eclipse to implement Microsoft Power BI as the company’s new reporting solution.

DXC Eclipse was chosen as RME’s technology contractor for the project based on its in-depth knowledge of Microsoft data structures and expertise with data warehousing using Microsoft Azure cloud services.

Russell Mineral Equipment chose Microsoft Power BI as its new data and reporting solution because the business aligns strongly with the Microsoft vision. Microsoft Power BI is a core component of this - delivering a business analytics solution that lets users easily visualise data and quickly share insights across an organisation.

Russell Mineral Equipment’s Microsoft Power BI project went live after a 22 week deployment.

Results

Initially the new solution replaced multiple spreadsheet-based reports in the sales and operational planning teams. Data virtualisation and automated data integration enabled users to generate self-service reports securely and quickly.

Fast, easy access to sales pipeline opportunity reporting increased team productivity. Data was refreshed automatically and regularly from the new warehouse, which reduced performance latency across the entire network. And, the automated solution enabled Russell Mineral Equipment to reduce costs.

Consistent reporting formats based on a single common underlying data set have introduced new levels of communication and accountability across the business’s domestic and international regions.

Microsoft Power BI has also enabled Russell Mineral Equipment to achieve new levels of data security, a key objective for Russell Mineral Equipment’s growing international business.

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