Behr-Hella Thermocontrol GmbH (BHTC) is a leading specialist in climate control and human-machine interface (HMI) solutions in the automotive industry. With over 2000 employees, BHTC demonstrates its competence in the development of intuitive and ergonomic HMI systems.
Faced with a disparate data structure and limited analytics capabilities, the company was looking for a solution to revolutionize its materials science and accelerate product development.
The Challenges – Increasing Efficiency in Data Processing
BHTC faced a number of critical challenges that impacted the efficiency of its operations. Inconsistent data structures made it difficult to integrate and analyze different datasets, preventing deeper insight into important material data for innovative research. In addition, limited analytics capabilities and slow product development cycles led to significant delays in bringing new products to market.
BHTC’s global and diversified customer base increased the complexity of analyzing and managing material data. The existing IT infrastructure, based on SAP and disjointed reporting tools, was unable to meet the growing demands.
These comprehensive challenges required a technological innovation to improve BHTC’s operational efficiency and market relevance.
The Solution – Microsoft Power BI and Azure Integration
In response to BHTC’s data-related challenges, working with us resulted in a major technology refresh through the adoption of advanced Microsoft technologies.
These solutions aimed to significantly improve data analysis capabilities, facilitate access to real-time data, and increase the speed of product development. The technologies used included:
- Power BI: Launched as a central tool for reporting and data analysis, Power BI enables the integration of various data sources and provides comprehensive analysis and visualization capabilities through interactive dashboards and reports.
A decisive step was the relocation of all SAP reports to Power BI, which was made possible by the use of the SAP BW Power BI Connector. This integration significantly improves the consistency and accessibility of data while optimizing the user experience when handling business information. - Azure Data Warehouse: A unified and scalable platform that ensures fast processing and access to all enterprise data , which is critical for research and development.
The platform not only supports the rapid processing of large data sets, but also enables secure storage and easy retrieval of information, which forms the basis for advanced analysis and data-driven decisions. - Office 365 and Teams: This integrationimproves collaboration and communication within the company and supports efficient data processing and analysis processes, especially through the use of Excel.
These technological solutions have been specifically selected by us to improve data analysis capabilities, facilitate access to real-time data, and increase the speed of product development.
The implementation of these technologies laid the foundation for a data-driven future at BHTC and paved the way for improved decision-making and process optimization.
With the support of INKUBIT, we were able to consolidate our fragmented data structure and increase the efficiency of our analyses. We were able to accelerate our innovation processes in product development and materials science with Power BI.
The Results – Improvements in Analysis and Product Development
The technological transformation of materials science with Power BI led to impressive improvements in several key areas at BHTC. By implementing modern Microsoft technologies, significant efficiency gains have been achieved and product development has been accelerated:
- Time savings and increased efficiency: Power BI’s improved analysis tools have enabled BHTC to identify materials and product properties more quickly and find comparable products more efficiently.
This significantly accelerated the product development process and drastically reduced the time spent on analysis, resulting in a reduction in project timelines. - Improved decision quality: The availability of consolidated dashboards and easy-to-use visualization tools has significantly improved the quality and speed of decision-making.
The introduction of uniform reporting formats enables deeper insight into operational processes and performance indicators, thus promoting a data-driven decision-making culture in the company. - Increased accessibility: The introduction of mobile technologies, planned with the deployment of Windows tablets, allows employees to access important data anytime, anywhere.
This increased flexibility accelerates decision-making processes and promotes an agile way of working, enabling them to respond more effectively to market changes and drive innovation.
BHTC underwent a major transformation through the strategic use of Microsoft technologies. Targeted investments in Power BI, Azure Data Warehouse and Microsoft Office 365 were used not only to solve existing challenges, but also as an opportunity for a fundamental realignment of data processing and analysis processes.
These innovations have enabled BHTC to significantly expand its research and development capabilities, accelerate data analysis , and dramatically reduce product development times.
In addition, the increased use of Azure and Office 365 has revolutionized internal collaboration and communication, improving decision-making at all levels of the organization.
These comprehensive technology integrations contribute significantly to increasing operational efficiency and ensure BHTC a sustainable competitive advantage.