BI for seismointelligence agents: QlikView increases management efficiency in Geotek Holding

The seismoprospecting company "GEOTEK Holding" using Optima consulting implemented the QlikView Business Discovery platform that provided the management of "GEOTEK" of operational financial data, simplified processes of the analysis of activity and finally allowed to optimize an investment portfolio.

Prerequisites of the Project

GEOTEK Holding is the leading Russian company in the field of seismic exploration on the land and in a transit zone, rendering services to clients mainly in Russia and the CIS. The company provides a full range of services of seismic exploration in all main oil-and-gas regions of Russia, including in Western and Eastern Siberia, Timano-Pechorsky province and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area.

The geography of business of GEOTEK Holding forces to adhere to tough terms of seasonality, the primary project activity is conducted during the period from December to April. Besides, constant control is necessary for company management over productive activity and finance, in process of growth of number of the project this requirement all increased.

In holding a large number of specialists make decisions on the basis of analyses data array which to the BI project were in separate sources – the Microsoft Excel files and also the used accounting systems of Microsoft Dynamics AX (Axapta) and 1S:UPP 8. So consolidation of data for the analysis, increase in efficiency of their providing, maximum information visualizations for improvement of management processes, efficiency evaluations of investments and the global analysis of execution of the annual plan became a problem of creation of an analytical system.

Choosing a Solution

When choosing the platform of the business analysis the management of GEOTEK Holding first of all considered the solutions guaranteeing fast results without the long months which are usually spent for implementation and setup. However, despite simplicity of implementation, such system should was have the potential for growth and it is easy to be scaled in case of need: in plans of holding there was a connection of subsidiaries to a single system of the analysis in the future.

Specialists of holding analyzed five systems of the business analysis. A choice was made for benefit of the QlikView Business Discovery platform as the tool with the high level of data visualization and a proper correlation of investments and an implementation time.

Project Progress

The application for operational calculation of economy

The partner in implementation, the Optima Consulting company, implemented a pilot project in which production and economic data were integrated for GEOTEK Holding. On the basis of results of this pilot project the joint project team generated 10 dashbord which formed the application basis for operational calculation of economy on the basis of approved budgets and the daily report on projects.

The application was created very quickly, in only 3 weeks, and allowed to carry out the analysis of operational work, including – to come into each separate business process, to estimate resources, performance, deviations, cost influence. Also in the application the functionality for business process modeling was implemented.

Using special "runner" it is possible to set certain parameters and to predict as the situation with the project will change if, for example, idle time because of weather conditions makes 5 days – whether the margin will change that will be executed of put in the plan and so on. Besides, the functionality allows to look whether performance improvement will be able to improve, for example, a situation.

The application for an annual meeting with heads of business units

Success of the first application led to development of the project, however further GEOTEK Holding created applications on the QlikView platform by own forces for what the project team and key users were trained within Design of a System rate, one of employees was trained within System development rate.

The second application for an annual big meeting with heads of business units where results not of a single project, but works of all expedition understand became one more success. Operational costs how many actual and also an opportunity to compare expeditions on these costs among themselves are important for this meeting already not so much. Within five years for such meetings the presentations in PowerPoint were created. After the analysis of all presentations created during this time 200 standard principles of formation of slides and the analyst – these data were selected and formed the basis of the application.

Thus, in two weeks the application for the annual analysis of key indicators, analysis of cost value on elements and impact assessment of non-financial zatratoobrazuyushchy factors on the reached indicators was created. Standard QlikView properties allowed to implement in the application harmonious logic of the analysis with transition from one form to another, necessary detailing, with creation of the reporting by the selected selections.

Application of efficiency evaluation of an investment program

The application used by service CFO for assessment of strength, expediency and an efficiency of the investment programme became the following. On its development about one and a half months left.

For operation of application by economists of holding all modern costs of fixed assets were counted, it is shown how many each expedition consumed annually capital investments to what projects they went and also data on economy of projects and payback were added. Now, selecting investment projects for the next year, using the application the management of holding can look how the specific batch how many it generated a financial result was financed whether it makes sense to invest at such speed of payback in it further.

Analysis result is the drop chart in which on a scale of XY all enterprises depending on the number of investments and payback are placed. Also the application allows "fail" in any project or business process, to look at its economy and to understand at the expense of what it is formed – whether it be a margin, low cost of investments or something other. By estimates of specialists of holding, use of the application allowed to optimize the investment budget of the company.

Development Plans

GEOTEK Holding are going and to develop a BI system further. So, the project on consolidation of data for use them in the system of the business analysis is already started. Besides, "1C: Consolidation" and 1C NSI is going to provide integration of QlikView into Oracle Hyperion.

In the spring of 2014, after the end of a season of field works, in the company will discuss an opportunity and expediency of connection of business units to work in QlikView. It will demand acquisition more than 100 licenses. In order that heads on places could use most effectively a BI system, carrying out training is planned.

Results

to words financial the director of "GEOTEK of Hoding" Ilona Petrova, before QlickView implementation the company in the routine analysis used the huge file in Excel with daily production reports.

"To obtain the necessary information, it was necessary to select at first a season, then an expedition, then the project, then specific business process and only then, going through to the right of date of start of the project (and every season about 100-150 days last), it was possible to see accomplishment of the plan and other necessary information", – she told.
Besides, at economists on each project the card (project budget) in which there were about 50 tabs of justification of each cost type was got. "Therefore analytical work was very difficult as the needs for analytics are simply huge, the board of holding weekly considers results of work. QlikView allowed to simplify significantly work and to increase efficiency: there is information on course of production in the evening, and the economy and all other data in the morning updated are in a BI system", - Ilona Petrova concluded.

GEOTEK Holding note that the choice of QlikView allowed to spend a minimum of time for the project and to quickly receive the first results. Company management had ample opportunities for evident data view with a possibility of detailing. Time of generation of analytical reports was reduced to a minimum.

"We are very happy with QlikView, – Ilona Petrova summarizes. – Moreover, we so got used to so convenient and evident visualization that the absence like that in other systems seems wrong. QlikView became for us the irreplaceable tool. It is still difficult to us to estimate results of implementation of a BI system in terms of finance, but I am sure of one: time of heads costs much, as well as the efficiency of decision making, – in this QlikView coal mine brings an essential economic benefit".