The Challenge

Software AG turned to GoodData to help make sense of the data surrounding their professional services business, which is often out of the reach of the front-line managers who are driving the business. Using GoodData, Software AG:

• Transformed a 4,000-strong global consulting organization through strategic KPIs
• Unified operational reporting across customer data in SAP, OpenAir and Salesforce
• Taught the company to manage to the metrics instead of getting buried in 50-page Excel spreadsheets

The Solution

After only a few months, Software AG now has GoodData-powered global dashboards tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across its global services organization. Now everyone manages from the same sheet of metrics, and strategic KPIs have replaced reams of useless Excel spreadsheets.

• Global Dashboard measures KPIs by region, including utilization, project billings, customer satisfaction and more.
• Dashboards combine professional services project data from OpenAir, sales opportunity data from Salesforce and billing data from SAP.
• Overall performance is compared across regions and benchmarked historically. Software AG’s services group now has full transparency across the globe.

Why Software AG Consults GoodData

Easier to Manage Business by the Metrics

GoodData helped Software AG bring the right level of aggregation into the data around their professional services business. This required bringing data from three main sources, customer account information from Salesforce, project data from NetSuite OpenAir and billing data from SAP, into a GoodData data mart. Now, instead of digging through three reporting interfaces or struggling with Excel hell, aggregated metrics are used for billing, utilization, backlog, customer satisfaction and uptake of consulting packages. According to Totey: “Visualization is nice, but what’s critical is seeing the right data aggregated, trended historically and visible to our leadership.”

Deployment in Weeks, Not Years

Software AG was productive in GoodData immediately—something rare when dealing with business intelligence projects. Starting with a simple export from their OpenAir system, managers were able to see initial, trended dashboards within a week. Over time, Software AG added more data from OpenAir and enriched data with SAP and Salesforce exports. The net result was—after 6 months, through a few sprints—that they have the executive-level dashboards to effectively measure their services' business. The next step: further automation of data loading using GoodData’s APIs to ensure every regional exec has real-time data.

Fostering Competition Among Clusters

One of the unforeseen benefits of GoodData is that it’s created a sense of competition among the regions (called "clusters" in Software AG parlance), supporting Totey’s goal of transforming the professional services culture at Software AG. Regional executives now see how they are performing against their peers—today, last quarter, last year.

“Everyone loves to see themselves winning, and when you’re not, there is no better motivator than seeing yourself at the bottom of list," Totey said. "GoodData fosters great competition.”