“We had plenty of data and the demand from the organization grew rapidly. But without one central foundation, you keep discussing numbers instead of driving insights.”
A scalable data foundation for a fast-growing organization. Team EIFFEL quickly grew into an organization with multiple labels, thousands of consultants and diverse operational systems. Business units were already working with their own processes, definitions and reports in the process. This made it increasingly difficult to steer organization-wide on the same figures and insights. Data from different systems was difficult to compare and reports regularly led to discussions about the accuracy of figures, rather than the insights to be gained from them.
For Bob van der Lans, Manager of Data & Insights at Team EIFFEL, and his team, the challenge lay primarily in bringing data together centrally across multiple business units and systems. Not only to gain better insight, but especially to ensure that the entire organization is working with the same numbers and definitions.
About Team EIFFEL
Team EIFFEL is a Dutch consulting organization with multiple specialized business units active within finance, legal, data, engineering and project management. With approximately 3,000 professionals, the organization supports public and private clients with complex issues of strategy, transformation and execution.
The organization is supported by a relatively compact internal staff organization of several hundred employees. This is precisely why scalable processes, central control and reliable information provision are essential.
Industry: business services/consultancy
Number of employees: approx. 3,000
Number of locations: 7
Number of labels: 9
Active in: mainly The Netherlands
Headquarters: Arnhem / Hilversum
Beeminds solution: Intelligenthive®
The challenge: growing without losing grip
Within Team EIFFEL, the need for data and insight grew rapidly. Not only from finance, but also from sales and people. At the same time, the organization continued to grow, new business units were added and the need for central control and comparable management information increased.
In practice, this proved difficult. Data was scattered across multiple operational systems, definitions differed by business unit, and reports were constructed in different ways. As a result, it took a lot of time to collect information, verify it and make it comparable organization-wide.
For Bob van der Lans and his Data & Insights team, this shifted the focus further and further from analysis and steering to unlocking, correcting and combining data from different sources. Reports worked well on their own, but the underlying structure became increasingly difficult to scale and manage.
The main challenges were:
- Bringing together data from different systems into one consistent reporting line
- Making different definitions and KPIs between business units comparable
- Increasing manual checks to validate and correct figures
- Reporting solutions that worked but became difficult to scale and manage
- Ensuring that different business units and domains could work together on the same data structure
- Be able to quickly integrate new business units and acquisitions without rebuilding
The solution: the Intelligenthive® as the backbone of the organization
To get more grip and consistency in information, Team EIFFEL chose Beeminds’ Intelligenthive® as a central foundation for data and reporting. Team EIFFEL deliberately did not opt for a traditional BI trajectory, but for an approach that first looked at how the organization actually functions. From that vision, one logical data model was created in which sales, people and finance come together in a consistent way.
“What sets Intelligenthive® apart is the visual way it models. Those dots make the data model insightful,” says Bob. “Not just for IT or data, but especially for the business and MT.”
Richard Verburg, Data Consultant at Beeminds, adds: “We talk to Team EIFFEL not directly about tables or sources, but about how Team EIFFEL works as an organization. That makes it a common language.” Within Team EIFFEL, the central data model was soon named TED: the Team EIFFEL Data Model. TED grew into more than just a technical model and became the recognizable central layer under all reports, definitions and steering information within the organization.
TED is therefore reflected in reports, dashboards and communication around data and reporting. This made the model not just something of IT or data, but a recognizable concept for the entire organization. A role-specific “Mission Control” was then built from TED. This uses the same central data foundation, but gives each user their own view based on role, rights and information needs. This creates one consistent truth, while matching the information to the user’s context.
“TED helps us make data not only technically well organized, but also recognizable and understandable to the organization,” says Bob, “Everyone works from the same foundation, but from their own perspective.”
More than technology: advice and thinking along
For Team EIFFEL, the added value was not only in the Intelligenthive® itself, but precisely in the cooperation with Beeminds. “Beeminds is not a tool supplier for us,” says Bob. “The consultancy and advice are at least as important.” The cooperation is characterized by short lines of communication, direct contact and joint ownership. Working together intensively created not only a technical platform, but also a shared vision on data, governance and scalability.
This way of working together has led to a central data platform that brings peace and overview to a complex organization. On top of that run reports that are used daily throughout Team EIFFEL for insight, direction and decision-making.
“If a KPI comes out of TED, that ís the truth for us. We don’t need to talk about that anymore.”
Ready for harmonization, automation and AI
With the Intelligenthive® and TED as a foundation, Team EIFFEL can now harmonize data organization-wide without having to directly standardize or replace operational systems.
The platform is now used not only for reporting, but also as a central layer for data products and further automation within the organization.
From the same data foundation, among others, have already been realized:
- Cost calculations
- Understanding availability and employability of professionals
- Enrichment of data toward operational systems
- ESG insights and steering information
In addition, Team EIFFEL continues to work on new applications, such as:
- Matching professionals to assignments
- Further harmonization of data in growth and acquisitions
“We don’t just provide insight, we make processes smarter,” says Bob van der Lans. “Because all the data is organized from the same foundation, we can develop and scale up new applications much faster.”
AI is also playing an increasingly important role in this. Within Team EIFFEL, the data foundation is now seen as an important prerequisite for future AI applications and further automation.
“AI can only add value if the underlying data is correct. With TED, we now have a foundation on which we can responsibly build further.”
Building one truth together
“When something goes wrong, everyone balks,” says Bob van der Lans. “And then we fix it together. But we also celebrate successes together. That trust is at least as important as the technology.”
The way it works: a decoupled and scalable data foundation with the Intelligenthive®
Together with Beeminds, Team EIFFEL built a central data platform based on the Intelligenthive®. The strength of this approach lies in the clear decoupling between operational systems, the central data model and the final reporting line.
1. Starting point: Team EIFFEL Data model first
The approach began not with dashboards or reports, but with the data model: how does Team EIFFEL work as an organization? What entities, definitions and relationships are involved?
2. Approach: from source to TED
After the first entities were clearly defined in the Intelligenthive®, the next step was to unlock the data from the various systems and integrate it into TED. Through this process, TED is the decoupling point between the many different source systems and the final reporting line.
- Unlock various ERP, CRM and HR systems, including Simplicate, NMBRS, AFAS, Bullhorn, Exact and Carerix.
- Integrate data from various sources to the Team EIFFEL Data Model.
- Implement definitions, KPIs and logic in one central location
“TED, the Team EIFFEL data model is to me the example of how thinking smart about your logical business model really makes the difference in manageability and scalability.”
3. Building data products at TED
Now that the data is centrally and uniformly captured, the Data & Insights team is able to develop organization-wide reports and data products. Without directly dealing with the variety of sources, they develop uniform reports that the entire organization can manage.
4. Collaboration: one team
Beeminds worked closely with the Data & Insights team and various stakeholders within Team EIFFEL. The cooperation was characterized by short lines, direct contact and joint responsibility for both the foundation and further development of the platform.” Richard, Michael and Jari from Beeminds are really part of our team,” says Bob van der Lans. “This allows us to switch quickly and make the right choices together.”
Richard: “Because of the intensive cooperation as one team, we have an understanding of each other’s field of work and are able to have a good discussion for the best solution. Sharp on the content with an eye for cooperation.”
“To us, Beeminds doesn’t feel like a supplier, but part of the team. If something goes wrong, everyone balks equally and we solve it together. But we also celebrate success together. That trust and openness make all the difference.”
5. Phasing: scalable design
“It is important to mention that this project was not a cost-cutting project,” says Bob van der Lans. “It was a strategic investment in scalability and future-proofing.”
Concrete results
“With an acquisition, we now have data from new systems integrated into TED within weeks,” says Bob van der Lans. “The result is that new business units are visible almost immediately within our reporting line.”
- One central truth for reports, KPIs and definitions
- Governance and business logic centrally captured in TED
- A clear disconnect between operational systems and reporting
- New business units connected to same reporting line within weeks
- Faster decision-making through fewer discussions about figures and definitions
- A reusable data model for sales, people and finance
- Harmonized data as a reliable basis for system migrations and integrations
- A scalable foundation for data products, automation and future AI applications
“I am very proud to see so many different companies and systems coming together into one data foundation and reporting line.”
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