Leveraging SoftwareOne expertise and Amazon Web Services
Previously, ACCO implemented its own custom enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to centralise the data. Still, the reporting tools were difficult for users, and customisations made updates much harder. Between sales, marketing, and operations, they needed data analysis that could work with multiple systems, legacy systems, and unstructured data at any scale. It was a tough ask, but AWS and SoftwareOne offered the platform, tools, and expertise to build a data lake or centralised repository to address ACCO’s needs.
- AWS provided a highly integrated platform to allow ACCO to connect diverse applications and data stores between departments, and with Amazon Marketplace, even third-party services could be easily accessible.
- SoftwareOne leveraged its Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) expertise, following a three-step process of assessment, mobilisation, and migration to establish the AWS data lake. Sticking with the core AWS Lake Formation tools meant that ACCO did not have to worry about integration, could leverage all of the AWS training available, and would avoid needing other hard-to-find skill sets.
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Amazon QuickSight, a cloud-scale business intelligence (BI) service, would allow data to be tagged, shared, and analysed on the same platform.
- With AWS Glue, a serverless data integration service for predictive data analysis, ACCO could use the data proactively to address customer HVAC system concerns before they happen.
Internally, ACCO Software Engineer Lead, Artin Eivazi, collaborated with the team responsible for standardising processes across business units, getting their buy-in to their own data governance. The team brought a deep understanding of the data that would be critical to successful data consolidation.