Actief Nederland
Actief Nederland has more than 25 years’ experience in the staffing industry. The company is a subsidiary of Actief Group, an internationally operating company - and one of the fastest growing employment agencies in Europe. The Active Group has an extensive network of branches in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria.
Business Case
Due to the strong growth of the company in the recent years, the use of QlikView alone was no longer sufficient. To prepare for the future, the company worked with 2Foqus to transfer all scripting developed in QlikView to TimeXtender. This way the company became less dependent on QlikView as BI/ETL tool. Following a thorough investigation in solutions for data analysis the company then decided to adopt Power BI.
About Actief Nederland
- Company with 400 employees
- Recruitment and the provisioning of temporary staff with a specialism in cleaning, production, logistics & transport, government, technology, administration and waste & recycling.
Solution
Power BI and TimeXtender
“With the introduction of the General Protection Data Regulation it became more and more difficult to understand our data and to extract insights. We understood the need to create one source for all our data. 2Foqus had already mentioned TimeXtender to us, and after a demo we knew for sure: TimeXtender was exactly what we needed.”
Michel van Drunen, Business Intelligence Manager at Actief Nederland
Challenges
Due to the acquisition of Actief Techniek in 2019, the selection process for a BI tool had to be accelerated. We decided to investigate the advantages of a new analysis solution, in addition to the use of TimeXtender. The advantage of using TimeXtender is that, despite the fact that we work with different systems, we are able to create dashboards using one source of data. TimeXtender also offers us the ability to connect multiple solutions for data analytics, in our case Qlik and Power BI, to the data generated by TimeXtender. During the deployment we could really count on the expertise of 2Foqus, which allowed us to make quick progress with the new Power BI dashboards. We have now reached the point where Power BI is used throughout Actief Nederland.
From static reports to self service reporting
User-friendly tooling
“Our colleagues find Power BI very user-friendly, with a great UI. With the power of Power BI we can pivot through the dashboards for detailed analysis up to the level of individual transactions. An example of this is margin analysis, whereby we can analyse up to the individual expense item or person. Also, it was very important for us to be able to identify and measure our financial key performance indicators. Through Power BI we can now benchmark our different locations and we have more insights in the performance of specific customers. With Power BI we have deployed standardized reports, through a standardized process. As a BI department, we work closely with process management and business control for this. We have eliminated the majority of the static customized reports that we have created over the years. This has the advantage that we can deliver higher quality, as we now solely have to focus on the standard reports.”
TimeXtender as a solid foundation
“With the introduction of the General Protection Data Regulation it became more and more difficult to understand our data and to extract insights. We understood the need to create one source for all our data. 2Foqus had already mentioned TimeXtender to us, and after a demo we knew for sure: TimeXtender was exactly what we needed.
The system takes a lot of work off your hands and provides the correct documentation. This offers us a great benefit. Through data lineage we can see exactly where the data comes from and it’s easy to edit the data when needed. There are also more and more open data sources available which we can add to TimeXtender for further analysis. With TimeXtender as data management platform we can quickly and smartly link all data together, which makes us well prepared for the future.”
Advantages for Actief Nederland
- The company deployed self-service BI and eliminated static, customized reports. This results in better data quality, as the team only has to focus on the standard reports.
- Financial key figures are mapped out. Easy benchmarking between different locations provides more insights.
- Data is structured in one place which ensures compliance with privacy legislation. More insight into data through data lineage. In addition, it is easy to make edits to the data.
Future Challenges
The team is working with 2Foqus to deliver relevant information for customers through a customer portal, using Power BI Embedded, so that customers of Actief Nederland can always access to up-to-date information in a convenient way.
Why 2Foqus?
“When visiting another staffing company, we were impressed with their use of QlikView. We immediately made an appointment with their supplier, 2Foqus. There was an immediate click. The fine, small team has helped us immensely – and they are very flexible. One of their consultants helped us to better understand Qlik from day one, and because of this learning path we were soon able to work independently with the tool.”
“Our colleagues find Power BI very user-friendly, with a great UI. With the power of Power BI we can pivot through the dashboards for detailed analysis, up to the level of individual transactions. An example of this is margin analysis, whereby we can analyse up to the individual expense item or person.”
Michel van Drunen, Business Intelligence Manager at Actief Nederland
TimeXtender : May 6, 2024
