Brother's Blueprint for a New Data Platform

Technology used

SAP

Microsoft Azure

Matillion ETL

Snowflake

Tableau

Solution

Built a robust and scalable Data Platform, integrating technologies and enabling advanced data management and reporting—ensuring Brother’s teams could efficiently leverage the new system for enhanced business insights.

Results

Enabled faster, automated BI reporting, enhanced flexibility, and improved data quality to deliver more effective forecasting, performance management, and customer service. Established a robust foundation for deeper insights into customer behavior, supporting more personalized engagement and streamlined operations across the organisation.

The Challenge

The Solution

The Results

The Challenge

Brother faced a significant challenge with their Enterprise data and analytics solution and needed a Data Platform to build out a European reporting engine. The SQL Server was centrally governed overseas, meaning that all data requests had to be fielded through to the BI headquarters based there. The European team lacked agility and control over their data, and they faced delays in gaining access to it.

Brother Europe needed to take a new approach and take control of their data. The main goals for the new Data Platform were:

Enable Brother Europe to deliver data and analytics products in an agile way to drive autonomy, agility and speed.

Reduce the time-to-market of BI reporting delivery.

Reduce manual efforts currently required to produce standardised reports.

Snap Analytics helped us to manage this big shift to a whole new Data Platform and way of working with Data very quickly. Their people are very knowledgeable and really know what they are doing.

Koichi Ushiyama

Data Lead, Brother International

Europe

The Solution

Snap Analytics enabled Brother to build the new Data Platform leveraging advanced technologies, including Snowflake for data storage, Matillion for ETL processes using the Snap Analytics SETL framework, and Tableau for business reporting and analytics. This combination provided Brother with a robust and scalable platform that significantly improved their data management and reporting capabilities. The project involved several key stages:

Define, Design, Plan

Snap Analytics conducted detailed business discovery workshops with key stakeholders to understand Brother's specific needs and requirements. They developed a high-level technical architecture that included a multi-tier setup with components, sizing, interfaces, and processes.

Build & Migrate

The team implemented a new data warehouse platform, creating a three-tier landscape (development, QA, production) according to best practices. Key source systems for product and supplier contact management were connected to the new platform.

Test

Rigorous testing was conducted to ensure the new system met all functional requirements and could handle the expected data volumes and quality.

Train & Run

Snap Analytics provided ongoing support and training to Brother's team, ensuring they could effectively use the solution independently and make the most of its capabilities.

The Results

The implementation of the new data platform brought about significant improvements for Brother, enabling value-added insights for improved decision making and reporting across the organisation, which led to several high-level achievements.

Faster Time to Insight

The new system enabled Brother to deliver BI reporting and analytics much faster. The speed of access to insight enabled their Finance teams to automate previously highly manual processes to aid inventory forecasting and management. They were able to make sure incentivisation schemes for distributors were leading to increased sales effectively and ensured that commission payment calculations for local offices were handled swiftly. This was previously a highly time-consuming process for Brother and has now been fully automated.

Enhanced Flexibility

Brother's European teams gained greater control over their data, allowing them to respond quickly to new data requests and make informed decisions without relying on the HQ.

Improved Data Quality

The new platform ensured high data quality and consistency, providing reliable insights for decision-making through the creation of a single point of truth for their seller data. Sales and Marketing teams were able to use Tableau to visualise distributor performance and combine data with other internal sources to streamline reporting processes and uncover new insights that support performance tracking and strategic planning.

Improving Customer Service

Snap Analytics helped Brother to monitor and be proactive on customer service and on B2B service contracts through advanced analytics on how its customers interact. This included insight generation on printer performance data, customer service issues relating to product feedback and tickets open regarding specific products and how long it was taking to resolve customer issues. Brother can understand how agents manage discussions and address problems through the provision of content to agents who now locate the right resources needed to drive down the time in resolving the issue.

Foundations for Understanding Customer Behaviour

With the new platform in place, Brother is now equipped with a robust data foundation to explore customer behaviour more deeply. By integrating multiple data sources—including sales data, printer IoT data, and customer journey interactions from Brother’s website—the company is positioned to better understand customer needs and preferences. This opens up future opportunities to design more personalised, value-driven engagement strategies and enhance customer experience across touchpoints.

Brother is a global leader in the electronics and electrical equipment industry, with a significant presence in the printing and imaging sector. Operating in over 40 countries, Brother employs more than 37,000 people worldwide and they operate large B2B and B2C operations. The company has a strong operational setup across various regions, including Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and they trade and operate in multiple markets globally.

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