AGGREGATE INDUSTRIES REPLACES
COGNOS WITH QLIKVIEW, CUTTING
COSTS BY 30 PER CENT
“We know there’s a significant saving on the ongoing costs of managing BI
with QlikView compared to Cognos—we’re talking about a 30 per cent
reduction on our total cost of ownership.”
– Mike Gibbons, Chief Information Officer, Aggregate Industries
Aggregate Industries is among the
leading suppliers and manufacturers
in the United Kingdom (UK) of heavy
building materials—including crushed
rock, asphalt, and ready-mix
concrete—to the construction
industry. It is involved in highways,
housing.and the commercial sectors.
A member of Switzerland-based
global building materials company
Holcim Group, Aggregate Industries
is based in Leicestershire and has a
turnover of £1.2 billion (US$1.8
billion). It supplies the rail, education,
aviation, and highways sectors, It
was the sole aggregates supplier to
the 2012 London Olympics and
Paralympics Games.
Facing the challenge of a
competitive market
In a highly competitive industry and
against the background of the current
economic climate, Aggregate
Industries wanted to improve
business performance and reduce
costs. Mike Gibbons, Chief
Information Officer, Aggregate
Industries, says: “The recession has
changed the landscape of the
construction sector and we have to
think innovatively and strategically
about how to run our business,
without simply implementing
technology on a cost basis. On top of
our normal business information
sets, we also have to maintain a
large amount of KPI data.”
Gibbons realised that major
improvements to the existing
Cognos business intelligence (BI)
solution would benefit the entire
organisation. It needed faster
access to “big data” about
operational efficiency and business
performance. He says: “The
QlikView business discovery
platform was compelling. It was
easy to use, which was key for us.
As well as providing a BI platform
tool, we were also looking to
change the culture of the company.
Although we generate a lot of data,
we didn’t naturally see data as an
asset. Previously, our BI platform
was IT-centric, in that most of the
business data discovery was
carried out by the IT team.”
QlikView offers business value
across the organisation
Working closely with QlikView Elite
Solution Provider, Data
Technology, Aggregate Industries
trialled the solution with a financial
performance application and is now
extending the capability of QlikView
applications across the business.
This includes different operations,
divisions, and commercial teams,
but also various levels of
management as well as
applications for procurement,
haulage, and security. The entire
implementation cost £250,000, but
saved the expenditure previously
used to maintain Cognos.
Gibbons says: “Ease of use was
vital because the deployment ran in
parallel to a cultural change in
which we wanted staff to take more
ownership for their BI usage. We
also wanted to provide users with a
single version of the truth. QlikView
not only gives us visibility on
performance internally, but it also
allows us to evaluate our sales
strategy and client priorities. With
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
Aggregate Industries
UK-based Aggregate
Industries is a Swiss-owned
supplier and manufacturer of
heavy building materials to
the construction industry.
Industry: Engineering,
Construction, and Real Estate
Function: Executive,
Finance, IT, Marketing,
Operations, Sales, Service &
Support
Geography: United Kingdom
Challenges:
 Improve business
performance
 Reduce cost of business
intelligence (BI) system
 Make access to customer
insight easier
Solution: Aggregate
Industries is replacing
Cognos with QlikView
throughout the organisation,
rolling it out to 150 users by
2014. It is also giving
executives access to
QlikView through mobile
devices.
Benefits:
 Offered easy access to
customer insight data
 Reduced ongoing costs of
BI system by 30 per cent
 Integrated “big data” from
more than 300 sites
 Delivered QlikView to
executives via iPad devices
Data Source Systems
DW/BI: Cognos
QlikTech Partner: Data
Technology
RETURN ON
INVESTMENT
QlikView reduces
total cost of
ownership of BI
platform by 30 per
cent
TIME TO VALUE
Specialised
financial
application
delivered in just
two to three days
QlikView, what we’re trying to do is
deliver fewer applications but
ensure that people can see the
same data.”
Providing fresh customer insight,
including some surprises
QlikView gave Aggregate Industries
new insights into its customer base,
some of which were unexpected.
Gibbons says: “We found that
some of our perceptions of who
were our best customers conflicted
with the information we started to
see in the commercial applications
of QlikView. Now, we can combine
customer insight information in
QlikView based not just on volume,
margin, or customers, but also on
invoice activity, for example. We
can see who is paying
consistently.”
Aggregate Industries has also
rolled out QlikView to some of its
senior executives on their laptops,
smartphones, and tablet devices
which has increased productivity
and the efficiency of operations.
Gibbons says: “Before, the
executive team didn’t have access
to BI tools, even from computers on
their desks. They’ve now started to
carry them on their laptops and
tablet devices, and can access
financial performance and
commercial applications on the
move. Our territory sales managers
now have access to both customer
relationship management solutions
and the QlikView commercial
applications.”
QlikView has been applied widely
throughout the organisation for
analysis and reporting. It is
enabling employees to extract
relevant data much faster than with
the Cognos solution. With selfservice access to data, staff can
spend more time on analysis. .
QlikView has already provided
innovative applications. Gibbons
says: “We built an application in
around two to three days for our
specialist financial teams.”
Aggregate Industries is planning to
completely replace Cognos with
QlikView in 2014, when there will
be around 150 QlikView users.
Gibbons has developed a budget
management application in
QlikView, which is now deployed
across all operational heads of
department to help them manage
their budgets.
He says: “We’re not just looking at
how we’ve historically managed the
budget—we’re looking forward. The
‘what if?’ scenario capabilities in
QlikView have really helped us.”
QlikView reduces TCO for BI
system by 30 per cent
Previously, Aggregate Industries
found it difficult to manage the big
data held within the business. The
company has more than 300 sites,
including quarries, all of which
distribute thousands of tonnes of
product. That equates to thousands
of transactions and millions of rows
of data running through the
enterprise resource planning
system.
Gibbons says: “QlikView enables
us to quickly bring all that data
together The firm now spends less
time collating data because
QlikView doesn’t use data cubes
that take a great deal of
preparation.”
Aggregate Industries chose
QlikView primarily for the value it
has added to the business, but
curbing costs was another driver.
Gibbons says: “We felt we could
reduce the total cost of ownership
for our BI system with QlikView,
which was particularly important
given the current economic climate.
“Suffice to say, we know there’s a
significant saving on the ongoing
costs of managing BI with QlikView
compared to Cognos — we’re
talking about a 30 per cent
reduction in the total cost of
ownership of our BI platform.”
“Now, we can combine customer insight information in QlikView based not
just on volume, margin, or customers, but also on invoice activity, for
example. We can see who is paying consistently.”
– Mike Gibbons, Chief Information Officer, Aggregate Industries
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