Nucleus Authoring Analyst
Alexander Wurm
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THE BOTTOM LINE
This data science company realized an average annual ROI of 48 percent with a payback
period of 2.7 years after adopting Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) and the Oracle Fusion Data
Intelligence Platform (FDIP). This included Fusion ERP Analytics and Fusion HCM Analytics
to empower self-service analytics and streamline data access across its finance, HR, and
sales departments. Nucleus found quantifiable benefits, including €523,440 in annual direct
cost savings, hundreds of hours of time savings from streamlined data preparation with
OAC, and up to 80 percent faster query development with the Oracle Fusion Data
Intelligence Platform. Additionally, by adopting these solutions, the organization gained a
unified data and analytics platform, driving efficiency wherever data is accessed and
consumed across various departments and roles.
THE COMPANY
This global customer data science company based in London offers various products and
services to help brands and retailers compete in the modern data-driven economy. The
organization employs 3000 professionals across over 30 countries, earning over €300 million
in annual revenue.
THE STRATEGY
After determining that it needed a new analytics solution, the data science company
decided to modernize with Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) and the Oracle Fusion Data
Intelligence Platform, citing Oracle’s unified data model and managed data pipelines as key
differentiators to drive efficient data governance and reduce ongoing support costs. The
organization decided to deploy OAC in February 2020, and it was provisioned in June 2020.
The organization spent the following four months implementing the solution with a team of
five internal personnel before going live with its first project in October 2020. A few months
later, in December 2020, the organization decided to adopt the Oracle Fusion Data
Intelligence Platform to power cross-functional analytics across finance, HR, and sales and
improve insights into revenue, pipeline, retention, and costs. The organization performed
this implementation with a team of three internal personnel over four months and went live
with the Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence Platform, Fusion ERP Analytics, and Fusion HCM
Analytics in March 2021.
KEY BENEFIT AREAS
Key benefit areas seen as a result of the OAC and Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence Platform
deployments include eliminated costs, streamlined data preparation, accelerated query
development, and extended visibility across departments.
- Eliminated Costs. By adopting OAC and the Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence
Platform, the data science company eliminated its legacy BI suite, saving more than
€322,000 annually. The organization also reduced its dependence on third-party
contractors who were previously responsible for maintaining the legacy BI suite,
saving an average of €145,000 per year. - Streamlined Data Preparation. After adopting OAC, the data science company noted
€312,000 in annual productivity savings from simplified data preparation, especially
for analytics leveraging external and departmental data. Finance, HR, and sales
managers gained capabilities for self-service data access without needing to engage
IT or reload the data from Oracle Cloud Applications. This gives stakeholders
simplified access to metrics such as profit and loss, attrition, and retention by
department and location and accelerates time to insight. - Accelerated Query Development. Using the Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence
Platform, the data science company achieved up to 80 percent faster query
development, saving the organization €31,250 on an annual basis. The organization
noted that a query in procurement can be created in one day, significantly faster
than the multiple weeks it took prior.
KEY COST AREAS
The largest cost area associated with the organization’s OAC and Oracle Fusion Data
Intelligence Platform deployments were the subscription and licensing costs associated with
both solutions.
Additional cost areas included compute and block storage costs, personnel time spent on
executing the implementation, third-party consulting costs to support the implementation,
and administrative time spent managing the solution.
LESSONS LEARNED
By adopting OAC and the Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence Platform, the data science
company completely reimagined its approach to analytics. With OAC, the organization was
able to eliminate its dependence on spreadsheets, and its users can leverage automated
content creation to simplify the creation of analytic content. This has enabled data
stakeholders to save multiple hours per week with improved data preparation and
streamlined data consumption. The Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence Platform offered further
improvements as users were able to easily query Fusion application data and combine ERP,
HCM, and custom data to perform a broader range of use cases, including cross-functional
and cross-departmental analytics. Using these solutions, the organization also developed a
CFO dashboard that shows company performance by business unit, region, and cost center,
further extending its financial visibility.
CALCULATING THE ROI
Nucleus Research analyzed the costs of software, hardware, personnel, consulting services,
and user training over a three-year period to quantify the organization’s investment in OAC
and the Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence Platform.
Direct benefits include eliminated annual subscription costs related to its prior analytics
solution and reduced spending with third-party contractors to maintain the solution.
Indirect benefits quantified include improved productivity for data preparation and query
development processes. The indirect benefit is multiplied by a correction factor to account
for the inefficient transfer of time between time saved and additional time spent working.
Benefits achieved but not quantified include improved visibility across departments and
roles and streamlined data storage with the Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence Platform
operating as a single source of truth.
This calculation involved separate implementations of OAC and the Oracle Fusion Data
Intelligence Platform, so both were considered over the same three-year time frame to
provide a holistic understanding of the organization’s return. If these implementations were
evaluated individually, each would likely have a greater ROI and reduced payback period.
