The CAK Group in Dordrecht was founded in 1981 and is the parent company of a number of companies in the financial sector. The company owns 11 different brands, including the well-known Dutch insurance brand Promovendum, all focussing on college graduates, university graduates and middle and higher educated personnel.
Mike Kamphorst, Manager of Data at CAK Group, had one goal in mind 1.5 years ago: to bring fragmented data together to enhance collaboration across the CAK Group. He started looking for suitable parties to help him to achieve this goal, and met Sefa Uysal (Co-Founder of Intraworks), who in turn introduced Mike to 2Foqus.
After a proof of concept conducted by 2Foqus, the data estate builder TimeXtender was selected and deployed throughout the CAK Group.
“TimeXtender offers us an excellent solution for data management, with all the functionalities we desired. By applying set definitions, all data is reusable. With TimeXtender, we are able to align everyone at the CAK Group with one single version of the truth” -
Mike Kamphorst, Data Manager, CAK Group
Challenges & solution
CAK Group can be seen as an “umbrella” with several brands operating independently under it. These brands all use their own processes, systems and data. One disadvantage of this is that there is not always collaboration, let alone synergy. Mike wanted to address this problem. “Within one company, different languages were spoken”, he explains. “That’s not a good thing. So my goal was to bring fragmented data together to enhance collaboration across CAK Group. We were already working datadriven, so we therefore combined the technical knowledge and IT-skills from our team to analyze and visualize all the systems in house. Everything had to come together in one data warehouse that could be used throughout the organization. This was the starting point of our data journey.”
The underlying brands of the CAK Group were already generating an enormous amount of data independently of each other. Centralizing all these data streams and linking different operational systems with TimeXtender ensured that the operational business is better supported, and that the different business units can collaborate effectively.
The choice for TimeXtender was an extensive process, but ultimately not a difficult decision. Mike: “Our wish list included a number of conditions such as: supportive of Microsoft technology, independence with regards to the database structure and a dashboard system. In addition, the new tool had to meet extensive security requirements.”
In the Proof of Concept (PoC), the data estate solution TimeXtender demonstrated itself as a convenient, drag-anddrop tool that perfectly met all the requirements of CAK Group.
“The goal? To be self-reliant in the area of data. External advice and co-thinking are necessary, but the organization must be able to work independently in the area of data.”
Mike Kamphorst, Data Manager, CAK Group
Collaboration
In the initial phase of the project, three parties, including Intraworks, were asked to perform a Proof of Concept. Sefa Uysal, Co-Founder of Intraworks was the person to recommend TimeXtender, and he suggested to realize this project together with his partner 2Foqus. This was well received, as 2Focqus passed the requirements set in the Proof of Concept ‘with flying colors’.
2Foqus and the team of CAK Group, and Mike in particular, clicked on both a personal and business level. Mike: “Important in the process of becoming self-reliant is good guidance and training. Martijn, the consultant at 2Foqus did a fantastic job! 2Foqus has a lot of expertise in the field of data warehousing. The result of this? Our own data specialists are very enthusiastic about the tool and are only too happy to dive deeper into it. But more importantly, the system has shown that it is also user-friendly for users who have less experience with data. Of course, we would have been able to build a central data warehouse without the support from 2Foqus, but never in the time frame we did now. The combination of the tooling from TimeXtender and the expertise from 2Foqus was worth its weight in gold.”
Future
Whilst still in development, the data landscape of the CAK Group already offers a robust foundation. The staff has been trained and the operational business is connected. Everyone who is involved can now be brought up to speed. Mike: “The sources we already have, we can currently work with. There were about 250 dashboards that the data warehouse did not use, and we have now reduced this number. We continue to look at this critically. Which dashboards are essential and which are not? What is important and what is just ‘nice to have’? Ultimately, the intention is that, based on functionality, even fewer dashboards will be created. We would like to start working with a limited set, or even with readily available dashboards.”
The goal Mike outlined earlier is clear, he wants CAK Group to be self-sufficient when it comes to data. “I am confident that we will succeed in this. We have professional data specialists in house, who are now fully trained and have a feel for the tool. In addition, the use of TimeXtender really proves that you can save a lot of time and costs whilst building a solid data warehouse. The use of an external consultant, such as Martijn, is an added value that I would like to keep, but only for the larger overarching issues and for advice. All smaller operational matters we should be able to do ourselves.”
“Our next step is to make sure that every team, from every underlying brand, appoints key users. In other words, a single point of contact for each department, who will be trained to make basic adjustments within TimeXtender by themselves, to lessen the burden on our data specialists. This also improves data ownership within the various teams. Furthermore, there are still many development and improvement opportunities, such as layering for different functions, but the roll out of TimeXtender to key users is our first priority.”
“During the initial conversation with Mike, I immediately realized that TimeXTender would be a fantastic fit for CAK Group, to unlock many different data sources in one layer and then present the data for analytics.”
Sefa Uysal, Co-Founder Intraworks Solutions
The solution
Company: CAK Group
Employees: 250
Activities: The CAK Group in Dordrecht is the parent company of a number of companies in the financial sector. The main focus is non-life insurance for college and university graduates and middle and higher educated personnel.
Solution: TimeXtender
Benefits:
• Self-sufficient in information
• Cost and time savings on building a data warehouse
• Duplication and reuse of existing data is easy
• One version of the truth across the CAK Group
About Intraworks
Intraworks helps you get more and faster insight into your business. We do this by combining data from your systems and converting it into visual and understandable information using advanced Datawarehouse & Business Intelligence solutions. We develop robust data warehouses, visual dashboards and powerful apps that enable you to perform analyses much faster and gain razor-sharp insights into your business based on reliable information. And that helps you make better decisions about what’s important to you.
TimeXtender : September 27, 2021
TimeXtender