Volkswagen Group Ireland Sharpens Decision-Making with Pyramid Analytics

⇨ Volkswagen Group Ireland successfully transformed its reporting processes by partnering with Pyramid Analytics, utilizing a scalable, AI-driven analytics platform that allows users to self-serve and gain insights quickly, significantly improving operational efficiency.

⇨ The Pyramid Business Analytics Platform simplifies the analytics stack, reducing costs and preserving SAP business logic, security, and governance, thereby enabling users to blend SAP data with various cloud sources while maintaining data integrity.

⇨ The transition to a data-driven enterprise was facilitated by Pyramid's intuitive platform, allowing users to access customized insights without extensive training, resulting in faster, more informed decision-making across the organization.

When Volkswagen Group Ireland chose SAP Solution Build Partner Pyramid Analytics to track parts sales through their dealer network, they sought a scalable, enterprise solution that offered tailored analytics to a broad range of users.

Pyramid’s Business Analytics Platform is a frictionless, integrated, no-code, AI-driven platform that combines data prep, data science, and business analytics capabilities. Users can self-serve by directly accessing multiple data sources across their environment with a tailored experience. The analytics stack is simplified, with a lower total cost of ownership. The Pyramid platform eliminates data movement, reduces cost and preserves SAP business logic, security, and governance. With Pyramid’s PYRANA direct query engine, users can perform analytics on SAP BW, BW/4HANA, and SAP HANA data while keeping it in SAP and preserving SAP hierarchies and data formats. With PYRANA’s multi-source direct query capability, users can blend SAP BW and BW/4HANA and HANA data with cloud data sources like Redshift and Databricks or any popular on-premise data source. As such, Pyramid caters to organizations that have deployed a hybrid “SAP plus Data Lake” strategy.

Before Pyramid, Volkswagen Group Ireland’s reporting consisted of hardcopies and emailed PDFs sent to dealerships (covering all five Volkswagen Group Ireland brands) that were then compiled centrally—a very labor-intensive activity. The transition to using Pyramid didn’t require months of adjustment, extensive training, or increased staffing. In fact, according to Volkswagen Group Ireland, “Users throughout the organization were able to use Pyramid really quickly. We didn’t need to send trainers onsite to educate people because there’s no big learning curve.”

Volkswagen Group Ireland is one of among many modern companies striving to become a more data-driven enterprise, which can be defined as an organization that prioritizes the use of data as a fundamental element of its strategic decision-making processes. Defining attributes include:

• Data sets are consolidated into a unified architecture to provide a comprehensive view
• Employs advanced analytical tools and technologies to extract insights from data
• Culture of data literacy
• Decision-making processes are predominantly based on data analysis
• Adopts predictive analytics to forecast future trends and behaviors
• Data governance frameworks are in place to ensure data quality, privacy, and compliance

Recent SAPinsider research indicates that enterprises are increasingly seeking a faster time to value from their investments in business intelligence and analytics solutions. The research report, Evolving Business Intelligence and Analytics to Create the Intelligent Enterprise, revealed that 56% of companies prefer to implement analytics technologies with deployment options that enable a faster time-to-value, one of the top strategic factors cited by survey respondents. A best practice here is to focus on essential data sources first. Companies should prioritize integrating the most critical data sources that drive key decisions, like sales, finance, and supply chain. Starting with a smaller, essential dataset reduces initial complexity, allowing insights to be delivered quickly while scaling to more data sources gradually.

With Pyramid, Volkswagen Group Ireland is able to select which of those users see which content—from detailed analysis of individual parts to summaries of dealer and brand performance. They can easily customize content relevant to specific users such as area managers and retailers, with confidence that protected data cannot be accessed by unintended users.

In particular, dealers and brand managers were amazed by how easily and quickly they could gain insights into operational improvements and revenue opportunities. Executives and decision-makers could now view the business in a comprehensive and granular way—all in one easy-to-navigate platform.

With the success of completing previously day-long analytical tasks in mere minutes, other successful projects are now also using the Pyramid platform. As a data-driven business, Volkswagen Group Ireland continues its world-class performance with faster, better decision-making across the enterprise.

Having the right analytics solution can make a massive impact on an organization, and Pyramid has been able to fundamentally transform how they use data. According to Brendan Walsh, Head of Warranty and Customer Services at Volkswagen Group Ireland, “Pyramid Analytics has changed our lives. And I do mean that. It has taken time out of very arduous and very mundane tasks and has given it back to us. We now can steer the business strategically rather than reactively. Pyramid has essentially turned a light on for us.”

What this means for SAPinsiders

Share your data management strategies. The focus on enterprise data management is intensifying with the proliferation of 5G, IoT, AI/ML and other transformative technologies. SAP customers are increasingly looking for new data management models for the storage, migration, integration, governance, protection, transformation, and processing of all kinds of data ranging from transactional to analytical. Balancing the risks, compliance needs, and costs of data management in SAP HANA on-premise and on the cloud while also providing reliable, secure data to the organization is increasingly important to the business We will be releasing the 2025 Data Management Strategies research report in February 2025. Contribute to the research by completing this survey: https://www.research.net/r/DataMgt25.

Embed analytics into SAP workflows for operational efficiency. Embedding Pyramid’s analytics directly into SAP workflows, such as those within SAP S/4HANA or SAP SuccessFactors, enables real-time decision-making within operational processes. This allows users to make data-driven decisions in the context of their day-to-day workflows, improving operational efficiency. Pyramid’s automation capabilities can be leveraged to create scheduled reports and alerts based on predefined KPIs. SAP customers benefit by receiving updates on critical metrics, such as inventory levels or financial variances, allowing them to act quickly.

Work with Pyramid to enable predictive and prescriptive analytics. SAP customers can leverage Pyramid’s predictive analytics to forecast trends and anticipate business outcomes. Predictive insights can be particularly useful in areas like inventory management, demand forecasting, and customer behavior analysis, helping to improve decision accuracy and reduce risk. By integrating AI-driven prescriptive analytics, SAP customers can receive recommendations on optimal actions based on predictive outcomes. This is beneficial for complex business scenarios, such as supply chain disruptions or fluctuating customer demand, where decision-makers need actionable guidance.