C&A implements Power BI and enhances data experience with BI self-service model

Founded in 1841 by Dutch brothers Clemens and August, C&A still carries the company's origin in its name. With more than 1,800 units in 24 countries in Latin America, Asia, and Europe, it is one of the largest retail networks on the planet.

The company's history in Brazil began in 1976, with the opening of the first store at Shopping Ibirapuera in São Paulo. With the mission to offer democratic fashion that enhances self-expression, the company now has more than 330 stores in 150 Brazilian cities and employs more than 15,000 professionals.

C&A has in its DNA the constant quest for innovation and the effort to exceed people's expectations – to leave a positive legacy.

Power BI delivers new dynamics

In 2017, the company decided to transform its experience with data and sought a platform that promoted a democratization of its information, giving independence so that different areas of the company could have more autonomy in this access, alleviating the reliance on IT in this process.

"We've chosen Power BI because it met the two factors that motivated this transformation. We were looking for a tool that would allow us to work with the BI self-service model and at a compatible cost," says Marcia Castro, Manager of the C&A Engineering and Data Architecture team.

The implementation was carried out with Iteris, a Microsoft partner company, which provided support in the implementation of the most complex reports, administration, and governance – a process that becomes more solid with the advancement of the use of new technology – in addition to bringing best practices to the company.

The company also underwent training with Microsoft, with three classes, at two in-person events at the very beginning of this journey, and another one online during the pandemic.

"It is very easy to use the tool. Iteris supports us administering Power BI, performing data governance and organization so that people can use this data and contribute to the company's decisions," adds Marcia.

A new reality with autonomy and agility

With the implementation, C&A now has three levels of reporting that span from the board level to the store floor. One of them is corporate BI with reports for the entire company, decentralized BIs that build reports for specific areas, as well as teams at the business end that, in the self-service BI model, develop and automate the creation of their own reports.

"The different areas have autonomy to create their own analyses, it is an intuitive tool for simple developments, and there is supporting documentation that is easy to access on the internet," says Vagner Oliveira, BI Coordinator at C&A.

With the solution, Vagner adds that, besides the democratization of information, the speed to access the data was also accelerated, and the company still gained mobility, with the possibility of accessing data on smartphones, for example.

"The solution helps us answer business questions, provides a managerial view of the company's key indicators, and allows us to track business performance and goal achievement," he says.

The company now works on constantly improving the tool to further enhance its experience, governance, and, consequently, the performance of the entire company.