translink
Optimizing Vancouver’s Transportation with Cutting-Edge BI Tools
Industry
Transportation
Technologies Used
- Power BI
- Tableau
- SQL
- Azure
- IBM Cognos
- Hexagon Cloud
- SAP
- Dataverse
- Oracle
Introduction
TransLink, the transportation authority for the Metro Vancouver region in Canada, is a pivotal organization in managing the city’s diverse transit systems, including buses, SeaBuses, railways, and subways. To effectively handle this complex network, TransLink relies heavily on a sophisticated reporting and business intelligence (BI) infrastructure. Key to this infrastructure are SAP Crystal Reports, IBM Cognos, and Hexagon Cloud, which together power over 800 critical reports. These tools provide comprehensive data analysis and reporting capabilities, enabling TransLink to monitor, manage, and optimize its vast transportation services. The integration of these diverse systems allows for a streamlined flow of information, crucial for real-time decision making and strategic planning.
Apoddo’s Support:
Apoddo’s project with TransLink presented a multi-faceted challenge, one of which was transitioning from an Oracle on-premise database to a cloud-based data warehouse solution in Azure. This migration was a critical component of the overall strategy to revamp TransLink’s business intelligence and operational reporting infrastructure.
The initial step in Apoddo’s approach involved creating an inventory of the existing reports from these varied platforms. This was crucial for understanding which reports were critical to TransLink’s operations and which could be optimized or consolidated. The mix of different reporting tools had resulted in a fragmented reporting environment, making it difficult for TransLink to efficiently access and analyze data.
A key strategy of Apoddo was to migrate the critical reports to Power BI. This decision was driven by Power BI’s robust capabilities in self-service BI, data visualization. The migration process was meticulously planned to ensure that while the critical reports were being moved to Power BI, TransLink could continue to run their existing reports on SAP Crystal Reports, IBM Cognos, and Hexagon’s platform without interruption.
Translink
Results:
The transition to Power BI involved more than just a technical migration; it represented a shift towards a more agile and user-driven reporting environment. Power BI’s intuitive interface and advanced analytics capabilities allowed TransLink’s staff to create, modify, and distribute their reports more efficiently, thereby enhancing decision-making processes. This was a significant improvement over the previous setup, where the creation and modification of reports were often more complex and less accessible to non-technical users.
In summary, Apoddo’s project with TransLink entailed a strategic overhaul of their business intelligence infrastructure, which included migrating critical reports from a diverse mix of SAP Crystal Reports, IBM Cognos, and Hexagon to Power BI. This migration was integral to enabling enhanced self-service reporting features and integrating with the new Azure cloud data warehouse, marking a significant step forward in TransLink’s data management and reporting capabilities.
Apoddo’s collaboration with TransLink was a resounding success, marked by the creation of over 800 reports in just one year. We look forward to continuing our work with Apoddo for many years to come.