26 June 2023
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Industry: Packaging and Printing
Locations: UK, Americas, Asia Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
Area served: Global
Flint Group’s unmatched product portfolio includes printing inks, digital printing presses, blankets, pressroom chemistry, consumables and colourants. As one of the leading suppliers to the Packaging and Printing industries, the team know a thing or two about the importance of vibrant visuals.
We sat down with Paul Tolsma, Global Business Intelligence Architect and Magdalena Papierz, FP&A Analyst and Qlik Support Specialist, to discuss how Qlik Sense and Vizlib have elevated their data analytics game.
Data at every level
Our executive management relies on Qlik on a daily basis and for their Monthly Reporting Pack, as the tool’s advanced analytics capabilities have become increasingly essential in today’s data-driven business landscape.
– Paul Tolsma
For the past five years, Flint Group has been using Qlik Sense for powerful data analytics and data visualizations. Across every department, from Finance to Sales to Human Resources, data is used to facilitate informed decision making.
When the company first adopted Qlik Sense, not everyone had used data analytics software before. For that reason, it’s important that the solutions Flint use are intuitive, so people across the organisation can easily adopt them, and start contributing to a more data-driven culture immediately.
Qlik Sense alone was enabling impactful Business Intelligence (B.I.). However, as time went on, there was a need for more customisation options. Flint Group wanted to highlight and differentiate certain data, and present information in a bespoke way that matched their branding and reporting requirements.
The introduction of Vizlib at the beginning of 2022 took their data analytics to the next level.
Elevating data visualization and analytics with Vizlib
Vizlib offers a lot of flexibility for chart customization. With its capabilities, we can now build charts exactly the way we want, without any compromises on the technical front. This level of customization enhances the overall adoption of the Qlik program.
– Magdalena Papierz
Flint Group started their Vizlib journey with Vizlib Library and Vizlib Finance, quickly expanding their user base as the value of Vizlib became clear.
The internal ‘Monthly Reporting Pack’ is one example of how Flint Group uses data to inform their workforce. The report presents a mix of five key updates from across the company; this can include such topics as finance, sales and margin, accounts, inventory, and shipment statistics.
Since the introduction of Vizlib, this Reporting Pack has been supercharged by flexible visualisations and informed by Vizlib Finance.
Discover five ways Vizlib Finance improves data-driven decision making here.
Vizlib has also been a great way to share information with customers. Flint Group shows statistics on a daily basis for every shipment. Before, each customer was downloading an Excel file– not always the most intuitive or visually impactful way to communicate important information. Now, Flint Group can provide more depth and detail, while “saving time” and moving a step closer to “[removing] Excel from the workflow.”
Paul finds Vizlib approachable, and enjoys how it makes data dynamic. “What I’ve noticed is that it’s more user friendly and offers great flexibility in every visualisation.
He went on to discuss how Vizlib allows Flint Group to execute their data analytics without compromise.
When the native functionality of Qlik falls short, you need to find a workable solution. With Vizlib we overcome limitations without the need to modify or adjust our models.– Paul Tolsma
Hot takes
Finally, we touched on that heated data analytics controversy–
Pie charts are often misused holding way to many categories, but when used properly, I still like and use them.
– Magdalena Papierz
(We like them too.)
What’s next in Flint Group’s data journey?
When it comes to Flint Group’s enterprise analytics goals, Paul is clear that there is still work to be done, and great ambition for the future.
[The next step] would be to further improve and extend our reporting landscape. I see a big opportunity in making Qlik more interactive for users, going beyond dashboarding capabilities.
– Paul Tolsma
Not only will Flint Group continue to supercharge their data across every department and level within their organisation, they always keep an eye on future possibilities. That means getting more from their data, while simplifying and optimising their processes.
They are also considering a potential expansion to other Vizlib products, which would unlock even more functionalities.
Get in touch
If you’d like to learn more about the powerful features that have taken Flint Group’s data analytics to the next level, book a demo today!
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