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From Data to Decision Power: How Power BI Enabled Evitas to Make a Strategic Leap

Real-time insight into inventory and sales trends

Reduced capital tied up in unnecessary inventory

Automated financial transparency without manual data retrieval

About the Company

Evitas d.o.o. is a fast-growing Slovenian company, founded in 2017, specialising in the online sale of children's equipment and supplies. Under the leadership of founder Eva Birsa, it has grown from a small start-up into a leading Slovenian company in the field of baby equipment. With its multilingual online shop, the company successfully covers the Slovenian, Italian, Croatian and French markets. The company is renowned for its wide range of carefully selected baby products, fast delivery and excellent user experience. With a successful digital business and more than one million users of the Evitas online shop, Evitas remains a trusted partner for parents choosing quality baby products.

However, their dedication to customers and continuous growth also brings new challenges - as the business expands into new markets and the number of orders grows exponentially, the company is faced with an ever-increasing amount of data that needs to be managed effectively to maintain a competitive advantage and further develop.

Proactive Business Decision-Making

At first glance, businesses today seem to have better access to data than ever before. Every click, every transaction and every interaction leaves a digital footprint. But in practice, this vast amount of data often proves to be useless. Many companies are drowning in opaque Excel spreadsheets, manual reports and time-consuming analyses. This was also the case at Evitas until they implemented Power BI, which allowed them to move away from manual data processing and towards proactive business decision-making.

When Data is No Longer a Hindrance but an Asset

Evitas, a company specialising in online sales, had a lot of data but was unable to use it effectively due to its methodology. The PANTHEON ERP system served as a reliable source of all business data and information, but the analysis of this data was time-consuming.

Although they also tried business analytics within PANTHEON ERP, it did not fully meet their business needs. Mark Kodrič, CEO of the company, explains: "The data was there, but it was a long road to actionable insights. Every data export was manual, every analysis required hours of recalculation. In a rapidly changing market, this meant that we were often making decisions based on outdated information."

Advanced Business Analytics

Evitas found a solution by working with the Stroka Business Group, which, as their technology partner, provided a complete implementation of the Microsoft Power BI platform. The experts of the Stroka Business Group took care of:

• development and implementation of complex Power BI reports,
• establishing reliable integration with PANTHEON ERP system,
• integrated data processing,
• three specialised visualisations for key areas - sales, purchasing and inventory management.

The approach to the implementation was deliberate: instead of a complete and one-off overhaul, the roll-out was done gradually, focusing on three key areas - sales, purchasing, financial analysis and inventory management.

In the sales segment, the new platform has enabled instant insight into sales trends, period-by-period sales comparisons and analysis of the performance of individual markets. "Before, we had to collect data manually, but now it's all available at the click of a button. This allows us to react quickly to trends and optimise sales strategies," says Kodrič.

Data-Driven Procurement, Not Gut Feel

The biggest shift has been in purchasing. Previously, the work of the purchasing department often depended on intuition and past experience. With the introduction of Power BI, they have a powerful analytical tool that provides real-time insight into inventories, analysis of past orders and even simulations of future needs.

"When our purchasing manager has a meeting with suppliers, he can instantly see the growth or decline in purchasing over a given period and, based on this data, can more easily negotiate the terms of cooperation," explains Kodrič.

A particularly innovative feature is the advanced inventory management module, which allows the simulation of purchasing needs for periods ranging from 7 days to a year in advance. "We can now predict quite accurately how much of a particular product we will need, which allows us to better optimise our inventories and reduce the amount of capital tied up in unnecessary stock," adds Kodrič.

Faster Action and Greater Proactivity

One of the biggest advantages of Power BI is the ability to quickly identify poorly selling products. "With one click, we can see that a product hasn't been sold for three months, for example. This allows us to take immediate action - change prices, introduce promotions or adjust purchasing strategies."

This rapid responsiveness is also reflected in the monitoring of financial indicators. The system allows accurate monitoring of margins and rebates. The purchasing department can immediately spot any anomalies and take action before they have a negative impact on the business. "We can see when a product has an unusually low margin and immediately check why this is the case. This avoids unpleasant surprises in the financial reports."

Financial Transparency

From a financial perspective, Evitas has also benefited enormously from the introduction of Power BI. They now have access to the company's gross balance sheet, profit and loss account and current inflows and outflows at any time. "There is no longer any need to manually open PANTHEON and find the right parameters. All the data is immediately available, which allows us to better manage our cash flow," says Kodrič.

Today, Power BI reports are actively used by the company's leadership/management, marketing and purchasing. The report has also proved particularly useful for monitoring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, allowing a comparison between marketing input and output. This enables management to make informed decisions on the relevance of individual marketing activities.

Results That Speak for Themselves

The introduction of Power BI was not just a technical improvement - it brought a huge improvement in the way Evitas does business.
Key results include:

• Faster and more informed business decision-making
• Better optimisation of inventory and purchasing processes
• Time savings in the preparation of analyses and reports
• Reduced licensing costs and administrative burden

"Employees are very happy with the new reports. Each new report is received with enthusiasm as it allows them to organise their work better and be more efficient."

A Partnership That Goes Beyond Technology

The key to success was not only technology, but also the partnership with the Stroka Business Group. "Their team not only knows Power BI well, but also understands our business and needs. They have often advised us on additional functionalities that have proven to be extremely useful," admits Kodrič.

"Power BI reports have become part of our daily routine," he adds. "We use them on a daily basis to monitor our business and make decisions in all key areas."

The Future: No More Excel Spreadsheets and Full Automation

Although Evitas has already made great strides, their digital transformation continues. The goal is to completely eliminate manual data processing and move towards automated analytical processes.

"Our vision is clear: to have all data in one place, without the need for manual adjustments. With the right strategy and the right partners, we believe we can achieve this," concludes Kodrič.

For more information on the key steps for a successful implementation of Power BI solutions, please contact us on +386 (0)2 88 79 780 or email ccc@stroka.si.