Black Sea Gold reduced the time for its business analysis to 1 minute [case study]

A successful business starts with good decisions, one of them can be to focus on the Bulgarian market, and another – to cross borders and step on “foreign soil”. Ultimately, however, data is the most accurate compass for managers. Their accuracy determines whether they take the right path to success or get “lost” in their pursuit.

Almost 100 years ago, a group of enterprising Bulgarians founded the first wine cooperative “Dimyat” in Pomorie. Centuries of experience in wine-making gave the Pomorie winemakers the confidence to build the first modern winery in the town in 1932. By all accounts, these enterprising men made the right decision, and the proof over the years is that their work remains not just history, but the history on which the future of the Black Sea Gold Company is built.

At the end of 2022, the company celebrates its 90th anniversary. The wine, brandy, and brandy producer has been awarded many times over the years and has won numerous Bulgarian and international awards and medals. To date, Black Sea Gold is among the 15* largest employers in the Beverage Manufacturing sector in Bulgaria.

At the heart of it all are well-tended vineyards and good terroir, and in the context of the new times technology is increasingly supporting the company’s business.

The history of our work together

As Black Sea Gold’s business grew back in 2007-2008, the company reached a stage where the old way of managing it was no longer able to cope with the volumes of data that needed to be processed. At this relatively distant point in time, Black Sea Gold decided to implement the QlikView Business Intelligence (BI) solution and chose Balkan Services as their implementation partner.

From the standpoint of time (it has been 15-16 years) I can say that it was a good decision. Before it, we had delayed deadlines, inaccurate and incomplete information, the whole process of work was very labor-intensive,” Krasimir Stoev, Sales Director at Black Sea Gold, tells us.

“In our work, it is not enough just to have information – it must be accurate so that we can use it in the best possible way,” notes Krassimir Stoev.

To provide even more accurate and flexible information and a natural extension of our work together, the company decided to move to the next technological level. And this time they trusted Qlik, our long-standing partner and recognized leader for the 13th consecutive year in Gartner’s BI and data analytics rankings.

“We have been working with Qlik Sense software for about half a year. And we are even more satisfied with it, we have no problems. The tool allows us to reach deep into the data – it is very flexible and pleasant to work with,” says the Commercial Director of Black Sea Gold, sharing his impressions of working with the new BI software.

Choosing the cloud version of Qlik Sense

Qlik Sense provides two installation options – on-premises at the customer (on-premises or Client-Managed) and in the cloud (SaaS).

“Our partners and contractors are fully migrating to cloud versions of all their software. With our team, we felt that the more suitable option for us was also to switch to the cloud version of Qlik Sense”, which motivates the choice of the BI solution Krasimir Stoev.

Among the advantages of this type of system are that the software version is always the most up-to-date and the costs in terms of hardware are lower. Last but not least is the security, which is guaranteed as much as possible.

Qlik Sense Dashboard

Specifics of BI software implementation

The project with Black Sea Gold covers the development of two BI applications, one for sales analysis and the other for distributor analysis (sales out).

“The sales analysis application replaces QlikView. It analyses quantitative and qualitative indicators,” explains Kiril Tanchev, BI consultant at Balkan Services.

This application benefits Black Sea Gold in analysing sales by regions; cities; customer groups; and alcohol types.

The company can monitor key indicators such as turnover, profit, excise duties, discounts, cost price, sales with excise duties, and VAT.

“The sales analysis application replaces QlikView. It analyses quantitative and qualitative indicators,” explains Kiril Tanchev, BI consultant at Balkan Services.

The second application tracks four important indicators: number of bottles; sales; number of unique customers; and litres. Based on this information, Black Sea Gold evaluates the performance of distributors.

The development of these two parts of the project took three months, with further upgrades to the business intelligence system to follow.

The challenge of implementing the system becomes the benefit

The timing of the BI system development and implementation was more dynamic and coincided with a period when the Black Sea Gold company was significantly busier than usual in terms of work.

This ended up being a real plus because it gave an acceleration to the process – to integrate the system quickly and get used to it faster,” says Krassimir Stoev.

He said that thanks to our team, the integration of the business analytics software went smoothly.

Shortly afterward, managers in the company with access to Qlik Sense returned feedback that they were working functionally with the BI system and did not need any additional training or features.

The implemented BI solution is used by the company owners as well as by the managers and executives of Black Sea Gold.

On a computer, tablet, or smartphone

Thanks to Qlik Sense, the Black Sea Gold team not only gets a general overview of what is happening in the company in real-time but can also generate all sorts of reports themselves.

In this way, the company’s management and owners can analyze Black Sea Gold’s sales better than in the past,” says Kirill Tanchev.

This can happen not only on a computer but also via phone and tablet.

As the most significant, the company’s sales director singles out the capabilities of Qlik Sense for sales analysis, and in real-time.

“BI software allows us to look at the same things from multiple perspectives to give us decision-making capabilities going forward,” he notes.

Qlik Sense provides convenience to the company’s management as they have not had to physically position themselves in an office, which has been a challenge for companies over the past few years.

Management can get the information at any point they are at, look at it, and get feedback back in a short period,” Krasimir Stoev points out.

In his words, the BI application saves the team time.

“Now, not only does it take a minute, but I can change the data so that it is most useful to me both during the actual preparation and afterward,” he says.

A huge advantage for Black Sea Gold is the accuracy of the data in Qlik Sense. accuracy of the data in Qlik Sense.

In the trade in which we operate, 60-70% is the work with the information itself and the decisions that are made on its basis. With a BI system like Qlik Sense, I make the decisions because I have 100% confidence that there is no chance of there being any distortion or inaccuracy of the information. This is a great advantage,” says the Commercial Director of Black Sea Gold.

The capabilities of the business intelligence system allow sales to be monitored in real-time. On a quarterly and half-yearly basis, the company uses the BI software to analyze past periods, which takes them little time.

The Black Sea Gold team started using Qlik Sense for other areas of the business.

“When the software reaches full functionality, things take on a very finished and creative look. Once we are done with the internal market, we will move to the external market. This way, through one system, we will get all the information about the business, everywhere with us, in an easy way, and most importantly – correctly and accurately,” says the company’s plans Krassimir Stoev.

The 4 factors for project success

The Commercial Director of Black Sea Gold notes the formulation of the exact needs of the company as the first key to a good result of the project.

“We knew what we wanted and we were able to profile our desires quite accurately and identify them so we could get them off to a good start. The Balkan Services team took those requirements of ours, responded extremely well, adjusted where needed, and got exactly what we needed the first time,” sums up Krassimir Stoev.

In his opinion, the quick response from our team and the clarity regarding Black Sea Gold’s needs saved a lot of time in reaching the final result.

Therefore, the fact that everything happened on time also played a key role in the cooperativeness of the Black Sea Gold team, which responded at every moment.

The Black Sea Gold team is made up of professionals who were ready to assist us from the very beginning of the project to its final implementation. It is a pleasure to work with them”, Kiril Tanchev from our team shares his impressions of the cooperation.

Last but not least, the role of the project manager and the methodology that Balkan Services uses to manage IT projects are among the key factors for project success.

Impressions from the collaboration

Balkan Services and Black Sea Gold have a long-standing business partnership, with the relationship between the two companies getting better and better over the years.

“Nowadays, if you can find a partner who cares about your business, and we in Balkan Services have found just such a partner, that trust and peace of mind to know they are there is invaluable and over time becomes irreplaceable. These good relationships give that peace of mind that can’t be found in many other places. As for the BI software itself – we are extremely lucky to have it,” says Krassimir Stoev in conclusion.

And adds:

It is a pleasure to work with the Balkan Services team. They are great professionals who know what they are doing, do it quickly, very qualitatively, and always respond to every question adequately.”

At Balkan Services, we have expertise in business, technology, and legislation, and we speak all three languages. We will listen carefully and advise you on choosing the right business system for your needs.

Balkan Services has been implementing business software solutions since 2006 and has completed more than 690 projects, of which more than 420 are in the area of BI systems. We follow a proven implementation methodology with clear steps and best practice know-how.