Balkan Services has successfully implemented a cloud-based Business Intelligence (BI) solution in the Bulgarian company AQUAMATRIX. Since the summer of 2022, the official importer for Bulgaria of 14 sports brands related to snowboarding and biking - TREK Bikes, Lib-Tech, GNU, Smith, Northwave, Drake, Bent Metal, Bontrager, Maxxis, Magura, Topeak, Level, SixSixOne and Roxy - has been working daily with the cloud version of the Qlik Sense business intelligence system.

The main reason AQUAMATRIX decided to implement BI software was the need for fast and accurate analytical reports to easily navigate sales, inventory and turnover by channel - online store, physical store and warehouses, B2B sales. With Qlik, such reports are run every day and take just a few minutes.

Since its inception in 2015, the company has become an example of a forward-thinking company that is digitizing to grow.

In 2021, Balkan Services is optimizing the company's business with the #1 cloud ERP system in the world - Oracle NetSuite. The management software was deployed right in the middle of Covid, when management made the bold decision to upgrade the company's software - from a resource planning system, to a website - to cloud BI software.

Initially, the BI system was installed on-site at the customer (so-called on-premises) and integrated with NetSuite ERP. At a later stage, the company's management decided to implement the cloud version of Qlik Sense in order to be able to take advantage of cloud technology benefits such as lower hardware costs, automatic version updates, high reliability and data security. Thus, from mid-2022, the company is switching to working entirely with the cloud version of the BI system.

The specifics of AQUAMATRIX's business require comparisons to be made for orders, inventory and sales not only by year but also by seasonality, in their case from the middle of one year - to the middle of the next.

Often orders are placed once a year and it is very important that the AQUAMATRIX team can accurately forecast order quantities. Thanks to the BI system, the company can easily make forecasts for stock, sales and orders.

Integration between Qlik Sense and NetSuite ERP has been implemented, which allows BI solution to draw data from the ERP system and visualize it. This information is updated every morning, which provides up-to-date data to the application.

With the BI tool, AQUAMATRIX also monitors sales by channel and knows which ones are most effective.

Management can also easily see and compare sales and profits both by month and by current versus last year. The BI system's functionality also allows for sales comparison by quantity and by value.

For example, it is clear that the company's leading brand in bicycles is TREK and in winter sports - Lib-Tech. AQUAMATRIX is the exclusive distributor for Bulgaria of both brands.

The AQUAMATRIX team can choose the metrics to track themselves, creating reports and selecting metrics and indicators for their business' moment-to-moment needs.

The next step towards upgrading the project, is to visualize the results of the marketing campaigns in the BI software by integrating Qlik Sense with Google Analytics, with Google's advertising platform, also with Facebook.

This will allow AQUAMATRIX to quickly see how marketing activities are impacting sales and after how long they are impacting, helping to make informed decisions.

The Qlik Sense BI system also highlights sales trends that company executives previously guessed about but could not pinpoint.

For example, it became clear that bicycles are currently the category that is performing well, with the best-selling model being the Marlin, by the world-famous Trek brand.

Qlik Sense facilitates communication within the AQUAMATRIX team, allowing data access management so that employees only see what they need to. The BI system shortens preparation time for meetings and gives visibility of performance.

The business analytics system also benefits the dealers and salespeople the company works with by providing them with information to more easily and accurately place orders.

And the implementation of Qlik Sense at AQUAMATRIX confirms the winning formula shared by many of our customers, namely, "The customer knows what they want, and Balkan Services knows how to get it".