For 115 years,Ā RockwellĀ AutomationĀ has been a market leader inĀ industrial automation and informationĀ with a strong culture of innovation, integrity, and corporate responsibility.Ā To ensureĀ RockwellĀ AutomationĀ continues toĀ be a market leader and to better serve its customers,Ā itĀ establishedĀ a Business Intelligence Center of Excellence (BI CoE) toĀ provide meaningful insightsĀ throughĀ high quality data and information.
TheĀ BI CoEĀ seeksĀ toĀ master data management,Ā self-service analytics, and improve BI throughout the organization.Ā RockwellĀ AutomationĀ made significant investments and created the right opportunities to upgrade team skills to help adapt to modern-day data management, analytics, AI/machine learning technologies, and best practices.
Rockwell Automation chose Power BI asĀ itsĀ BIĀ softwareĀ of choice dueĀ to its self-serviceĀ andĀ enterpriseĀ capabilities and market-leading visualizations. Paired with AzureĀ and Power Apps,Ā theĀ BI CoE motivatesĀ employees to look at data first, and then expand individual perspectives to uncover information and build out critical solutionsĀ throughĀ informedĀ decision-making.Ā Power BIĀ helpsĀ consumers take their local and domain-specificĀ subject matterĀ knowledge and rapidlyĀ transform them intoĀ key drivers for businessĀ change.
Building a Power BIĀ UserĀ Community
ToĀ democratizeĀ BI and empower all to become data analysts,Ā Mike BitterĀ andĀ Chris Wagner, Enterprise ArchitectsĀ within theĀ BI CoEĀ createdĀ an internal Power BI user community on Yammer to get a better understanding of the communityās skills and needs.
Wagner determined that knowledge of Power BI in Rockwell Automation could be enhanced.Ā He polled the user community and developed presentations for monthly Power BI user group meetings.Ā Wagner started posting to the user groupās Yammer channel daily with helpful information and answers to questions from users. Recognizing thatĀ hisĀ team could not be on call to assist users whenever the need arose,Ā WagnerĀ introduced the concept of Power Hours, a weekly two-hour session where users can meet with members ofĀ hisĀ team and each other to work through questions and challenges.
The first time they hosted Power Hours, more than 400 people signed up for the event within 24 hours of the announcement, confirming the need and appetite of the Power BI user community.
UsingĀ Power BIĀ template apps, theĀ WagnerāsĀ team teachesĀ RockwellĀ AutomationĀ employees how to create sample reports. Users can learn aboutĀ topics such as page interaction and visual guidelines, and can copy and use any of the elements of the app. The appsĀ also include reports to look up content owners andĀ Power BIĀ ProĀ users.
Looking Forward
By developing aĀ Power BIĀ andĀ PaaS AzureĀ solution,Ā Rockwell Automation changedĀ the culture ofĀ itsĀ company to deliver agile and data-driven solutions.Ā ByĀ working closely with theĀ user community, theĀ BI CoEĀ team now understands consumer needs and can develop solutions and provide information thatĀ help employees accomplish their goals. Rockwell Automation will soon be enablingĀ Power BIĀ dataflows which will enhanceĀ itsĀ ability to develop contentĀ throughĀ self-serviceĀ data preparation.
Read theĀ case studyĀ for more on the RockwellĀ AutomationĀ business intelligence center of excellence.