Success Story - SKAN AG

The customer

SKAN AG, headquartered in Allschwil, is an internationally leading provider of isolators and solutions for aseptic and aseptic-toxic manufacturing processes in the biopharmaceutical industry. The company develops and produces high-quality isolator systems that enable safe and sterile filling processes and supports its customers throughout the entire lifecycle with process assistance, services, and consumables. As such, SKAN is one of the key partners for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, CMOs, and research laboratories worldwide. Founded in 1968, the company employs around 1,700 people, more than half of whom work at the Allschwil site. Additional locations are situated across Europe, the USA, Japan, and Brazil.

SKAN has been pursuing a self-service BI strategy for several years. Employees in the business units should be able to create analyses independently and respond flexibly to new questions. The technology is based on Microsoft products. The data is largely transferred from SAP into a data warehouse based on Microsoft SQL Server and made available to the business units via Power BI. Power BI is used in business-related management areas, particularly in finance, production, service and spare parts operations, and sales.

The operational responsibility for running and developing the solution rested with a single person in the company. The tasks primarily involved resolving issues at short notice and adjusting reports. Under these conditions, systematic further development was hardly possible. The workload was high, and the solution had evolved into a collection of individual functions that worked but lacked a consistent structure. When the employee left the company, immediate action was required.

By further developing the BI landscape together with Informatec, the foundation for an even more stable and future-proof BI operation has been created. Ongoing operations are secured, data models are built consistently, and new reports follow clearly defined standards. Business units can reliably use self-service reporting without relying on individual standalone solutions. At the same time, responsibility for further development once again lies sustainably within the company. With the modernized ETL pipeline, a clear, maintainable, and flexibly expandable structure has been established, making it easier to develop new reports and supporting the long-term growth of the BI landscape.

With Informatec, SKAN has a partner who evaluates both new technical and methodological innovations and supports their targeted introduction.

“In day-to-day business, there is often little time to engage deeply with new tools and approaches. Informatec plays an important role here as a continuous sparring partner with whom we can discuss topics with technical depth and put them into context,” confirms Jürgen Hamel. The collaboration with Informatec is designed for the long term, and the next optimizations that SKAN aims to pursue together with Informatec are already on the agenda.

In the coming months, the focus will be on migrating additional existing reports into the new architecture and on further expanding self-service BI capabilities. The goal is to create a shared understanding of methodologies and standards while actively supporting knowledge transfer within the organization. Informatec supports the development of these skills through training programs tailored to the employees’ respective levels of expertise. The trainings are conducted by Microsoft Certified Trainers.

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In parallel, the frontend is increasingly coming into focus. With the growing adoption of self-service BI, questions around visualization and the consistent design of reports are becoming more important. The aim is to present key figures clearly and comprehensibly while maintaining a consistent style across different business units.

From within the business departments came the suggestion to consider visualization extensions such as Zebra BI, an add-on for Power BI that enables standardized and meaningful representation of KPIs. Informatec supports SKAN in evaluating the potential benefits, licensing models, and integration into the existing reporting landscape.

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Another key focus for the next phase is the further development of the authorization concept. The objective is to provide employees, within the framework of self-service BI, with clearly defined and transparent access to the data products relevant to them. Currently, data access is still managed centrally because the existing structures do not allow for differentiated control. SKAN and Informatec are working together to introduce authorization groups that correspond to the respective workspaces. Based on this foundation, users will be able to access the data objects assigned to them and use them for their analyses. Implementation is taking place gradually and is managed through the internal ticket system. At the same time, Power BI users across the company receive targeted coaching as soon as opportunities for improvement arise in practice.

“What was truly decisive for us was Informatec’s flexibility. When our previous BI manager left, many things could have come to a standstill. Informatec stepped in on very short notice and ensured that we remained operational. At the same time, they closely supported us in refilling the position — professionally, organizationally, and with a clear understanding of what the role will require in the future. This was not an emergency stopgap, but competent support that had an immediate impact. Moments like these show that we are not simply working with a service provider, but with a partner we can rely on.”

Michael Palmer, Head Business Application Management, SKAN AG.