Keyrus enables Namibia Breweries to become truly data-driven

Namibia Breweries is progressively transforming into a data-driven organisation following a company-wide journey of digital transformation. The brewery chose Keyrus to contribute to this journey. Backed by its strong track record implementing world-class business intelligence solutions, Keyrus helped to instil a true data culture within Namibia Breweries’ operations.

The solution included the leading data visualisation tool, Tableau. The result is an impressive, modern-day, data-driven environment.

“We celebrate Namibia Breweries as an example of what a successful data journey should look like,” says Greg Guye, CEO of Keyrus. “It recognised the importance of speedy, effective data processing and accurate reporting for sound business decisions and competitive advantage.”

The Namibia Brewery needed to enhance its business intelligence (BI) competency and become more data-driven. The leadership recognised the need to embark on a significant digital transformation journey and required a leading BI tool to manage big data.

Namibia Breweries selected Keyrus for its reputation in transforming the way businesses use data to solve challenges. The first step was to migrate reporting from a legacy system into a modern, cloud-based analytics BI platform, Tableau.

Keyrus designed an innovative solution that allowed self-service, promoted rapid user adoption and offered views tailored to different areas of the business.

“The success of the implementation was due largely to a focus on user acceptance and the transfer of skills to BI champions within the organisation,” says Craig Andrew, Head of BI & Analytics at Keyrus.

“Depending on what works best for users, we deliver some reports that resemble the previous legacy reports,” he notes. “Other dashboards present data more visually, appealing to the innovators in the business.”

Critical to success have been the brewery’s Tableau champions, supported by regular check-ins by Keyrus.

Namibia Breweries’ Industrial Control Systems Manager, Andre Engelbrecht, became the first champion. He drives BI throughout the business, fuelled by support from the Keyrus team.

As data became increasingly valued throughout the brewery, more Tableau requirements arose, necessitating the addition of more champions. Jan-Hendrik Verdoes, Utility Engineer at Namibia Breweries, rose to the challenge. He now drives production data analytics and has transformed the way his teams use data.

“The commitment of the Tableau champions ensured the success of the organisation’s data journey,” notes Andrew. “The brewery now has a solid foundation to enable the next phase, seamless migration to the cloud.”

Reporting is now real-time and Namibia Breweries benefits from reduced time to insights. This translates into a competitive advantage.

“Users obtain answers within hours, where previously this could take weeks or months,” says Engelbrecht. “This speedy turnaround allows the business more time to scrutinise the data and ask further questions.”

The implementation has transformed the way different business units use data every day. Tableau dashboards are discussed each morning by the production team, for example.

The regular check-ins by Keyrus ensure an agile, interactive process that encourages new ideas and ensures challenges are solved rapidly.

Several processes, including production line cleaning and maintenance prediction, are now solely driven by Tableau.

In addition, a key feature of the implementation has been skills transfer. The two Tableau champions receive ongoing coaching from Keyrus’s expert consultants.

“Keyrus’s competence in the data and digital space across multiple industry verticals helped ensure success for Namibia Breweries,” concludes Guye. “We pride ourselves in being a recognised expert and trusted partner for our customers, making their data matter.”