Empowering Rail Travel in Europe with PowerBI and Databricks

Client Overview:

Benerail is the technical provider of rail tickets to the biggest rail operators in Europe. Established in the mid-2000s, they recently decided to build their Data Infrastructure to make decisions using data insights, alongside enhancing Customer Management and Accounting Tools.

Current Stack: None Implemented.

Implemented Stack: Microsoft Azure, Databricks, PowerBI (Dynamics 365, Business Central)

Challenges Faced:

Gut-based Decision Making: Benerail has relied on similar approaches for almost two decades, making it challenging to navigate the company’s future solely on the intuition of long-tenured individuals.
Providing Invoicing as a Service: They currently support invoicing for suppliers using Microsoft Access and AWS, a manual process costing thousands of euros annually, limiting scalability for future service expansions.

Solution:

KYD Analytics B.V. collaborated closely with Benerail to build their Data Infrastructure and support the implementation of Business Central and Dynamics 365:

Data Infrastructure: Build an Analytical Database using Microsoft SQL Server coupled with PowerBI. Leading to a single source of truth for insights in the organisations.
Automate Invoicing as a Service: Leverage the power of automation and build an automated version of the invoicing tool using the Data Infrastructure implemented coupled with Microsoft Business Central.

Results Achieved:

Single Source of Truth: The Data Model now serves as the organization’s single source of truth, maintaining data quality and continuity with every new data source onboarded.
Building Data Products: With the Data Infrastructure in place, Benerail leveraged its role as a central data hub for rail suppliers, offering services such as Automated Invoicing, Reporting via APIs, SQL Endpoints, and PowerBI Dashboards.

Our Client's Testimonials

Ahad joined our team immediately after choosing Power BI as our reporting tool. He ensured a thorough understanding of our new data model for its maintenance and further development. Ahad brought extensive knowledge in data modeling, DAX, visualizations, and integrating new sources via Data Factory and Databricks, contributing to our data organization's future planning and culture.

– Sanne Boone

Product Owner Business Development, Benerail

Conclusion: By partnering with KYD Analytics, Benerail has extracted significant value from its extensive data resources, solidifying its pivotal role in European Rail Travel. Following an initial deployment with Microsoft SQL Server, we further collaborated to transition to Databricks the following year, enhancing flexibility in developing data products for rail suppliers.