Prénatal takes important step toward data-driven organization.
At a time when data is becoming increasingly important, Prénatal has made great strides together with Cmotions toward a stable and modern Business Intelligence (BI) environment. Thanks to these developments, Prénatal is now ready for the next phase: moving to the cloud and exploring how AI applications can make daily operations even more efficient.
Prénatal is known as a retailer, but is more than that. The brand celebrates parenthood and supports (expectant) parents with a wide range and services that make daily life easier. Brother and sister Meijer opened the first store in Groningen in 1959 and was the first retail chain in the Netherlands to focus entirely on everything around birth. Today, Prénatal has 37 stores, an extensive webshop, 544 employees, including 114 at the head office.
The challenge.
For data insight, Prénatal used QlikView that was initially deployed in Finance & Control. After the platform was rolled out to other departments, challenges arose: the data models became too large, causing server overload.
According to Maarten Werdler, BI Specialist at Prénatal, the need to spread data more efficiently and optimize the data models was growing. "Over the years, the old data models in QlikView had become too large and thus too heavy, so the server could no longer handle the processing properly and became unstable. Our first step was to stabilize QlikView."
From QlikView to Qlik Sense.
To achieve a stable, modern BI environment, Prénatal partnered with Cmotions in 2018. First, we looked at optimizing the data models. "We started by capturing our internal processes. This brought departments closer together and allowed us to set up smaller, efficient data models, which greatly improved speed."
After standardizing the basics in QlikView in 2018-2019, Prénatal made the switch to Qlik Sense in 2024 in just four months. "Sem from Cmotions helped with the installation. After that I set everything up myself, with occasional support from Sem when needed," Maarten says.
Prénatal is currently in the process of continuously improving processes and data models. This serves to prepare for the move to Qlik Cloud and the integration of AI capabilities.
"With Cmotions, we can switch easily. The service is good, are always friendly, and even when the need arises, they are always available to help us."
Maarten Werdler, BI Specialist at Prénatal
The advantages for Prénatal.
Prénatal is already experiencing multiple benefits from working with Qlik Sense:
A stable, modern BI environment ready for the future
Faster access to data: latest data available daily at 8 a.m.
More efficient onboarding thanks to a dedicated dashboard with a personal guide, Qlikie, to get new employees up and running quickly
Employees are less dependent on the data specialist as the first steps have been taken toward a self-service model
Qlik Sense has now been rolled out for the entire organization. Maarten explains what the most important learning moment has been as he looks back on the entire process with satisfaction. "From the beginning, I included the entire organization in the process. I spoke to each department about the changes, and after implementation I gave an extensive introduction. By providing space for questions - for example, during walk-in hours - and repeated explanations, we ensured that Qlik Sense was introduced smoothly."
Based on feedback from colleagues, Prénatal has already implemented improvements to further optimize the user experience.
The next steps.
The optimization of data models remains an ongoing process. Maarten has even more ambitious plans, however. "Eventually we want to move to Qlik Cloud and unlock all data sources through Qlik. Now this is limited to the ERP system, Google, external sources such as hours worked and gift card information, Office 365 and financial data. In addition, I want to further strengthen collaboration between departments, further expand self-service and automate even more processes. Finally, we will explore what AI capabilities can add value. The developments in that area are moving fast, and we definitely want to make use of them," Maarten concludes.
"Cmotions is a committed partner that always keeps us up to date with the latest developments through meetings and support. And we can turn to them for all our data needs, and that works nicely."
Maarten Werdler, BI Specialist at Prénatal