The combination of computing power and connectivity has made real-time data-driven decisions possible at every level of your business. Your Print MIS/ERP is or should be your trusted system of record for your business. This means that the critical data you need to make data driven decisions resides in your Print MIS/ERP. You want that data to be available to virtually every level of your organization in a format that will optimize its impact on behavior, and in real- or near real time. Historically, the go-to solution for this has been a never-ending request for custom reports. Most labels and flexible packaging printers are sitting on top of hundreds of custom reports, and the requests keep flooding in for new ways to look at their data. This can be time-consuming and is certainly not efficient.
Then around 2000, a whole new segment of cloud-based software solutions opened up to the data hungry business analyst – Business Intelligence (B.I.). These B.I. dashboards elevated the static report into a dashboard that presented data in much more innovative ways, and most importantly, freed the data from its captivity in a static report. With a B.I. dashboard, you can drill into the data to answer the next level of questions. A custom report usually provides only the path to investigating an issue, leaving you to keep asking for more and more reports to get to the root cause. Now B.I. dashboards give you data visualization and dynamic interaction. You can drill into your data and answer that next question. And you can do it quickly and efficiently.
Access and Utilize your Data
Reports are a snapshot of what happened in your data; and B.I. dashboards offer a dynamic view of what is happening within your data. The common denominator here is DATA. Reports and B.I. dashboards are only as good as the data that is fed into them. Your data resides in your Print MIS/ERP (Label Traxx). And this data is highly dynamic.
Label Traxx is your system of record. It is the system that runs your business. You need access to your Label Traxx data in a reliable, timely, and most importantly, a manner that does not negatively impact your business. The Label Traxx Data Warehouse is the component that enables you to deliver on your vision of data-driven decisions at all levels of your organization. And now, your data has been liberated.
The Label Traxx Data Warehouse is a cloud based, automated replication of your Label Traxx data. We have developed a reliable, timely, and non-intrusive way of creating an up-to-date replica of your business data that is available without negatively impacting your Label Traxx production system. Accessing data and conducting analysis is as important to your business as producing labels and should be able to be done in parallel without disruption.
The Data Structure
We have taken the database structure of Label Traxx and replicated it in a Postgres DB. Replicating the data structure of the Label Traxx database will make it easier for users of the system to understand and use the information in the data warehouse without having to understand a new schema. The data is kept up to date with your production system so your reports show current information. We have documented the definition of the data structure including the tables, links, and columns with their data types to allow the users effective access to the data.
The Access
The data warehouse feature operates on top of the standard Label Traxx version 9.0 application. We have established a cloud infrastructure to securely host Data Warehouse instances for any current Label Traxx customer. Access to the database occurs through encrypted connections available to known IP addresses. Similarly, data is extracted from the customer’s Label Traxx instance via encrypted communication from a known IP address and port. Database access including the creation and removal of database access is available through an administrative interface.
The Timing
The data in your Label Traxx production system is in constant flux because minute by minute your business is generating new data and updating existing data. The Data Warehouse will initially take a complete set of your data; then it will only take incremental updates after that. The timing is crafted to keep your Data Warehouse up to date without negatively impacting your Label Traxx production environment. We expect the data in the data warehouse will be less than fifteen minutes behind the data in the Label Traxx system.
The Opportunity
Once your data has been liberated, what you can do with it is only limited by your imagination. Custom reports and business intelligence dashboards are two of the most common solutions that can be layered over your liberated data. If this seems overwhelming, we can get you started with a set of standard operations and sales dashboards.
If you are working with data from multiple data sources, such as a separate accounting system or separate manufacturing plants with separate ERPs, it will be possible to use the Label Traxx Data Warehouse to together with data extracted from these other sources to provide a comprehensive view on the state of your business.
The Help
If you need assistance customizing B.I. dashboards, we have partnered with Amend Consulting who is deeply familiar with Label Traxx data structure in addition to being experts with data visualization. In their experience with manufacturing businesses of all types, including leading labels and packaging companies, Amend Consulting can deliver rapid results complemented by the ability to speak your language.
The Requirements
The Label Traxx Data Warehouse will be available in the second quarter of 2023. Label Traxx customers must be on Label Traxx v9 or Label Traxx Enterprise to utilize the Data Warehouse.
Please contact sales for more information.
Additionally, to preview Label Traxx Data Warehouse firsthand, register for our May 2023 webinar.