ADQ
Optimizing Insights: A Power BI Performance Enhancement Case Study for ADQ
Sector
Investment and Holding
Services
Business Intelligence
Team Size
6
Engagement
Starting up & Scaling up
Introduction
ADQ is a prominent Abu Dhabi-based holding company with a diverse portfolio of investments in key sectors, including energy, food, healthcare, and logistics. As a strategic partner of the Abu Dhabi government, ADQ is dedicated to playing a crucial role in the emirate’s transformation into a globally competitive and knowledge-based economy.
Business Objective
- Objective: ADQ aimed to enhance its Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities by improving the performance of its existing Power BI reports.
- Specific Goals:
- Reduce the loading time of Power BI reports, which initially took 15 seconds to load.
- Enhance the reports with new visualizations to provide more comprehensive financial insights.
- Develop additional reports for key financial aspects, including Balance Sheet & Cash Flow, Financial Ratios, and Executive Dashboards Summary.
Project Scope
- Scope Overview: The project involved a comprehensive overhaul of ADQ’s existing BI reports and the development of new reports to cater to specific financial analysis needs.
- Specific Tasks:
- Optimize existing Power BI reports by eliminating unnecessary tables, relationships, and calculated columns to improve performance.
- Write efficient Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) to avoid nested calculations that could lead to performance bottlenecks.
- Create new reports focusing on Balance Sheet & Cash Flow, Financial Ratios, and Executive Dashboards Summary.
- Ensure that the new reports are not overloaded with visuals and instead emphasize essential financial insights.
Data Collection and Integration
- Data Sources: Data was collected from various sources, encompassing ADQ’s investments across energy, food, healthcare, and logistics.
- Data Integration: All data was integrated into a centralized repository to facilitate analysis and reporting.
- Data Quality: Special attention was given to data quality and consistency to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the reports.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Reduce the loading time of Power BI reports to under 5 seconds.
- Improve user satisfaction by enhancing visualization and usability.
- Revenue
- Net Income
- CFFO
- Net Income
- EBITDA
BI Tools and Technologies
BI Tool: Power BI was the primary tool used for data visualization and reporting.
Calculation Language: DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) was employed to create efficient calculations.
Data Integration Tools: Various data integration tools were utilized to collect and clean data from multiple sources.
Data Analysis and Insights
- Existing Power BI reports were optimized for significantly faster loading times.
- Efficient DAX expressions were implemented to enhance report performance.
- New reports were developed, focusing on Balance Sheet and cash Flow, Financial Ratios, and Executive dashboard summaries.
- The reports provided actionable insights that supported informed decision-making within the organization.
Challenges and Solutions:
- Challenge 1: Slow Loading Time
- Solution: Unnecessary data, tables, and relationships were removed. DAX calculations were optimized to improve report loading times.
- Challenge 2: Overloaded Reports
- Solution: New reports were designed with a focus on simplicity and essential insights, avoiding overloading with excessive visuals and pages.
- Challenge 3: Data Quality
- Solution: Data integration and cleaning processes were implemented to ensure data accuracy and consistency, addressing data quality concerns.
Conclusion
- The project resulted in a successful transformation of ADQ’s BI capabilities, aligning them with the organization’s mission of contributing to Abu Dhabi’s transition into a globally competitive and knowledge-based economy.
- By achieving loading times under 5 seconds, enhancing user experience, and providing actionable financial insights, ADQ now possesses a robust BI solution to support its diverse portfolio and strategic objectives.
- Ongoing monitoring and maintenance will be essential to ensure the sustained effectiveness of the BI solution as ADQ’s portfolio and data continue to evolve in a dynamic business environment.
