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Building a future-proof data foundation: "Unleash the power of self-service analytics”

When data comes from various sources, it’s not an overnight task to leave legacy systems behind. Scandinavian Airlines heads towards cloud and changes their ways of working.

Data Insiders / March 10, 2022
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As the need for new data technology became obvious, Scandinavian Airlines SAS concluded it wouldn’t be cost-efficient and future-proof to update their existing data warehouse. They decided to build a whole new cloud data platform instead.

Scandinavian Airlines SAS is currently taking practical steps towards cloud data capabilities, one data and business area at a time. Simultaneously, they need to manage decades’ worth of legacy. Jonas Blomqvist, Head of Analytics & Data at the airline company, described their journey in the latest episode of Data Insiders podcast.

The one-by-one approach guarantees they can balance the short-term business needs with the long-term objective of a new, unified platform. “We need to prove our value to business daily. If they need to enhance data with other data sources, we cannot tell them they need to wait 2–3 years for a new capability. We need to provide the data right here, right now.”

Open up the data to everyone in the organization

“You don’t get a full value if you don’t also change the way of working and start to utilize the data in a new way,” says Blomqvist, who leads the work to foster a data-driven culture.

Back in the day, SAS built data teams around technology stacks. Now they are aiming towards a data domain-driven organization – not one overflowing backlog, but several small teams close to stakeholders who can really understand their needs. It all hasn’t been plain sailing: Blomqvist has learned his lessons on implementing Power BI and is ready to share them, too.

“You shouldn’t be afraid to unleash the power of self-service analytics. It can be a bit scary, but the way it transforms how people are working with data, how much quicker the organization becomes data-driven… it’s tremendous,” he summarizes.

Are you interested to know more? Join Data Insiders, the #1 Nordic data community, a powerful network of top professionals and visionaries of data-driven business. In the next podcast episode, we will dive into the world of healthcare and artificial intelligence.

Jonas Blomqvist has been in the data industry for 20 years and has vast experience in traditional data warehousing, BI & analytics and cloud platforms. He has worked for ICA in retail and Capgemini in consulting, among other things, and for the last three years, he has led Scandinavian Airlines’ journey to the cloud.

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