Customer	A French multinational company that specializes in digital automation and energy management.
Revenue	35.9 billion EUR

Introduction

In the fast-paced world of global retail, ensuring compliance with various international regulations while maintaining seamless operations is a monumental task. A leading provider of energy management and automation solutions faced this challenge head-on. This case study explores their journey from manual compliance checks to a streamlined, automated process that not only ensured adherence to regulations but also enhanced data synchronization across multiple systems.

The Challenge

The company’s compliance and data management system were fraught with inefficiencies. Operating in multiple countries, each with its own set of regulations, ensuring compliance was a manual, time-consuming process prone to errors. Customer data was siloed across various ERPs and CRM systems, making it difficult to maintain consistency and accuracy in independent compliance checks.

The primary challenges included:

1. Manual Compliance Processes: Compliance checks were manual, requiring employees to upload and recheck customer data individually. This method was not only labor-intensive but also increased the risk of human error.
2. Data Discrepancies: Without a centralized system, customer information varied across different databases. A customer flagged in one system might appear compliant in another, posing significant compliance risks.
3. Regulatory Changes: Staying updated with constantly changing regulations and ensuring that all customer data was rechecked against new rules was nearly impossible with the existing setup.

The Solution

To address these challenges, the company partnered with a leading expert in data integration solutions. Together, they embarked on a mission to update the company’s compliance and data management processes.

The solution involved integrating Reltio Master Data Management (MDM) and E2Open, a third-party screening tool. Here’s the solution that was implemented:

1. Centralized Data Management with Reltio MDM: Reltio MDM was implemented to consolidate customer data from various systems into a single, unified golden record. This golden record ensured that every customer’s information was accurate and up-to-date, eliminating discrepancies. It also ensured that all variations of the customer’s name and all addresses are combined.
2. Automated Compliance Checks with E2Open: Customer data from Reltio is sent to E2Open for automated screening against the latest regulations. The screening result is sent back from E2Open to the Reltio MDM. This process is continuous, meaning that any changes in regulations would automatically trigger a recheck of all affected customers in E2Open and screening results will be automatically pushed to the Reltio MDM.
3. Screening Results are Delivered to the Operational Systems: The most up to date screening results are delivered to the operational systems in near-realtime from the Reltio MDM, leveraging the existing integration of the Reltio MDM with the operational systems.
4. Monitoring: To ensure data remained synchronized across all operational systems, additional monitoring was implemented. Our team created reports to check the consistency of compliance statuses between Reltio and other connected systems on a scheduled basis.

Implementation and Collaboration

Implementing this solution required seamless collaboration between multiple teams across different time zones. Ulpia Tech’s role was pivotal in ensuring that all technical and business teams were aligned. Regular communication and stakeholder involvement were key to addressing any issues that arose during the implementation.

The integration process began with collecting data from the company’s ERP and CRM systems. This data was then organized and unified in Reltio MDM. From there, the consolidated records, including all variations of customer names and all known addresses and other contact information, were sent to E2Open for compliance checks. The results were propagated back to Reltio and further synchronized with the original systems.

Overcoming Obstacles

The journey was not without its hurdles. One significant challenge was managing the different teams involved in the process. Each system, whether it was an ERP or CRM, had its own team that needed to be coordinated. Ensuring that everyone understood the technical and business requirements was crucial. Additionally, to the communication obstacle, teams were having their own production releases, that should be synchronized so that for each system to receive each team’s modification at the right time, ensuring that end to end connector was covered

Moreover, the manual processes previously in place meant that transitioning to an automated system required thorough testing and fine-tuning. Data quality issues and synchronization errors needed to be identified and rectified promptly to ensure the new system functioned correctly.

The Impact

The implementation of the Reltio MDM and E2Open solution brought about transformative changes for the company:

Enhanced Compliance: Continuous, automated compliance checks ensured that the company stayed compliant with regulatory changes, reducing the risk of penalties and bad publicity.

Efficiency Boost: Automation significantly reduced the manual workload, freeing up employees to focus on more strategic tasks.

Data Consistency: The creation of a single golden record for each customer eliminated data discrepancies across systems, ensured accurate and reliable information and that reduced errors due to customer name or contact variations.

Improved operational efficiency: By saving time by seizing communications with the customer early in the sales cycle.

Improved screening efficiency: The new solution checks all variations of the customer’s name gathered from all operational systems and uses a more sophisticated matching algorithm which can overcome variations in names (Latin characters, Chinese or Cyrillic characters etc.)

Conclusion

The company’s transformation from a manual, error-prone compliance process to an automated, streamlined system has significantly enhanced the efficiency and overall quality of its operations. By partnering with Ulpia Tech and leveraging advanced tools like Reltio MDM and E2Open, the company not only enhanced its compliance capabilities but also ensured data consistency across its global operations.

This case study highlights the importance of integrating modern data management solutions to tackle complex regulatory requirements and improve operational efficiency. The company’s success story serves as an inspiration for other companies facing similar challenges in today’s dynamic regulatory landscape.