Zoutman, a Belgian family-owned company, is committed to delivering high-quality sea salt. Founded by brothers Bart and Peter Sobry, the company annually ships up to 450.000 tonnes of sea salt to over 60 countries worldwide.
Zoutman’s product range includes food-grade salts, salts for water treatment, de-icing salts, agricultural salts, technical salts, and salts for wellness applications. The company emphasises flexibility by offering various grain sizes, additives, and packaging options to meet diverse customer needs.
Zoutman faced significant challenges with reporting and data analytics due to a fragmented data environment. Each department operated with its own reports, relying on different and often inconsistent data sources, such as sales invoices, sales orders, and shipment records. Additionally, discrepancies in date parameters (e.g., calendar year vs. fiscal year) resulted in different answers to the same questions, leading to confusion and inefficiency. The decentralised and inconsistent reporting practices made it difficult to maintain data accuracy, resulting in a time-consuming and error-prone process.
Zoutman adopted a Microsoft-based solution stack, primarily using the “Out-of-the-Box” solution provided by element61. This included the implementation of “Out-of-the-Box” Power BI reports and an Azure Data Lakehouse. The choice of Microsoft technologies ensured seamless integration with existing applications, supporting faster deployment and smoother user adoption.
element61 quickly assessed Zoutman’s needs and proposed a unified data and reporting solution. Within an estimated timeline of four to six months, an Azure Data Lakehouse was established, along with two fully operational Power BI reports, Sales Insights and Finance Insights. This centralisation ensured consistent and accurate reporting across the organisation.
The “Out-of-the-Box” reports were user-friendly and required minimal training. For example, the sales budget, previously managed in Excel and disconnected from the ERP system, is now integrated directly into the reports. This enables real-time visibility into performance against budget by customer and product, delivering valuable insights daily.
The collaboration with element61 was highly effective. All requirements were met, and the proposed solutions significantly improved reporting efficiency and accuracy. Time previously spent building and tweaking reports is now redirected towards analysing data and achieving strategic business goals. The centralised workspace with role-based access made it easy for each employee to find the information relevant to their role. For example, sales representatives can access sales reports without seeing finance data.
The integration with element61’s “Out-of-the-Box” solution surfaced key KPIs that had previously relied on separate Excel files, offering daily insights with minimal manual effort. As a result, Zoutman can make faster, data-driven decisions and plans to continue its digital transformation with element61.