CUSTOMER STORY // ARMSCOR

ARMSCOR Standardizes Data Acquisition and Processing

South African defense procurement specialist cuts critical reporting times from weeks to hours.

Four fighter jets are flying in formation against a clear blue sky.

Hours

To produce reports that previously took weeks

Unified

Source of truth instead of separate reports for each process

CHALLENGE

Enabling a vital public sector organization

While procuring state-of-the art defense equipment is its primary responsibility, ARMSCOR is also keenly aware that it is an important hub in public sector finances. In 2021, it realized that its disparate environment of legacy finance systems was preventing it from delivering on its responsibilities with the efficiency it wanted.

Dirty data and undocumented processes led to inaccuracies, inconsistencies, misinterpretation and lack of trust in the numbers, leading to ineffective analysis and considerable delays.

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APPROACH

Taking control of the numbers

ARMSCOR issued a tender outlining basic criteria such as ease of use, scalability and the flexibility to cover multiple areas of operation.

South Africa-based data specialist Insight Consulting proposed Qlik Sense® and Qlik NPrinting, offering a full and sustainable package, including important data integration capabilities.

ARMSCOR saw that Qlik Sense offered the interpretation and analysis capabilities it needed, while also able to acquire data from across its diverse IT environment.

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RESULTS

Consolidated reporting generates trust

The transition to Qlik was a huge leap forward. Processes that once took weeks are now completed in hours, with report distribution handled automatically by Qlik NPrinting. Cumbersome spreadsheet-based processes in areas such as stakeholder reporting have also been transferred to Qlik.

With Qlik accessing data from multiple systems in near-real time, ARMSCOR is no longer tied to separate reports for each process. Consolidated and visually appealing management reports are now available weekly, delivering insights across the organization.

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WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

Information at your fingertips

Qlik’s adoption has changed attitudes at ARMSCOR, promoting data literacy across the organization and generating interest from other functions. With Qlik, data has gone from being a source of mistrust to an enabler of real and positive change – and without requiring a full system overhaul.

Qlik solutions can also act as a roadmap for other parts of an organization. They can highlight how improved processes can be relatively simple to implement access but also enable an extensive range of benefits and exciting use cases.

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Trust in the data is critical. With Qlik, I’m comfortable that I don’t have to go through multiple other systems to check its quality and accuracy.

Zimasa Fayo
Business Intelligence Manager, ARMSCOR
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