PPC: Accelerates its digital transformation through collaboration with Microsoft and Witside

PPC took an important step in its digital transformation journey, completing the project of automating data transfer from the company’s source systems to the Cloud, utilizing Microsoft technologies and the support of WITSIDE.

With the completion of the project, PPC is releasing amazing possibilities for its operational departments and employees, as it offers them, in real time, unhindered access to the entire range of the company’s data.

More specifically, the project accelerates the development of solutions that help change corporate culture by democratizing data, operating efficiency, developing innovation, reducing the environmental footprint, and providing better services to the company’s customers and partners.

Mr. Konstantinos ZagalikisGroup Chief Technology & Information Officer of PPC, said: “PPC sets high goals and innovates in the implementation of its digital transformation. On this journey we are happy to have partners who listen to our wishes and implement our vision. In this particular project we set an almost ‘impossible’ goal with time and technology constraints that were overcome and demonstrated the organization’s ability to lead in the data space. The follow-up will be just as dynamic, enhancing the customer experience and helping to improve the organization’s business operations.”

Ms Gianna AndronopoulouSales Director, Enterprise Segment of Microsoft Greece, Cyprus and Malta, said:

“Advanced data analytics technologies are rapidly changing the way businesses operate, and today there isn’t a single company that isn’t evaluating how to use them securely, quickly, and simply. At Microsoft, we’re focused on making it easier for our customers to adopt advanced analytics technologies data, ensuring that executives responsible for decision-making rely on optimally analyzed and visualized information, so that more effective decision-making is achieved for their operations or for the development of their new products and services. We are very excited that the PPC is committed to becoming a data driven organization through the partnership with WITSIDE, and are particularly proud of the speed with which data from SAP IS/U was made available to Azure Data Lake. I look forward to seeing impact this major development will have on their experience of PPC customers, in the optimization of the operational model of the organization as well as in the overall digital transition carried out by the company”.

For the implementation of the project, innovative technologies of the Qlik Data Integration platform were used and innovative techniques were applied that contributed to the rapid implementation of the project with the minimum cost.

The project includes the transfer and integration of data without the use of code, from the company’s source systems (SAP ISU – ERP, EBIL, etc.) to the Microsoft Azure Data Lake and then to the company’s Databricks Delta Lake. The project was carried out by WITSIDE, a Microsoft partner and Qlik representative in Greece, Cyprus, Malta and the Western Balkans, with the full support of PPC and Microsoft.

Mr. Christos PapadopoulosCEO of WITSIDE, said: “When PPC, with whom we have been working for years, asked us to integrate, in real time, data from their production systems in the Cloud, we accepted the challenge and in less than a month, we delivered the pilot project we agreed on. The next step was even more impressive. Two months after the pilot was completed, we integrated the data from SAP ISU and SAP ERP into MS Azure and started synchronizing them in real time. The project progressed with the integration of new sources. PPC thus became the first utility company in Central and SE Europe to offer its operational units the ability to directly exploit the wealth of their data, and we are proud of that.”