CASE STUDY capital investment as well as the pre-planning normally required and allowed costs to be dialled up and down as requirements change .
Support costs slashed , batch processing reduced to minutes , security reinforced
Working with technology partner Altis Consulting , the Sigma IT team completed the Snowflake deployment during 2021 and the company is rapidly enjoying some significant benefits .
Reynolds said : “ Selecting the right implementation partner with deep Snowflake experience and accelerators was critical in us meeting our tight timelines .
“ We have been able to reduce our on-going support costs by more than 30 % when compared with our previous on-premise infrastructure .
“ Also , our batch processing jobs , which used to take between eight and 10 hours to complete now occurs in just under three hours .”
Snowflake is supporting Sigma ’ s strategy to ‘ build a data-driven tomorrow ’ that supports all staff , partners and customers . Part of this will involve the creation of a dedicated marketplace through which different data sets can be shared within the company as well as with external partners where appropriate .
Reynolds said the company can now truly view its 10 terabytes of data as a valuable asset . This means Sigma can be much more nimble in responding to
OUR BATCH PROCESSING JOBS , WHICH USED TO
TAKE BETWEEN EIGHT AND
10 HOURS TO COMPLETE NOW OCCURS IN JUST UNDER THREE HOURS .
The capability to share data will also deliver benefits to the company . Where appropriate , data can now be much more readily shared with both suppliers and customers , improving efficiency and removing costs .
Sigma is also sharing consolidated and deidentified data with its subsidiary entity company , Nostra Data , to support building better analytics for pharmacies .
The Snowflake platform has also helped Sigma to improve its level of data security . This is an important capability when the company is dealing with large volumes of critical and sensitive healthcare data . changing market conditions while also differentiating itself from the competition .
“ The bottom line is that we are in the business of saving lives ,” Reynolds said . “ We need to be able to reliably deliver critical medicine to those who need them within 24 hours regardless of where they are located in the country . Knowing , understanding and being able to access our data is an important resource that helps to make this capability a reality .” p
Data access anytime , anywhere for a data-driven tomorrow
With the Snowflake Data Cloud now fully operational , Reynolds said Sigma is looking forward to enjoying additional benefits in the future . Overall , the company ’ s aim is to empower all internal teams through the democratization of data . This will be achieved by delivering appropriate and tailored data access anytime , anywhere across the company .
“ We can see that Snowflake gives us a significant opportunity to further improve our business processes ,” he said . “ For example , with increased accuracy in demand forecasting , we can drive substantial savings and improvements to our operations .”
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