PZ Cussons transforms data analytics with Microsoft Fabric, improving decision-making and efficiency

PZ Cussons employees were heavily reliant on manual processes and offline reports, and data silos were common. The company wanted to unify its data and provide a comprehensive analytics solution to improve operations.

PZ Cussons deployed Microsoft Fabric and Azure Databricks to ingest and harmonize data from various sources, providing accurate sales, market share, and price data for an initial use case, Revenue Growth Management.

The Microsoft-based solution is providing a single source of truth for data, improving decision-making and increasing efficiency. Employees are adopting the solution enthusiastically because of its ease of use and extensive benefits.

A new data strategy

To grow smartly and sustainably, businesses must have a profound understanding of customers—and this begins with data. International hygiene, baby, and beauty consumer goods company PZ Cussons is dedicated to the wellbeing of people, and to better serve them, the company needed to know customers more completely. Facing data and analytics challenges, PZ Cussons explored technologies to eliminate data silos, improve data quality, and move teams from reliance on manual processes and offline reports to a centralized data platform.

“Companies talk about digital transformation, but there is no digital without data. We began with a blank sheet of paper when we created our digital vision and strategy, and step one was to figure out our data,” says Jawaz Illavia, Chief Information Officer at PZ Cussons.

A bold, pioneering solution

PZ Cussons has a strong relationship with Microsoft and is an early adopter for Microsoft solutions. The company began evaluating Microsoft Fabric as a robust and scalable solution to ground its decision-making processes in data.

“We have a long history of being bold and pioneering, and our size means we can do things more quickly than our larger competitors. We’re using Microsoft technology to tackle today’s challenges with tomorrow’s thinking,” Illavia adds.

Deploying Microsoft Fabric as the front-end experience and Azure Databricks as the back-end architecture, PZ Cussons is ingesting and harmonizing data from various sources, providing accurate sales, market share, and price data for an initial use case, Revenue Growth Management(RGM).

“We’re using Azure Databricks as the data transformation and storage engine for the data platform,” says Richard Sharkey, Head of Data Analytics and AI at PZ Cussons. “Azure Databricks prepares the data to load into Fabric for downstream consumption in various experiences within Fabric, as we look to meet the users at their needs in terms of democratization and tooling.”

The new data platform is delivering important insights. “Every consumer goods company needs to understand pricing strategy,” says Sharkey. “We’re exploring the effects of price changes and competitor pricing, alternate promotions, and more. Data and analytics drive the answers to those questions.”

PZ Cussons is taking the lessons learned from the initial use case to optimize its business units for growth and develop consistent frameworks to understand its brands at a global level.

“Microsoft Fabric is a very user-focused platform that’s helping break down the barriers between business users and technology data teams. It’s also speeding up what took days managing segments with different systems and multiple spreadsheets,” says Sharkey.

Microsoft Fabric is a very user-focused platform that’s helping break down the barriers between business users and technology data teams.

Richard Sharkey, Head of Data Analytics and AI, PZ Cussons

The company plans to fully adopt all Microsoft Fabric experiences, with Azure Data Factory bringing in data from various sources and OneLake serving as a scalable and efficient lakehouse. Also, PZ Cussons is using Fabric Copilot, bringing AI capabilities to analytics and reporting.

“We’re using Copilot to create executive summaries for our board, which is part of our adoption and maturity strategy. Producing analysis and recommendations at an executive level, demonstrating we know our data, and taking steps to better use the full power of Copilot is making our lives easier,” says Illavia.

The right products for the job

The deployment of Microsoft technologies has had a transformative impact on PZ Cussons’s business, employees, and customers. “With Fabric, we have easy-to-use tools that eliminate data silos and let teams focus on impactful work rather than data processing,” says Gurpreet Bhinder, Global Revenue Growth Management Director at PZ Cussons. “We’ve seen great employee adoption because the Fabric solution offers single sign-on for most systems, facilitates improved decision-making, and increases efficiency.”

“Fabric is one of the only data and analytics products that can deliver a consistent experience,” adds Sharkey. “No matter the role, we’re all working from the same version of truth. We’re pursuing AI readiness, so when each new use case emerges, we’ve already been thinking about it, and we’re ready to get started.”

The integrated, scalable Fabric-based data platform has enhanced operational efficiency and ensured PZ Cussons is future-ready, building increasingly personalized experiences and ensuring brand loyalty.