How a PE-Backed Manufacturer Freed 200+ Analyst Hours a Quarter

A PE-backed precision optics and photonics manufacturer ran ~15 disconnected SAP instances. Ideas2IT unified them onto one governed platform, freeing 200+ analyst hours a quarter.

200+ hrs/qtr

Freed from manual aggregation

6–12 months

Implementation Time

Murali Vivekanandan

President

Ideas2IT Technologies

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The Challenge

The company grew through acquisition, and every business it bought arrived with its own SAP instance. Roughly 15 ran independently, most of them unintegrated, alongside Microsoft-based systems and hundreds of PL/SQL stored procedures, each producing its own numbers in isolation. The result was an organization that could not see its own data: any enterprise-wide view had to be assembled by hand, and consolidated reporting happened only once a quarter, months out of date by the time leadership saw it. Procurement and Sales had stopped waiting on central analytics and were funding their own Microsoft BI tools. The board had the budget and conviction to deploy AI, but with no single source of truth and no governed data an AI model could trust, every AI initiative stalled before it could start.

What They Built

Ideas2IT took over the reporting operation from the California-based team within six weeks, then rebuilt the estate on a single governed platform on SAP Datasphere with BW. The roughly 15 SAP instances and the Microsoft-based systems were unified into one place behind one semantic layer. MigratiX, Ideas2IT's agentic data migration platform, profiled every source system, mapped schema relationships and business logic with confidence scoring, generated transformation scripts from an internal knowledge base, and ran dry runs against real source data before cutover, taking roughly 80% of the manual effort out of the migration. More than 50 SAP Business Objects reports were consolidated into Power BI with role-based access and row-level security, and reusable data products replaced one-off datasets, including a Purchasing Spend Analytics cube for indirect (MRO) procurement. Every dataset was governed, documented, and certified so an AI model could consume it, with procurement spend optimization scoped as the first AI use case.

Ideas2IT took over the California team's reporting operation within six weeks, then rebuilt the estate on a single governed platform using SAP Datasphere with BW. Roughly 15 SAP instances and the surrounding Microsoft systems were unified behind one semantic layer the whole company could read from. MigratiX, Ideas2IT's agentic data migration platform, did the heavy lifting: it profiled every source system, mapped schema and business logic with confidence scoring, generated transformation scripts from an internal knowledge base, and ran dry runs against real data before any cutover. That took roughly 80% of the manual effort out of a migration normally done by hand. More than 50 SAP Business Objects reports were consolidated into Power BI behind the new semantic layer, with role-based access and row-level security, and reusable data products replaced one-off datasets, including a purchasing spend analytics cube that gave procurement cross-enterprise visibility for the first time. Every dataset was governed, documented, and certified, the step that separates a reporting platform from one an AI model can trust. Procurement spend optimization is now scoped as the first AI use case.

AI Role

Ideas2IT's agentic MigratiX platform profiles source systems, maps schema and business logic with confidence scoring, and generates transformation scripts, automating roughly 80% of the migration.

Infrastructure

SAP Datasphere with BW • Power BI (semantic layer, role-based access, row-level security) • MigratiX agentic migration platform • Power Query and Dataflows • Azure Data Services and on-premise SAP BW warehouse

Integration Points

MigratiX profiles ~15 SAP source systems and maps schema and business logic • Transformation scripts generated and dry-run against real data before cutover • 50+ SAP Business Objects reports consolidated into Power BI • Reusable data products (e.g. purchasing spend analytics cube) on one semantic layer

Impact

200+ analyst hours freed per quarter

Manual aggregation across ~15 systems is gone, moving that capacity from assembling numbers to working with them. (Estimated)

~80% of data accuracy problems eliminated

A shared semantic layer replaced conflicting figures from a dozen disconnected systems, closing most of the gap that forced manual reconciliation. (Estimated)

Quarterly to weekly reporting

Leadership now gets a consolidated cross-business-unit view in time to act on it, not months after the fact.

Technology Utilized

Implementation Complexity

Cost Reduction

Time Savings

Best Fit For

PE-backed manufacturers and multi-site companies that grew through acquisition and now run a sprawl of disconnected data systems with no enterprise view. Most relevant where consolidated reporting still takes weeks or months, where business units have started buying their own BI tools to compensate, and where there is appetite to build toward AI but no data foundation under it yet.

Murali Vivekanandan

President

Ideas2IT Technologies

Ideas2IT is an AI engineering partner that helps companies modernize legacy systems and ship production AI, from agentic platforms and governed data estates to generative and document AI.

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Industry:

Manufacturing & Industrial

Business Function:

Operations

Supply Chain & Procurement

Company Size:

5,001+

Project Cost:

Cost not disclosed

Ownership:

Private Equity-Backed

Organization Type:

Private Company

AI Pattern:

AI-Accelerated Custom Software

Data Synthesis & Reporting

Process Automation (RPA + AI)

Value Type:

Cost Reduction

Time Savings

Frequently Asked Questions

How did a PE-backed manufacturer free 200+ analyst hours a quarter with AI?

The experts unified roughly 15 disconnected SAP instances and surrounding Microsoft systems onto a single governed platform behind one semantic layer, using an agentic data migration platform to automate about 80% of the migration. Consolidated, certified reporting replaced hand-assembled spreadsheets, freeing more than 200 analyst hours a quarter (estimated).

What AI tools and approach were used to unify the SAP estate?

An agentic data migration platform (MigratiX) profiled every source system, mapped schema and business logic with confidence scoring, generated transformation scripts, and ran dry runs against real data before cutover, automating roughly 80% of the migration. The estate was rebuilt on SAP Datasphere with BW, with more than 50 reports consolidated into Power BI behind a governed semantic layer.

What results did the manufacturer achieve?

More than 200 analyst hours a quarter were freed from manual aggregation, an estimated 80% of data-accuracy problems were eliminated by a shared semantic layer, and consolidated cross-business-unit reporting moved from quarterly to weekly (figures estimated where noted).

How long did it take to see results?

The experts took over the reporting operation within about six weeks, then rebuilt the estate on a single governed platform, with procurement spend optimization now scoped as the first AI use case on the new foundation.

Who is this data-unification approach best for?

PE-backed manufacturers and multi-site companies that grew through acquisition and now run a sprawl of disconnected data systems with no enterprise view, especially where consolidated reporting still takes weeks, business units have started buying their own BI tools, and there is appetite for AI but no data foundation under it.

Originally published by

Ideas2IT