Fortum electricity retail business more data-driven with Solita Agile Data Engine solution

Quick and flexible data for business

The focus was on getting data for business use more quickly. The business needs of Fortum are constantly changing, and the data warehouse needs to be able to adapt to these changes flexibly, but also in a controlled manner. This is why the new data warehouse was designed to be scalable and cost-effective cloud solution that can support real-time functions, such as reports for business. It was also important to create a new kind of architecture and operating model that will support the agile development of new business and services, as well as allowing quick experimentation.

Agile Data Engine speeds up operations in a cloud-based data warehouse

We began building Fortum’s new data warehouse with our Agile Data Engine (ADE) development and operating platform. ADE is intended for the implementation and operation of cloud-based data warehouses. It uses the DataOps model to automate repeating steps, allowing changes to be introduced in the production environment at a quick pace. ADE introduces a shared company data model where data from multiple sources can be integrated and modelled, allowing for easy and quick solutions to be built according to the needs of different units and functions. At Fortum, ADE is tasked with integrating data generated in various data silos into a unified and coherent whole for business use.

Challenging project completed on schedule

The project was challenging from the start. Fortum had no previous experience with cloud-based data warehouse architecture. The schedule for the project had been set in advance, and it was absolute. The nature of the project highlighted the strengths of ADE: when you need to use your data quickly without losing quality while keeping different environments up to date, ADE is second to none when it comes to enhancing data integration. ADE made it possible to bring the services required for the cloud-based data platform online quickly without the need for complicated custom DevOps solutions, allowing everyone to focus on improving the data content.

While working with Fortum, we were operating three solution environments – development, testing and production – so that we could prepare for production from early on in the project. The Fortum base system was adopted in the spring of 2018, and by the end of the summer, over 200 changes or updates had been made to the system. If we had not been able to make these adjustments so quickly, the business-critical reporting function would have dragged behind when the base system was adopted.

Focus from performance to producing value

The new solution made Fortum’s reporting process move much more quickly: a long-term forecast and euro sum audits can now be made over 85 % faster.

ADE allows us to focus on what is important – producing value. We do not have to think about the release process when everything works automatically. This has given us a clear structure and sped up our whole process.

– Ville Viitanen, Manager, Fortum

With AWS cloud-based solutions volumes of data, like Fortum’s annual 10 billion rows of measurement data, can be processed much more quickly and cost-effectively than in conventional on-premises environments.

Future data capability quickly and cost-effectively

Fortum’s new warehouse for electricity data lays a strong foundation for the management of ever-increasing volumes of data. It allows the company to meet changing business needs better and ensures high-quality data for building new services. Combining modern software development methods and expertise in data-intensive systems, ADE brings a new capability to Fortum: DataOps. With enhanced workflow and a shorter turnaround time for changes, business value can be extracted from data more quickly, and genuine iterative development becomes possible. Data from multiple sources is now combined into one whole that serves as a foundation for quick and easy creation of different services while maintaining a sustainable data architecture, giving Fortum increased data capability.

ADE also simplifies the work of data professionals by combining features from conventional separate tools (modelling, ETL) and automating steps in implementation and commissioning. The amount of manual work and dependence on individuals is reduced considerably.