DEHN SE is a textbook example of a hidden champion—family-owned since 1910, operating in a niche market, highly specialized, and solution-oriented. The company’s products are used worldwide in sectors such as plant and telecommunications engineering, process industries, and photovoltaic and wind power systems. With solutions for lightning, surge, and occupational safety, more than 2,300 DEHN employees globally ensure the protection of people, buildings, equipment, and systems of all kinds.

The DEHN headquarters in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz. (DEHN)

Customer and Market Orientation as a Foundation for Success

The company’s lasting success is built on a strong customer and market focus, which is now being further enhanced through targeted data use. “We knew there were still many business potentials in our data,” says Tim Koesler. “However, there was no central point in the company to correlate the various sources. We used multiple solutions to analyze our data, but unified, cross-departmental KPIs with future-ready analytics are crucial for corporate management—and ultimately for customer satisfaction.”
Consequently, management decided to build an entirely new data platform. Moving to the cloud was a logical step: “High scalability and easy connection of new data sources were important. We wanted not only a foundation for unified, high-performance reporting across all subsidiaries but also the potential to implement AI and real-time analytics use cases in the future.”

Data Strategy Assessment as Project Kickoff

The first task was to find a partner with sufficient expertise to define a functioning cloud architecture from scratch. “There was an almost endless task list that needed to be converted into a goal-oriented approach,” explains Tim Koesler. After evaluating various providers, ORAYLIS was selected, with a Data Strategy Assessment providing the foundation for the right data strategy.
The first step was a kick-off meeting, followed by strategy development. Based on DEHN’s requirements, the target architecture was defined, technical challenges and potential use cases were clarified, and a concrete cost and resource estimate for the technical infrastructure and reporting was prepared. “I can only recommend this approach to any company with similar projects,” says Tim Koesler.

Modern Data Warehouse as Technological Foundation

The target architecture is a Modern Data Warehouse (MDWH) in the Microsoft Azure Cloud, aligning with DEHN’s existing Microsoft-based systems. “The existing components can be easily migrated into our proven cloud architecture,” explains Martin van Husen, Senior Consultant and Technical Project Manager at ORAYLIS. “The core element is Azure Synapse Analytics, which handles data integration, data warehousing, and big data analytics. On this foundation, we can tailor the new solution to DEHN’s needs and scale it flexibly.”

Martin van Husen guided the project from a technical perspective. (ORAYLIS)

Future scalability is a major advantage. The MDWH can be easily extended with additional Azure Cloud services as new business requirements arise. New data sources can also be integrated seamlessly. Standard connectors are available for third-party technologies such as SAP databases. “Consequently, the effort for deployment is minimal. Only the migration of data load processes requires significant work; everything else runs mostly automatically.”
The MDWH concept also introduces significant changes for the frontend. The old QlikView landscape is largely replaced by Power BI as the modern standard tool for data analysis. The goal is to expand user access, allowing as many employees as possible to work with data. Power BI integrates directly with the familiar Office 365 interface, enabling employees to quickly gain a comprehensive view of data and analyses worldwide. Every department at DEHN benefits from this, as do customers.

Data-Driven Decisions Across the Organization

The company-wide analytics platform has had a positive impact on business operations. It provides a reliable, integrated data foundation that enables DEHN to make data-driven decisions at all levels and in all areas, strengthening customer relationships. “Even now, we are faster and more efficient in implementing data-driven requirements. In the medium term, DEHN aims to implement real-time monitoring of machine data to continuously optimize production processes and capacity planning,” concludes Tim Koesler.

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