Vienna’s Public Transport Operator Enhances Its Business Intelligence Solution with Fiplana to Streamline Planning and Forecasting.
Vienna’s public transport operator is optimizing its planning and forecasting processes by extending its Qlik Sense business intelligence solution with Fiplana. This enables users to edit data directly within the interface and write it back to the PostgreSQL database—without relying on additional tools such as Excel—simplifying administration and significantly increasing the adoption of Qlik Sense across the organization.
Project at a Glance
Industry: Transport & Logistics
Challenge
Lack of a capability to edit data directly within the Qlik Sense business intelligence platform.
Data Sources
PostgreSQL database containing data from SAP, Oracle, and an Infrastructure Database System (ISDB).
Highlights
- Edit and write back data directly to the PostgreSQL database through the Qlik Sense interface
- Planning and forecasting without the need for additional software such as Excel
- Simplified administration, as all changes are managed within a single Qlik application
- No need to consolidate multiple files, since all users work with the same tool
- Increased adoption of Qlik Sense as a business intelligence platform through simplified data entry, editing, and commenting capabilities
“With Fiplana, we can automate our processes and make planning and forecasting significantly more efficient.”
— Alexandra Eckelhart, Senior Business Intelligence Expert, Wiener Linien
Driving the Future with Data
Wiener Linien is the municipal public transport operator of Vienna and part of Wiener Stadtwerke. As Austria’s largest mobility provider, it transports more than two million passengers every day across 161 subway, bus, and tram lines, ensuring fast, safe, and reliable mobility throughout the city.
Digitalization has been a strategic priority at Wiener Linien for several years. The organization follows a data-driven approach, aiming to make efficient and effective decisions based on high-quality data, leverage data sharing for business value, and develop new business models. Among the technologies in use is the AI-powered cloud analytics platform Qlik Sense.
The Missing Piece in Qlik Sense: Data Editing
“What we were missing to fully leverage the value of Qlik Sense as a powerful analytics platform was the ability to edit data directly within Qlik Sense,” explains Alexandra Eckelhart, Senior Business Intelligence Expert at Wiener Linien.
“Making changes manually in Excel and then reloading the data into Qlik Sense did not fit our vision of providing a single source of truth for reporting, analytics, planning, and forecasting. It becomes difficult to keep track of changes and manage multiple file versions. In addition, files are often stored locally and are therefore not accessible to all data consumers.”
Why Fiplana Stood Out
Alexandra Eckelhart already knew from previous experience that technical solutions for editing and writing data back to Qlik Sense existed. In an earlier role within the chemical industry, she had successfully implemented a highly integrated platform based on Qlik Sense and Fiplana (formerly Write!), enabling centralized analysis, reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and collaboration across multiple source systems.
“We tested two additional tools, but neither came close to the capabilities of Fiplana,” says Alexandra Eckelhart.
Fiplana offers a comprehensive range of features for editing data directly within Qlik Sense. Users can create, modify, and comment on data entries directly in the interface and write data back to various database systems.
“Additional advantages of Fiplana included features such as change history tracking, flexible input forms with free-text fields, dropdown menus, and checkboxes,” she explains. “And from a cost perspective, Fiplana was also very convincing.”
Use Cases: Planning, Forecasting, and Data Quality Improvement
Only a few weeks passed between implementation and production deployment.
“Fiplana is a very user-friendly solution,” says Alexandra Eckelhart. “It was also beneficial that I already had prior experience with the platform.”
The INFORM DataLab team supported Wiener Linien throughout the rollout by providing technical assistance, demo tutorials, user training, and dedicated feedback sessions.
Today, Fiplana is used across controlling, IT, security management, operational planning, and innovation teams. Around 27 employees use the Qlik Sense extension for planning, forecasting, and improving data quality.
“One example is our Qlik-based safety application, where Fiplana is used in combination with a machine learning model. The machine learning model learns from the adjustments we make through Fiplana,” explains Alexandra Eckelhart.
The organization benefits from having all relevant data available, editable, and commentable within a single source of truth that supports both analytical and planning activities.
“For me, the greatest advantages are more efficient planning and forecasting, the ability to comment directly on data within Qlik Sense, and the use of Fiplana together with machine learning to improve data quality,” says Alexandra Eckelhart.
“Fiplana also provides users with a more engaging BI experience. They can actively make changes and immediately see updated visualizations without waiting for updates from other data sources. This has been a major contributor to the acceptance of our digital transformation initiatives.”
In the future, Wiener Linien plans to expand its use of Fiplana further, including additional use cases such as repair and maintenance analysis.
