Nordex Group is a global leader in wind turbine manufacturing and project delivery, powering renewable energy initiatives across multiple continents. The company faced a complex challenge: critical wind turbine project data and financial data was fragmented across SAP, Excel, and SharePoint, creating isolated “islands” of information. This landscape involved thousands of data points managed by diverse teams, requiring extensive manual effort to consolidate and often resulting in outdated or inconsistent reports. Expert Extend partnered with Nordex to solve this complexity by engineering a centralized, cloud-based data platform. Through automated data integration and real-time dashboards, we unified Nordex’s reporting landscape—enabling faster, more accurate decisions and setting a new standard for project management excellence.
Partnering with Expert Extend on our project has been a game-changer for our business. Their expertise in data analytics and visualization has transformed the way we understand our data and make informed decisions. Their commitment to excellence and ability to tailor solutions to our unique needs have been awe-inspiring. Thanks to Expert Extend, we’re now harnessing the full power of our data for success.
C Gaertner
Vice President Project Support Global PM/EPC
More than 20 projects executed in the Wind Energy Sector in the last 3 years.
Strong combination of wind energy business understanding, technology capability as well as quality-focused delivery
Functional Exposure to topics such as windfarm monitoring, Inspections, Projects, Finance, Logistics, Service Provider monitoring, Spare Parts management, Wind turbine logistics, etc.
High Customer Satisfaction - Follow-up engagements and recommendations constitute more than 90% of the projects
Nordex Group faced significant challenges with their wind turbine project data & operational data scattered across SAP, Excel, and SharePoint, making it difficult to get a clear and unified view of business activities. This fragmented data landscape slowed down decision-making, reduced efficiency, & limited Nordex’s ability to respond quickly to business needs.
Nordex's operational foundation relied on three separate systems that functioned independently rather than as an integrated whole. SAP handled enterprise resource planning, Excel spreadsheets were distributed across shared and local drives, and SharePoint served as document repositories. This fragmentation created significant operational friction, as teams constantly needed to switch between platforms to piece together complete project information.
The lack of integration meant that a single project update might require accessing multiple systems, cross-referencing different data sources, and manually verifying information accuracy. This approach was not only time-consuming but also introduced multiple points where errors could occur.
Across Nordex's global operations, skilled professionals dedicated substantial portions of their workday to manually consolidating information from various sources. This manual approach meant that valuable expertise was being diverted from strategic activities to routine data assembly tasks.
The reliance on Excel files stored across different locations created version control challenges. Teams often struggled to determine which file contained the most current information, leading to confusion and potential decision-making based on outdated data.
In the wind energy industry, project coordination requires precise timing and real-time awareness of project status. Turbine installations must align with weather conditions, grid connections need to meet regulatory schedules, and deliveries must fulfill contractual commitments. However, Nordex's operations teams lacked the real-time visibility necessary to manage these complex, time-sensitive activities effectively.
Project status updates often reflected past events rather than current conditions, creating dangerous gaps between field reality and management reporting. This information lag made it difficult to respond quickly to changing conditions or emerging project issues.
Nordex's executive leadership needed comprehensive, current information to navigate the rapidly evolving renewable energy landscape. However, the fragmented data environment made it challenging to maintain a clear view of operations across different regions and business units.
The absence of unified reporting meant that strategic decisions often had to be made based on incomplete or outdated information. This limitation was particularly problematic when evaluating time-sensitive market opportunities that required quick assessment and response.
Finance teams struggled to create reliable forecasts and perform accurate project analysis when underlying data was inconsistent or difficult to access. The fragmented systems made it challenging to benchmark current projects against historical performance, limiting the ability to identify trends and optimize future project planning.
Commercial and P&L data inconsistencies undermined confidence in financial projections, making it difficult to support strategic business decisions with reliable financial analysis.
The existing data landscape suffered from significant quality issues, including inconsistencies, missing values, and duplicate records. These problems were compounded by incomplete documentation of existing data structures, which made it difficult to understand data relationships and dependencies.
When integration efforts were attempted, these quality issues created substantial additional work, requiring extensive data cleansing and validation before meaningful analysis could be performed.
Teams had developed efficient workflows around Excel-based reporting over many years. Transitioning to new systems required not only technical implementation but also significant change management to help users adapt to different processes and interfaces.
The familiarity with existing tools created natural resistance to change, requiring careful planning and support to ensure successful adoption of new approaches.
These individual challenges combined to create a compound effect that limited Nordex's operational agility and competitive positioning. While the company possessed strong technical capabilities and market expertise, their information infrastructure couldn't support the speed and precision required for optimal performance in dynamic markets.
The fragmented approach essentially created an operational ceiling that constrained growth potential and limited the organization's ability to leverage their full capabilities. Teams could work around individual system limitations, but the cumulative effect of multiple inefficiencies made it difficult to achieve the operational excellence that Nordex's market position and ambitions demanded.
To address the critical challenge of fragmented data across SAP, SharePoint, and standalone Excel files, Expert Extend engineered a unified and scalable data ecosystem for Nordex’s Global Wind Turbine Project Management department. The solution centered on creating a centralized "single source of truth" by implementing a modern data platform on Microsoft Azure.
Our team architected an Azure SQL Data Warehouse to consolidate disparate information, building automated ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipelines with Azure Data Factory to ensure seamless, real-time data integration. To bring this data to life, we developed a suite of interactive Power BI dashboards tailored to the specific needs of stakeholders—from executives to operations teams. The solution was further enhanced with Power Apps, providing a user-friendly interface for frontline teams to interact with and update data directly, thus closing the loop between insight and action. This strategic implementation transformed their disconnected data landscape into a governed, reliable, and automated engine for business intelligence.
By implementing a centralized data platform, Nordex converted a previously fragmented data landscape into a powerful strategic asset. This shift has not only driven significant efficiencies and fostered growth but has also provided a crucial competitive edge. The move from inefficient manual processes to an automated data ecosystem now empowers Nordex's teams with reliable, real-time insights, enabling them to take proactive and decisive actions. This fundamental change has eradicated manual inefficiencies, empowered strategic decision-making at all levels, enhanced operational control, and established a scalable, governed data asset. Beyond the quantifiable improvements, this solution has cultivated a robust data-driven culture within Nordex, breaking down data silos and significantly improving cross-functional collaboration.
At Expert Extend, we believe a successful digital transformation is not a one-time transaction but a collaborative evolution. For Nordex, our approach was grounded in our core principles of Agile methodology and a modular, phased implementation. This ensures our solutions are not only technically excellent but also sustainable, cost-effective, and designed to empower our clients for long-term, autonomous success. Our journey with Nordex was structured to deliver incremental value at every stage, providing them with the flexibility to adapt and ensuring the final platform was a perfect fit for their business.
Before writing a single line of code, we began with a deep-dive discovery. Through collaborative workshops with stakeholders from Nordex’s Operations, Finance, and Maintenance teams, we moved beyond the surface-level problem to understand the true business pain points. This foundational step was critical to designing a solution that was not just a technical fix but a strategic enabler, ensuring every subsequent action was aligned with delivering maximum business impact.
Before writing a single line of code, we began with a deep-dive discovery. Through collaborative workshops with stakeholders from Nordex’s Operations, Finance, and Maintenance teams, we moved beyond the surface-level problem to understand the true business pain points. This foundational step was critical to designing a solution that was not just a technical fix but a strategic enabler, ensuring every subsequent action was aligned with delivering maximum business impact.
With a clear vision, our data engineers and cloud architects began constructing the core of the solution: a centralized data ecosystem on Microsoft Azure. We chose this robust and scalable platform to ensure Nordex had a cost-effective and future-proof foundation. Using Azure Data Factory, we engineered sophisticated yet automated ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipelines to seamlessly ingest and unify disparate data from SAP, SharePoint, and countless Excel files. This wasn't just about moving data; it was about meticulously cleansing, standardizing, and structuring it within an Azure SQL Data Warehouse to create the reliable, governed "single source of truth" that Nordex critically needed.
With a clear vision, our data engineers and cloud architects began constructing the core of the solution: a centralized data ecosystem on Microsoft Azure. We chose this robust and scalable platform to ensure Nordex had a cost-effective and future-proof foundation.
Using Azure Data Factory, we engineered sophisticated yet automated ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipelines to seamlessly ingest and unify disparate data from SAP, SharePoint, and countless Excel files. This wasn’t just about moving data; it was about meticulously cleansing, standardizing, and structuring it within an Azure SQL Data Warehouse to create the reliable, governed “single source of truth” that Nordex critically needed.
Our Agile, sprint-based development meant Nordex didn't have to wait until the end of the project to see results. We delivered the solution in functional, modular phases:
1) Initial Value Drop: The first Minimum Viable Product (MVP) focused on delivering a set of core, automated Power BI dashboards to the operations team. Within weeks, they could visualize project status in a way they never could before, immediately validating the project's direction.
2) Iterative Enhancement: With each two-week sprint, we built upon this foundation, adding new data sources, developing more complex analytics, and rolling out functionality to other departments. This iterative process allowed for continuous feedback from Nordex users, ensuring the platform evolved based on their real-world needs.
3) Empowering Action with Power Apps: To close the loop between insight and action, we developed intuitive Power Apps. This enabled frontline teams to input data directly from the field, which instantly updated the dashboards for managers, creating a dynamic and responsive operational workflow.
This modular approach gave Nordex the ultimate flexibility. At the end of each phase, they had a tangible, valuable asset and the liberty to refine the roadmap for the next stage, guaranteeing the project remained perfectly aligned with their business objectives.
Our Agile, sprint-based development meant Nordex didn’t have to wait until the end of the project to see results. We delivered the solution in functional, modular phases:
Initial Value Drop: The first Minimum Viable Product (MVP) focused on delivering a set of core, automated Power BI dashboards to the operations team. Within weeks, they could visualize project status in a way they never could before, immediately validating the project’s direction.
Iterative Enhancement: With each two-week sprint, we built upon this foundation, adding new data sources, developing more complex analytics, and rolling out functionality to other departments. This iterative process allowed for continuous feedback from Nordex users, ensuring the platform evolved based on their real-world needs.
Empowering Action with Power Apps: To close the loop between insight and action, we developed intuitive Power Apps. This enabled frontline teams to input data directly from the field, which instantly updated the dashboards for managers, creating a dynamic and responsive operational workflow.
This modular approach gave Nordex the ultimate flexibility. At the end of each phase, they had a tangible, valuable asset and the liberty to refine the roadmap for the next stage, guaranteeing the project remained perfectly aligned with their business objectives.
Our goal is to make our clients self-sufficient. The final phase focused on a seamless transition and knowledge transfer. We conducted comprehensive training sessions for Nordex's business users and IT teams, providing them with the skills and documentation needed to own, operate, and even extend their new data platform. By implementing continuous monitoring with Azure tools, we delivered a solution that was not only powerful on day one but is built to be managed and optimized by Nordex for years to come.
Our goal is to make our clients self-sufficient. The final phase focused on a seamless transition and knowledge transfer. We conducted comprehensive training sessions for Nordex’s business users and IT teams, providing them with the skills and documentation needed to own, operate, and even extend their new data platform. By implementing continuous monitoring with Azure tools, we delivered a solution that was not only powerful on day one but is built to be managed and optimized by Nordex for years to come.
To solve Nordex’s challenges, Expert Extend engineered a robust, cloud-native data platform on Microsoft Azure. Our architecture was designed not just to solve today’s problems but to provide a scalable and secure foundation for future data-driven initiatives.
Core Technical Components
Orchestrated the extraction, transformation, and loading of data from all sources into the central warehouse.
1. Azure Data Factory : Primary orchestration tool.
2. Databricks : For large-scale processing & cleansing.
3. SAP Connector : For reliable SAP data extraction.
Provided a centralized, structured repository to act as the "single source of truth" for all business data.
1. Azure SQL Database : Enabled high-performance queries for real-time reporting.
Delivered insights to end-users and enabled a closed-loop system for data-driven actions.
1.
Power BI : For interactive dashboards.
2. Power Apps : For user-friendly data interaction.
3. Power Automate : For automating business workflows.
Core Technical Components
The Architectural Blueprint
1) Combines data from SAP, SharePoint, Excel, and other sources into a single, interactive interface.
2) Offers drill-down capabilities to analyze trends at different levels of granularity.
1) Dynamic dashboards tailored for different stakeholders (Operations, Maintenance, Finance, Executives).
2) Row-Level Security (RLS) ensures users only see relevant data.
Combines data from SAP, SharePoint, Excel, and other sources into a single, interactive interface.
Offers drill-down capabilities to analyze trends at different levels of granularity.
Dynamic dashboards tailored for different stakeholders (Operations, Maintenance, Finance, Executives).
Row-Level Security (RLS) ensures users only see relevant data.
1) Power BI-driven self-service analytics allows users to create custom views.
2) Automated alerts & notifications via Power Automate keep teams updated on key metrics.
1) Allows direct input and updates into business workflows.
2) Enhances collaboration and data-driven actions across teams.
Power BI-driven self-service analytics allows users to create custom views.
Automated alerts & notifications via Power Automate keep teams updated on key metrics.
Allows direct input and updates into business workflows.
Enhances collaboration and data-driven actions across teams.
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