Vodafone Portugal: Seamless Migration to Cloud-Based Online Analytical Processing

The Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) cubes migration project emerged as part of the Vodafone Nucleus program, an ambitious initiative to consolidate analytics platforms across Vodafone's global offices.

CSPs face several challenges in today’s digital world, including managing and analysing vast amounts of data from diverse sources, maintaining data governance to ensure consistency and trust, and delivering real-time insights to support decision-making. Additionally, as CSPs migrate to cloud-native solutions, they must address the complexity and cost of modernising legacy systems while ensuring scalability and performance.

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) is a technology that allows businesses to analyse multidimensional data interactively, helping uncover trends, correlations, and insights. OLAP systems are often used for business intelligence applications, where quick and accurate reporting is essential for informed decision-making.

The Challenge

Vodafone Portugal’s on-premises OLAP system struggled with Big Data demands, cloud integration, and governance, creating unmanaged data silos and inefficiencies in metric definitions. Reliance on costly third-party connectors and outdated processes hindered timely insights and escalated maintenance costs. To address these challenges, transitioning to a scalable, cloud-native analytics solution became critical for meeting current and future business needs.

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The Solution

Celfocus and AtScale implemented a modern analytics solution for Vodafone Portugal using AtScale’s Universal Semantic Layer on Google Cloud Platform. The migration from SSAS to AtScale replicated OLAP structures, ensuring a seamless transition for users relying on multidimensional analysis.

Celfocus managed all phases of the project, from assessment to deployment, integrating the solution with Vodafone’s ecosystem while addressing technical and business needs. This approach delivered advanced analytics capabilities and ensured smooth collaboration with stakeholders throughout the process.

AtScale provided several critical features that transformed Vodafone’s analytics ecosystem. One of its core functionalities was the ability to support both SQL and MDX-based tools, such as Excel, enabling analysts to continue using familiar interfaces without requiring extensive retraining.

Benefits

The OLAP cubes migration project delivered transformative benefits across multiple dimensions, positioning Vodafone Portugal for success in a cloud-first, data-driven future:

Faster Decision-Making: Reduced processing times from 3 hours to 45 minutes with real-time data access.
Cost Optimisation: Reduced BigQuery and manual costs while eliminating SSAS connector expenses.
Enhanced Data Governance: Centralised metrics ensured consistent, error-free reporting.
User Empowerment & Satisfaction: Enabled self-service analytics without extensive IT support.
Scalability & Future-Readiness: Seamlessly scaled to manage growing data and new domains.

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Nuno Heitor, Head of Data & Analytics at Vodafone Portugal highlights that “Vodafone PT D&A team has successfully leveraged the use of AtScale, in collaboration with Celfocus, to enhance our daily operations and Financial Month End Close process. This implementation has significantly empowered all our Financial, Operational, and Business units. They now have the capability to access and analyse extensive data sets, streamlining daily workflows and enabling quicker decision-making.”

Project in a nutshell