About our customer

 
Gewobag is a prominent housing company based in Germany that is owned by the State of Berlin, specializing in the development, management, and rental of residential properties. With a rich history spanning several decades, Gewobag plays a vital role in providing affordable and high-quality housing solutions to individuals and families across the city.
 

Key facts & figures:

Established in 1924

Portfolio of 74,000+ properties

130,000+ tenants

700+ employees

Challenge

 
Gewobag’s group strategy revolves around three core pillars, which include the following:

1. Areas of Growth: With an aim to expand its portfolio to 80,000 apartments by 2033, Gewobag places particular emphasis on the construction of 5,000 new apartments.

 

2. Social Responsibility: Gewobag recognizes the importance of sustainable neighborhood development in fostering social stability. They adopt tailored strategies for each neighborhood and actively engage in initiatives such as assisting refugees and developing the Berliner Leben foundation.

 

3. Climate Protection: Gewobag prioritizes the implementation of innovative concepts to create a green and efficient city. Their comprehensive climate strategy encompasses initiatives like Smart Energy, Smart Home, and Smart Transportation.

As Gewobag pursues this ambitious strategy, a significant challenge arises in effectively managing the growing volume of data generated.

 
In fact, Gewobag realized the critical need to digitize its operations, with a specific focus on managing energy production and distribution data as part of their Smart Energy program. Furthermore, they recognized the importance of adopting robust data management practices to anticipate future needs driven by the increasing number of apartments.

In 2020, Gewobag initiated a data management project, which involved a detailed analysis that identified five main pain points:

(-)  Data sources and relationships: There was a lack of understanding regarding the existing relationships between data assets coming from different sources, as well as difficulty in identifying data responsibilities across the organization. For instance, and despite having the same names, some data assets from different sources could have completely different meanings.

(-)  Data Transparency: The organization identified a lack of knowledge about the existing data within their systems – including its sources, meaning, accessibility, and the responsible parties managing the information.

(-)  Self-service: Despite a strong demand from data teams, Gewobag identified a lack of user-friendly tools to facilitate self-service data access and reporting.

(-)  Data Quality: The absence of data quality indicators posed a risk of utilizing inaccurate data. This lack of trust and confidence in the organization’s data discouraged users from leveraging – incomplete, inconsistently maintained, and obsolete – information.

(-)  Data Analytics: There was a demand for more advanced data analytics capabilities, particularly in areas such as predictive maintenance and forecasting, which are essential in the housing industry.

Consequently, Gewobag identified the data catalog as the optimal solution to address these five challenges and propel their efforts in the right direction.

Solution

 
In response, Gewobag initiated the search for a comprehensive data cataloging solution capable of addressing each of the five main pain points mentioned above. Indeed, a data catalog can effectively resolve these challenges in the following manner:

Data Interrelationships: The data catalog provides a robust capability to map and understand the interrelationships between data assets, as well as clearly identify data responsibilities across the organization.

Data Transparency: Through the data catalog, Gewobag can achieve enhanced data transparency. The synchronized metadata within the catalog displays crucial information about existing data sources, datasets, and reports, providing a comprehensive view of the organization’s data ecosystem.

Data access: Gewobag relies on intuitive tools for data access and reporting. For data analysis, they use Power BI – enabling powerful data visualization and analysis. Additionally, they leverage the data catalog solution for automated data documentation – facilitating easier data access and retrieval.

Data quality: The data catalog serves as a reliable repository for documenting data quality. Gewobag openly and transparently records data quality indicators within the catalog, allowing business users to quickly identify and assess the risks associated with using unreliable data. This encourages a sense of responsibility among data users to document and share high-quality data.

Data literacy: The data catalog serves as an efficient tool for sharing data knowledge within Gewobag. It plays a vital role in increasing data literacy across the organization, particularly through its integration into the training programs for new employees.

Convinced of the benefits brought by a data catalog, Gewobag chose to turn to the Zeenea solution after an in-depth study of the market.

© 2023 Gewobag x Zeenea – System & Infrastructure – Webinar – All rights reserved

Why did Gewobag choose Zeenea?

 
Gewobag selected Zeenea’s Data Discovery Platform and its data catalog solution for six compelling reasons:

Language: Zeenea’s platform is available in German, providing Gewobag with a localized solution.

Connectivity: Zeenea’s connectors enable Gewobag to automatically synchronize and document metadata from essential systems such as SAP ERP, SAP BW & BW4HANA, and Power BI.

Representation of multidimensional cubes: Zeenea’s platform supports the import and documentation of multidimensional cubes, allowing Gewobag to accurately represent and document complex data structures within the catalog.

Flexibility & configurability: Gewobag values the high configurability of Zeenea’s platform, which allows them to create properties and customize their metamodel to fit their specific needs. This flexibility ensures that the catalog aligns precisely with Gewobag’s data management requirements.

User-friendliness & Intuitivity: Zeenea’s data catalog is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive, facilitating easy adoption by both technical and non-technical employees at Gewobag. The platform’s separation between the Studio app, catering to data stewards with more technical expertise, and the Explorer app, focused on delivering a seamless business user experience, further enhances usability.

Teams & Support: Gewobag experienced strong support from dedicated Sales and Customer Success teams at Zeenea right from the beginning. Zeenea’s commitment to understanding and meeting Gewobag’s specific needs throughout the implementation process was instrumental in their decision.