As a sponsor of the North American Dealer Information Technology (NADITA) conference for the fourth consecutive year, Cherry Bekaert continues to champion the future of innovative technology solutions and strategic foresight for businesses.
The NADITA conference was a significant stage for Cherry Bekaert Digital Advisory, one that highlighted our position as thought leaders and embodied the Firm’s mission to craft innovative paths and shared success. Amid the evolving narrative of data architecture and governance, our professionals touched on applying forward-thinking solutions for the technology challenges Caterpillar dealers face.
One of these solutions included offline Power Apps, an indispensable tool developed by Cherry Bekaert Digital Advisory for dealers operating in remote areas where connectivity may be limited, including demanding sites like mines and quarries.
“Our presentations and conversations at NADITA centered on our solutions with clear returns on investment. By tackling tech debt, preparing dealers for enterprise resource planning (ERP) integration, and excelling in data governance, we presented a compelling value proposition that captivated the interest of existing customers and accelerated conversations with new members,” said Eric Eklund, Business Development Director at Cherry Bekaert.
Unified Reporting Framework: A Path to Enhanced Decision-Making
Cherry Bekaert's presentation at the NADITA conference highlighted the transformative impact of establishing a unified reporting framework for dealers transitioning to Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (F&O), a suite of applications from Microsoft designed to help businesses manage their financials and operations more efficiently.
Dealers can achieve a comprehensive data view across various functions by integrating Microsoft Azure, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric and Power Platform solutions. The framework highlighted below includes a hybrid data migration process that leverages a modern extract, load and transform (ELT) process over a legacy extract, transform, load (ETL) approach:
Hybrid Migration Strategy
Migrate five years of operational data directly to Dynamics, while archiving older ERP records in Azure SQL Database — a cost-effective solution with database transaction units (DTU)-based pricing for long-term storage. This process is important because archived data can be valuable for analyzing trends and making informed business decisions based on historical performance.
Cost-Optimized Data Orchestration
Use Azure Data Factory for lightweight orchestration of legacy ERP data transfers, avoiding expensive transformation workloads in favor of streamlined ELT pipelines. Additionally, lightweight orchestration solutions are easier to scale, allowing businesses to adapt quickly to changing data volumes and requirements.
Modern ELT Over Legacy ETL
Leverage Azure Databricks (for granular control) or Microsoft Fabric (for integrated TSQL compatibility) to transform raw data post-loading, enabling real-time analytics on merged historical and operational data sets. Post-load transformation can include comprehensive data cleansing and enrichment processes, delivering higher data quality for analysis.
“Once the framework is in place, dealers can build compliance-ready financial dashboards and equipment lifecycle reports using Fabric’s Direct Lake mode, which queries data directly from OneLake without duplication, ensuring near-real-time insights,” remarked Eklund.
This unified framework cuts migration timelines by 50%, enabling dealers to better avoid data gaps, data loss, or data corruption when migrating from on-premises or legacy ERPs. This cohesive strategy simplifies reporting, enhances efficiency and improves decision-making processes. Dealers are empowered to respond quickly to emerging market needs and operational hurdles, providing a smooth shift into modern data practices.
Risk Mitigation and Scalability: Securing Future Growth
In addition to a unified framework, the Cherry Bekaert team also addressed risk mitigation pertaining to cloud migration. Moving to cloud solutions requires careful navigation of potential risks related to data security and system scalability.
Additionally, with many dealers working with government entities, managing the risks and regulations surrounding the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) data is paramount. CMCC data helps ensure the accuracy of climate data. Inaccurate data can lead to incorrect conclusions and ineffective policies.
Cherry Bekaert offered a strategic approach designed to mitigate these risks, including:
- Preserve Legacy data integrity via Azure SQL’s managed backups and Fabric’s Data Lake architecture
- Scale compute resources dynamically (e.g., pause Azure SQL during off-peak hours) to reduce costs by 30% – 50%
“The hybrid migration strategy enhances system resilience while assuring scalability,” said Eklund. “By future-proofing systems, dealerships can confidently expand operations without being constrained by outdated infrastructure.”
This proactive stance on risk mitigation means that as businesses grow, their technology frameworks evolve accordingly, maintaining coherence and operational efficiency.
Future-Proof Analytics: Unlocking New Potential
Future success lies in harnessing advanced analytics to drive innovation and efficiency. Cherry Bekaert finalized its presentation with a discussion on embedding artificial intelligence (AI) driven maintenance predictions and sales forecasts. Using Databricks ML runtime or Fabric’s Synapse Data Science helps dealers bridge siloed data into actionable intelligence.
Transition to Data-Driven Strategies
Cherry Bekaert’s emphasis on transitioning from traditional ETL processes to a modern ELT approach marks a vital step towards real-time, data-driven strategies. By incorporating Azure Databricks, dealers are empowered to develop a scalable Lakehouse model that transforms their data into an asset for predictive analytics. Leveraging predictive analytics can provide a significant edge over competitors by anticipating market changes, customer behaviors and operational risks.
Additionally, the offline Power Apps solution navigates complex offline data management challenges by managing, scheduling and dispatching industrial equipment in a cloud-based infrastructure, enabling dealers to automate processes, uphold data integrity and achieve real-time visibility in the field. This capability is vital for scenarios such as equipment inspection and sales in remote locations and allows data to be collected and utilized efficiently. To learn more about how Cherry Bekaert modernized manufacturing operations and visibility for Thompson Tractor Company, read our case study.
About NADITA
The annual NADITA conference focuses on advancements, trends and challenges in Caterpillar dealer technology. Held in Orlando, Florida, at the end of April, the conference drew participants from across North America — including delegates from Mexico, Canada and the Dominican Republic, as well as a diverse spectrum of decision makers, from senior information technology (IT) professionals to chief executive officers, chief financial officers and chief information officers.
Contact Us
We invite dealers and NADITA members to engage in a proof-of-concept session with us. Our professionals are here to guide your organization in navigating this transformative journey of managing your data with modern cloud technology. We look forward to hearing from you!
