Customer Story
Cineplexx New
Insights updated every 15 minutes, optimized staffing & scheduling, and enhanced customer experiences across 500 screens in 12 countries.
C.H. Beck & Exasol
Blending Tradition with Innovation
How C.H.BECK Leverages Data for Success in the Digital Age
Discover how C.H.BECK, one of Germany’s most renowned publishing houses, has been a pioneer in digital transformation within the publishing industry for years. To meet the increasing data volume and growing analytics requirements, C.H.BECK has relied on Exasol’s high-performance solution for over 10 years, enabling efficient data utilization, rapid insights, and increased customer satisfaction.
The benefits:
- Favorable price-performance ratio
- Substantial reduction in query times, enhancing customer support and loyalty as well as significantly boosting employee satisfaction
- Operates smoothly and reliably, requires minimal maintenance, and adapts flexibly to evolving digital demands
Location
Germany
Employees
2,800+
Industry
Publishing
Product
Exasol Data Warehouse
Leading German Publishing House
C.H.BECK, founded in 1763 in Nördlingen, Germany, has grown into a leading publishing house with a significant presence in the legal, tax, and business sectors. With over 250 years of history, the company has successfully balanced tradition with innovation. Currently, C.H.BECK employs over 800 people in Munich and 2,000 across all locations. The company‘s publication volume is impressive, with approximately 9,000 available works, 100 specialist journals, and 1,500 new publications annually, making it one of the most significant book and magazine publishers. C.H.BECK has expanded its reach internationally and is now represented in four European countries. Despite its growth, the company remains family-owned, currently in its 6th and 7th generation of management. In the digital realm, beck-shop.de serves as their primary online platform, showcasing the company‘s commitment to embracing technological advancements.
Transforming Tradition
C.H.BECK has been at the forefront of the digital transformation in the publishing industry, having recognized the importance of offering their content in both print and digital formats early on. One of their notable digital offerings is beck-shop, an online bookstore that focuses on legal, tax, and business publications. In addition to beck-shop, C.H.BECK offers beck-online.DIE DATENBANK, a standalone research platform that provides access to over 49 million documents across approximately 380 modules. This extensive database enables professionals to conduct research efficiently from various locations, such as offices, law firms, home, or while traveling.
The platform provides customers with up-to-date information on current legislative projects and offers personalized recommendations tailored to their specific fields of interest. A wide range of professional groups, such as lawyers, tax advisors, and auditors, benefit from the high-quality content and secure, efficient online access to essential information. This feature has become particularly crucial in the era of remote work and flexible working arrangements, making the database an integral part of many users‘ daily workflows.
Digitalization Has a Long Tradition
Since its introduction in 2001, beck-online.DIE DATENBANK has grown to become the leading online platform for legal practice, research, and education in Germany.
The database contains content from C.H.BECK and approximately 50 other specialized publishers and partners. As a result, beck-online.DIE DATENBANK serves as a robust and progressive information network, making it one of the publishing group‘s most significant product offerings.
C.H.BECK has established itself as a frontrunner in digitalization within the publishing sector. To continue providing the best possible service to its users, the publisher places great emphasis on employing modern solutions for data analysis. In addition to offering personalized recommendations and customized products for customers, data insights act as a valuable information source and a crucial business tool for the company‘s employees. The primary goal is to enable staff to provide customers with the most relevant offerings quickly and efficiently.
High-Performance Solution for the Highest Demands
To effectively manage the growing volume of data and efficiently utilize their own data, C.H.BECK required a data analysis solution capable of processing vast amounts of information and scaling alongside the company’s future needs. Paul Bischoff, Head of K&P Architecture (IT), stated, “Our data generation currently stands at several million data points per month. Our previous solution was reaching its limits, particularly in terms of query speed. To offer our customers appropriate solutions and prepare for an increasingly digital future, we needed a high-performance analytics tool that could deliver rapid data insights.”
A Decade Long Partnership
Over a decade ago, C.H.BECK discovered Exasol as the solution to their data challenges. Following a successful proof of concept (PoC), Exasol was implemented as an on-premises solution within the company. Paul Bischoff explained,
„The performance of the column-oriented in-memory technology thoroughly impressed us during the PoC, and the favorable price-performance ratio was a key factor in selecting Exasol. We have been partnering with them for over ten years.“
Through ETL processes, specifically SAP Data Services, all source systems, including beck-online.DIE DATENBANK, accounting data, the shop, the seminar system, and the sales system, are loaded into the data warehouse for analysis. Users access Exasol via SAP Business Objects WebIntelligence tool to generate reports. The fact that C.H.BECK‘s data is stored and processed within Germany or the EU was also a crucial consideration in choosing Exasol.
Currently, the Exasol data warehouse houses approximately 2 terabytes of data and still runs „like clockwork“ to this day, as Paul Bischoff emphasizes. The system supports approximately 100 concurrent users, with key account management and sales controlling being the primary user groups. And both current and future expansions of the IT infrastructure have been and will continue to be integrated into the Exasol solution.
Higher Customer and Employee Satisfaction Through Faster Queries
One of the most critical reporting applications currently in use is the support of Key Accounts. C.H.BECK‘s Key Account Management team is responsible for managing major clients, such as prominent law firms. To provide prompt responses to client inquiries, the team relies heavily on a high-performance reporting system.
The previous solution posed significant challenges, as query times spanning several minutes hindered the team‘s ability to deliver timely support. This limitation made it increasingly difficult to meet the desired level of service.
By implementing Exasol, C.H.BECK achieved a substantial reduction in query times. This improvement not only enhanced customer support and loyalty but also signifi-cantly boosted employee satisfaction within the company.
C.H.BECK’s Continuous Digital Evolution
For C.H.BECK, fast query response times and the automation of certain processes are just the beginning of their digital journey. While the Exasol data warehouse currently meets the company‘s requirements and delivers on its promises, Mr. Bischoff anticipates that predictive analysis and artificial intelligence will play an increasingly significant role in the publishing house‘s future.
There is no doubt that Exasol will remain a strong partner alongside this traditional company in the years to come. Paul Bischoff, Head of K&P Architecture (IT), states, “We are extremely satisfied with the Exasol solution. It operates smoothly and reliably, requires minimal maintenance, and adapts flexibly to evolving digital demands.”
As C.H.BECK continues to navigate the ever-changing digital landscape, the company remains committed to embracing new technologies and innovations that will help them better serve their customers and maintain their position as a leader in the publishing industry. With Exasol as a trusted partner, C.H.BECK is well-prepared to face the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead on their ongoing digital journey.
Customer Stories
Discover inspiring success stories
