Vivo Energy Transforms SAP Data With A Modern Databricks-Powered Platform

Technology used

SAP S/4HANA

Fivetran

Databricks

Power BI

Solution

Replaced an underperforming SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud environment with a modern, scalable Databricks platform. Delivered a near–real‑time enterprise data warehouse and a repeatable foundation for future reporting expansion using Fivetran for rapid ingestion, a metadata-driven engineering framework, and Power BI for analytics.

Results

A stable, high‑performance platform that reduced data refresh times from two hours to 15 minutes, eliminated month‑end reporting delays, cut operational data platform costs by more than 50%, and enabled broader business adoption across finance, HR, retail, logistics, and commercial teams.

The Challenge

The Solution

The Results

The Challenge

Vivo Energy was operating on SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud, but performance issues were severely impacting the business. Systems routinely broke at critical moments, especially during month‑end close, forcing teams to work long hours and leaving leadership without reliable visibility into financial performance.

Finance, the largest user of the legacy platform, struggled with:

Slow and unstable data refresh cycles: Every two hours, frequently failing

Delayed month-end reporting and limited flexibility: Severely impacting board level decision making in the 18 months prior and limited flexibility in the SAP stack, with little control over maintenance, upgrades, or breakdowns. Heavy Excel-based processes created risk, inefficiencies, and inconsistent reporting.

A fragmented data landscape: Following Vivo Energy's acquisition of Engen, bringing disparate SAP BW and analytics capabilities that needed unifying.

Ultimately, we needed a system we could trust—something stable, fast, and reliable at the moments that matter. Snap went the extra mile to make sure we got there.

Graeme McPhee

Head of Analytics

United Kingdom

The Solution

Snap Analytics designed and delivered a modern enterprise data platform centred on Databricks, built to support near–real‑time financial reporting and future cross‑business analytics.

A Metadata‑Driven Engineering Framework

Snap deployed its Metadata‑Driven Framework—a technology‑agnostic set of patterns and best practices adapted for Databricks. This accelerated development, standardised pipelines, and reduced complexity for Vivo Energy’s team transitioning from SAP BW to modern cloud tooling. To streamline SAP workloads, Snap incorporated its SAP accelerators for Databricks, to automate common SAP transformation requirements and reduced build times for finance data models.

Real‑time Ingestion Using Fivetran

During early delivery, Snap identified that the original ingestion approach (Azure Data Factory) could not meet the required performance. Within two months, Snap recommended—and Vivo Energy adopted—Fivetran to achieve the sub‑20‑minute latency the finance team required for in‑day visibility during month‑end.

Enterprise‑Grade Data Modeling And Transformation On Databricks

Snap rebuilt Vivo Energy’s legacy finance reporting environment using Databricks SQL and Delta Live Pipelines, enabling consistent, reliable finance data models, a scalable layer ready to onboard non‑finance functions, and a template for future Engen/Vivo Energy “best‑of‑both” consolidated reporting.

Power BI Analytics And Visualisation

Snap delivered core reporting for financial close, treasury, credit, and cashflow—while also creating the foundation for Power BI expansion across HR, retail, supply & distribution, and commercial teams.

Embedded Enablement For Vivo's Energy's Team

A cornerstone of the project was capability uplift. Snap engineers worked onsite in Vivo Energy’s Cape Town office for a few days each week, providing hands-on support and close collaboration. Vivo Energy’s analytics team received mentoring, Databricks coaching, and structured training programmes, while the Engen analytics team was supported through cross-training from SAP BW to Databricks models and pipelines. This approach enabled Vivo Energy to take ownership of the platform and continue scaling it independently.

The Results

Although Vivo Energy had piloted Databricks and Power BI internally, they needed an expert delivery partner to implement the full platform at enterprise scale—one capable of combining SAP expertise with modern data engineering practices.

Data Refresh Reduced From 2 Hours to 15 Minutes

Enabling near real-time financial reporting. Zero late month-end submissions since the platform went live. Significant workload reduction for finance and analytics teams.

More Than 50% Reduction in Platform Running Costs Alongside Platform Stability

vs. SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). Stability dramatically improved— the platform "Just works" with no critical breakdowns during month-end.

Improved Trust In Data Quality And Consistency Across the Business

Finance, HR, Retail, Logistics, and Commercial Teams now use Power BI dashboards as primary performance tools. Excel is now used more safely via direct connection to Databricks, reducing data extraction risks.

Scalability And Future Readiness

Framework and pipelines build for rapid onboarding of new domains.

Foundation Established for the "Best of Both" Programme

Consolidating Engen and Vivo Energy analytics. Vivo Energy is positioned to expand workloads, increase data democratization, and deliver business-wide value on the new platform

Vivo Energy is a leading downstream energy company operating across 28 African markets. Headquartered in London with major operations in Cape Town, Vivo Energy markets fuels, lubricants, and retail services through an extensive network of service stations. Following its acquisition of Engen’s African operations, Vivo Energy is undertaking a major digital modernisation effort to unify analytics capabilities and accelerate data‑driven decision‑making across the enterprise.

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