Reliable data powers Reworld’s circular economy

Building applications for the circular economy takes reliable data, and sustainable waste solutions provider Reworld Holding Corp. was coming up short in this particular area. The company was struggling with access to reliable data from its various systems and reporting tools.

The solution was to build the Reworld Data Hub based on QlikTech International AB’s Talend Data Fabric, which became the “connective tissue,” a centralized resource that could bring together key information from hundreds of scattered databases.

“Everybody was operating off of a spreadsheet or they had their own database,” said Charles Link (pictured, left), senior director of data and analytics at Reworld. “The North Star was to ultimately create a common hub of information, not to replicate everything, but to have one place that could form the alloy of intelligence. The trick to doing that was we had to create a model, a data model, not a database, a data model that represented how Reworld defined things.”

Link spoke with theCUBE’s John Furrier and Bob Laliberte at Qlik Connect, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. He was joined by Drew Clarke (right), general manager and executive vice president of data business unit at QlikTech, and they discussed how Reworld leveraged Qlik’s technology to improve data access. (* Disclosure below.)

A vision for reliable data

Reworld’s adoption of Talend to solve its disparate data problem provides another chapter in a story that begins with an acquisition by Qlik in 2023. The purchase of Talend Inc. provided Qlik with a robust cataloging option that soon became a key focus for the company.

“A year ago, we talked about the vision of Qlik Talend Cloud, really bringing together the best of the data integration, data quality on the platform to be able to deliver analytical value,” Clarke said. “Well, we did that.”

Reworld’s approach was grounded in a belief that it had to redefine its relationship with data. The Talend solution offered the ability to create mappings between systems that would provide a data model where users could go to one place for the information they need, according to Link.

“Part of the trick was in that data model … and the hard part was mapping that chart of accounts,” he said. “The other trick is to maintain a way to get back to it because oftentimes the financial systems would take two and mash them into one or more, and you can’t get to the details. What we did was to keep track of the DNA. When you want to drill in, I’ll tell you why.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Qlik Connect:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Qlik Connect. Neither QlikTech International AB, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE