It’s not long until the big night arrives when Santa will deliver presents to fast-asleep girls and fast-asleep boys. A year of long nights working in the workshop, careful planning and intense elf labour have led to the special moment: Christmas Eve.

What is often called “Christmas magic” is the result of intense labour, careful planning and strategic decision-making. Like your business, all of this wouldn’t have been possible without the use of data.

People often ask, “How does he make his sleight fly?”, “How does he deliver all those presents in one night?”, or “What speed does he fly at?” But no one has ever been overly concerned about the logistics behind it all.

This should put that to rest as we take a one-horse open sleigh ride into Santa’s data management setup.

Like you, Santa runs a very tight ship when managing his business operations. A well-structured data management system (system integration) can be the difference between an efficient and an inefficient process.

System integration and data management are technical processes and it can be hard to cut through the jargon and make sense of it all. As we're feeling festive, we've broken it down through the medium of Santa's Workshop:

Santa's Gone Digital

Saint Nick endures 364 days of sourcing materials, managing his elves, caring for his reindeer and, of course, making gifts for every child on Earth. So how does one man manage it all? The answer: he doesn’t. It’s his data management system that keeps it all in check. Here’s how it all works:

Procurement

We know that Saint Nick, with the help of his elves, makes all the toys for the children. However, the North Pole is rather scarce in raw materials, which means he buys parts from all corners of the globe. His database compares the prices of parts from multiple suppliers to let him choose the best cost. It can analyse procurement and shipping costs to keep production within budget.

But how does he know what he needs to purchase? His procurement module pulls in data from…

Children's Wish Lists

That’s right, his IT system sorts through all the wish lists he gets in the build-up to Christmas. The requested items are automatically synched with the procurement system, where his procurement costs are automatically calculated.

Before the Chief Elf for Procurement goes ahead and approves the purchases from the system, there is one final step that must be taken…

Naughty and Nice List

Santa’s Naughty and Nice List checks all the wish lists against each child and removes the “naughty” children’s wish lists. (How Santa decides who’s naughty and nice is something that only he knows).

Production

Once the “orders” have been approved by the system and the goods have arrived, the wish lists are sent into production. The system separates the toys into categories for the relevant department. Keeping on top of the production status of 2 billion orders is a demanding job that only Saint Nick has the know-how to be able to keep up with. The automation of his data processing and order processing saves his elves serious time and makes it simpler for Santa to manage production.

He’s supported by the dashboard that shows him how many wooden toys, rocking horses and other toys that have been made. Once the gifts are wrapped, they are all labelled correctly and sent down to Santa’s sleigh.

Elf Management

One of the most important parts of the North Pole production is the elf production line. No one knows just how many elves Santa employs, but we can assume there are enough for him to lose track of if he’s not careful.

His elves themselves have a lot of deadlines to meet, so they need to stay organised and well-managed. His system keeps him in the loop of production and lets him see all their timesheets, production rates and if they’re hitting their targets.

Delivery

When the orders are complete, they are marked as ‘sent to sleigh’, so Santa can be completely sure all orders have made it to his sack of toys.

For the delivery, his system takes all the data and automatically calculates the best route he should take based on his drop-offs. After every delivery, all orders are marked as “complete” so those back at Santa HQ can monitor the success of the night.

One More Thing to Consider...

Let’s not forget, that holding data for 2 billion children around the world means Saint Nick must have robust data protection policies in place. The last thing he wants is for the Grinch to steal all that important information to try and ruin Christmas.

Santa Workshop 2.0

So, there you have it, that’s how Santa, Mrs Claus and their team of helpers run such a tight ship. Planning and managing a supply chain that includes purchasing, production, staff management and delivery is no easy feat, which is why he relies on his data management solution to make his life easier.

Make Your Data Management System 'Be More Santa'

Do you want your business to have an efficient data management system like Santa’s? While we didn’t build the one for the North Pole, we have designed and developed data management solutions with very similar features for our clients.

Our team of business analysts have the unique ability to map out an entire business process and define a list of technical requirements. Our development team takes these technical requirements and builds your unique solution. We have executed countless web integration and system integration projects for companies like yours for the past 15 years.

We are proud to have Microsoft Gold accreditation in Application Integration and Application Development. Get in touch with a member of our award-winning customer service team to find out more about our services. Email letstalk@psp-it.co.uk or phone: 01775 722377

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