Amarilo builds dreams based on data with Google Cloud and Xertica.ai
Amarilo accompanies almost 150,000 families in achieving one of their greatest dreams: owning their own home. Throughout its 32-year history, it has managed to position itself as one of the most important construction companies in Colombia, with a broad portfolio of more than 100 active projects in 18 cities and municipalities across the country.
In 2024, for the ninth consecutive year, Amarilo ranked among the top positions in the Construction and Infrastructure category of the Corporate Reputation Business Monitor (MERCO), a recognition that consolidates its position as one of the leading companies in the sector and with the best reputation in the country.
Throughout 2025, the construction company will launch 23 new projects to continue maintaining its growth within the sector. In addition, they have short and medium-term expansion plans towards various Colombian cities and regions, such as Cali, Cúcuta, and the Coffee Axis. Under the "City within a city" model, they plan to venture into large developments where residents will have comprehensive services such as parks, roads, libraries, bike paths, schools, hospitals, shops, and entertainment in their nearby environment.
Towards a Single Source of Truth: Data Evolution at Amarilo
8 years ago, Amarilo decided to move from an on-premise ERP solution to SaaS to streamline access to its data. However, that SaaS architecture did not provide them with the agility of access and extraction of information they needed after the growth of their operations in recent years.
Thus, they faced the challenge of creating a centralized data warehouse, a Single Source of Truth, that would allow them to strengthen their strategic data-driven decision-making capacity.
In this process, they identified four key areas to work on to achieve the objective. The first was data centralization, to unify and consolidate information from various systems and platforms into a single repository.
Secondly, they had to have an integration strategy, with the implementation of an architecture that guarantees interoperability between systems and allows efficient data aggregation without duplication or loss of quality.
Likewise, they had to improve accessibility and visualization, with intuitive tools that facilitated data access and analysis. Finally, they had to carry out a cultural transformation, to foster the commitment of the entire organization in aligning processes, data, and technology, and promote a data culture that enables more agile, precise, and reliable information-based decisions.
"The large volume of information we had in our internal ERP made it difficult for us to access data in a consolidated and timely manner. We needed to improve our queries to achieve a 360-degree view of the business information," mentioned Didio Alfonso Osorio Guerrero, IT Architecture Leader at Amarilo.
A Data Strategy that Drives Business
To develop its Single Source of Truth, Amarilo began by evaluating various options, most of which offered to build data models through reports and share them between areas, which was unfeasible in terms of agility, costs, and efficiency.
Finally, with the support of partner Xertica.ai, the company began a Google Cloud proof of concept with the commercial area, to test a connector that would allow them to extract information from their ERP automatically, without the need to use APIs.
Once the successful proof of concept was carried out, they focused on creating their central data repository from the combination of various cloud technologies.
Thanks to the Google Cloud Marketplace connector, Incorta, they were able to implement automatic information extraction from the ERP, which guaranteed a structured, reliable, and real-time data flow, and eliminated dependence on manual processes.
On the other hand, to consolidate the extracted information in the centralized and scalable repository, they implemented BigQuery. By using the solution as their data analysis platform, they were able to manage large volumes of data without the need for complex infrastructure. In addition, the tool provided automatic scalability, performance optimization, and cost flexibility, with a pay-per-consumption model.
Finally, Amarilo strengthened its data governance and security strategy with the advanced functionalities of Identity and Access Management (IAM), which allowed them to establish clear rules and policies to ensure the quality, security, and control of access to information.
In addition, Google Cloud's security solution helped them define role-based permissions, ensure compliance with regulations, and optimize the management of their Single Source of Truth, guaranteeing reliable and securely accessible data.
Faster Queries, Smarter Decisions
Thanks to Google Cloud solutions, Amarilo consolidated a centralized, efficient, scalable, and secure data repository that streamlined decision-making based on precise information available in real time.
Until then, downloading and querying a report was a scheduled process that could take up to 5 hours. If the query failed, they had to wait 5 more hours. Today, they have a descriptive model based on Google Cloud that allows querying 70 million data records in a matter of minutes.
On the other hand, the implementation of the repository helped them reduce data loading time by up to 80%, compared to traditional architectures and manual information consolidation processes. In addition, the application of business rules and the automation of data processing allowed them to eliminate inconsistencies and duplicate data, and increase the loading frequency from twice a week to daily execution without human intervention, which improved operational efficiency and real-time decision-making.
"Having a single source of truth is a great advantage, because today data does not belong to a special area but to Amarilo. And from that data, we can convey a single message and maintain a transversal language throughout the company," indicated Alejandra Gutiérrez, IT Governance and Processes Director at Amarilo.
Likewise, thanks to the democratization of data and the empowerment of non-technical users, who can now perform analyses autonomously, Amarilo reduced support cases related to the performance and consistency of reports extracted from their ERP by 50%.
A separate paragraph deserves the positive cultural impact that the migration to Google Cloud has had. By implementing simpler and faster queries of the entire company data set, today all areas of Amarilo want to use our cloud solutions to access verified information instantly.
Building an Even More Promising Future in the Cloud
In 2025, Amarilo, together with Xertica.ai, has begun to explore two new areas of Google Cloud technology implementation. On the one hand, predicting withdrawals, which allows them to offer alternatives to those clients who decide or cannot continue with the operation. On the other hand, speeding up the delivery of deeds for clients who have already paid all their installments, optimizing the integration with third-party systems involved in the operations.
In addition, they plan to continue optimizing the data lake in Google Cloud, with a refinement of the data model that allows improving quality and governance, as well as incorporating predictive analytics capabilities, advanced visualization, and automated report generation.
With the rapid advance of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, they have also begun to consider the application of cost prediction models, construction times, and input demand; the development of predictive maintenance algorithms for machinery and equipment, and integration with geospatial tools to optimize project planning and work management. This will be complemented by the implementation of digital assistants to improve customer and employee service, the digitization and analysis of construction documents, and the adoption of automated backups and disaster recovery.
"Google Cloud has been key to our digital transformation and provides us with a competitive advantage that drives efficiency, innovation, and growth at Amarilo," affirmed Alejandra Gutiérrez, IT Governance and Processes Director at the company. "It has adapted to our needs perfectly and helped us to see data in a very strategic way, to make decisions more effectively," she concluded.
