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BI Dashboards: Case Study of a Custom Business Intelligence Dashboard
Industries
Organize business data in a single location and watch it come to life with a custom BI dashboard. Several months ago, one of our existing global MedTech clients contacted Cerebro staff to inquire about a solution to their complex data issues. Our client operates in more than 60 countries and controls over a dozen enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, most of which were unintegrated.
We recommended a bespoke business intelligence dashboard using SAP S/4HANA to group all of our client’s ERPs into one system. After multiple consults, our multinational corporate client greenlighted the project.
Problem Statement: Multiple Unintegrated ERP Systems
The client operates in several economic sectors all over the world, including health, medicine, finance, and research and development, among others. Many of the company’s departments utilized different business intelligence dashboards to analyze data, such as Microsoft’s Azure Data Lake, Oracle, SQL Server, and SAP ERP.
Maintaining several data sources proved inefficient and costly. Within the company, non-technical business users struggled to identify relevant data and analyze raw data points. Disparate data architectures and metadata models made it difficult to extract accurate data and maintain data governance best practices.
Current Goal: Improve Data Access and Reduce Costs
During our initial consultations for the project, our client highlighted several goals for the creation of one of the best business intelligence dashboards.
With an emphasis on empowering internal and external stakeholders to digest, share, and explain BI dashboard data, the company wished to combine data into one BI dashboard design. This migration was expected to decrease costs by disengaging outdated ERP systems and reducing the need for labor-intensive data analysis.
Some of the client’s specific goals included:
Action Taken: Combining Disparate BI Dashboard Examples
The team at Cerebro employed several strategies to integrate our client’s portfolio of data analytics software, produce dynamic data visualizations, and improve the data literacy of non-business analysts by creating one of the most easy-to-use operational dashboards. Find the steps we took to improve customer satisfaction with BI dashboards below.
Step 1: Connect the Separate Data Sources
Our first task involved the integration of several existing business intelligence dashboards into a single SAP S/4HANA BI dashboard. To successfully execute this plan, we used Microsoft’s Power BI Desktop to connect all of the client’s BI dashboard software, including Azure Data Lake, SAP ERP, Oracle, SQL Server, and other data sources.
Step 2: Transform and Clean Data Points for Data Visualization
Next, we transformed and cleaned each data point as part of our standard data processing protocol. Our team used Microsoft’s Power Query to extract, transform, clean, and upload data tables into the new data model.
We then produced charts, graphs, and other data visualizations to tell the full story of the company’s past several years using business intelligence (BI) from their own BI dashboards. The new, unified, self-service BI dashboard proved vital for high-level personnel, enabling users to visualize data and derive actionable insights.
Step 3: Permit Business Users to Update Data With BI Dashboard Tools
In the next step, we created a way for our client’s data analytics professionals to upload relevant information into the source system. Our team customized a Microsoft Power Apps form to allow users to input new data manually. Using the form and other BI tools, the company’s employees can produce detailed analyses and BI reports using only such data that they deem relevant.
Step 4: Update Live Data Automatically Using the BI Dashboard Software
To support the data-driven culture within our client’s company, we created one of their business intelligence dashboard’s key features: automatically updated, live data. Our team used Microsoft’s Power Automation to keep data up to date, producing real-time insights that allow the client’s staff to spot positive trends as they occur.
Step 5: Create a Workspace to Publish and Share Business Performance Reports
Finally, the team at Cerebro built a workspace app for the client’s staff to publish reports, share them, and analyze data, all from their mobile devices. Users can examine data compiled from the marketing KPI dashboard, sales dashboard, and analytical dashboards to view the interplay between different business processes and make more accurate forecasting.
Business Impact: BI Dashboards Save Time and Money
Upon launching the custom BI dashboard for our client, they experienced an immediate increase in employee efficiency. After reviewing performance for the first month of implementation, it became clear that our client had underestimated the amount of time their staff spent reconciling their old BI dashboards.
In the first month of use, our client reduced the time needed to pull data, compare sources, create reports, and share findings by 80%. The client also experienced a 70% decrease in spending on data analytics and data governance. Upon further analysis, these savings were maintained in the months that followed.
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Special Features of the Custom BI Dashboard
The Cerebro team produced a dynamic, versatile business intelligence dashboard that automatically creates data visualization elements. It tells a story about how the client company performed in the past by combining the data from all their interactive dashboards and displaying it on a single screen. Some of the unique features of the new BI software include:
Technologies Used
Cerebro used several technologies to build one of the best business intelligence dashboards available. We employed many business intelligence tools to pull data from disparate data sources. Our team also utilized data marts, data lakes, and data filters to produce an easy-to-use, customizable interface. Some of the main technologies we used include:
Action Taken: Combining Disparate BI Dashboard Examples
The team at Cerebro employed several strategies to integrate our client’s portfolio of data analytics software, produce dynamic data visualizations, and improve the data literacy of non-business analysts by creating one of the most easy-to-use operational dashboards. Find the steps we took to improve customer satisfaction with BI dashboards below.
Next Goal
Our client’s principal representative expressed relief when we demonstrated their new business intelligence dashboard. Now that they had all of the data from their old BI dashboards in one place, it freed up enough funding and internal labor to pursue other projects.
Currently, we are in talks regarding a revolutionary AI application that will monitor the company’s key performance indicators in real-time, compare those KPIs against the latest available industry data, and make suggestions based on proven solutions shared in the public sphere.
Final Steps
To thank us for our exceptional work with their outdated BI dashboards, our client referred one of their vendors to Cerebro by AiFA Labs. As our team explores new opportunities with a potential client in the health and beauty sector, we continue to provide support and updates for our current client’s tailor-made BI dashboard.
