Case Study – Self-service on-demand

Case Studies

Self-Service On-Demand Insights at your Fingertips

PROBLEM

When a leading global retailer in the health and wellness industry experienced challenges in gathering and accessing information, they needed help creating a single source of truth in order to make better strategic and operational decisions. Internal data was dispersed across various different sources and was only available to a few high-level executives in the company. That made it very difficult for others within the organization to get their questions answered on time, if at all.

SOLUTION AND KEY BENEFITS

To address the issue, Sphere built a new self-service on-demand reporting system. The system initially consisted of 10 Quick Reports complete with dashboards and visualizations based on their top 10 queries. Examples include an inventory report with indicators of stock shortage and/or overage and a sales report detailing monthly revenue. In a phased roll-out, we then gave key stakeholders the ability to do their own ad hoc queries so that they could access the information they needed anywhere, anytime on any device. Lastly, for more complex queries, we created customized reports on a bi-weekly basis with the ability to make it public so that others throughout the organization have access. How’d we do it? We used Tablow for development and pulled data from various sources including ERP, inventory, warehouse management systems and their Ecommerce platform. Following an agile process, implementation was quick and seamless with no impact to the company’s existing systems and/or infrastructure. The new reporting system gave key individuals clear, transparent visibility into the business. We also gave users the self-service ability to create their own customized reports and gather intelligence as needed. With IT so bogged down these days, the more tools you empower employees with, the more streamlined and efficient a business will run. Reports that used to require JIRA tickets and endlessly long wait times were now delivered instantly.

Outcome

With data now automated, easily accessible and delivered on-time, critical business and operational decisions were now made smarter, faster and more efficiently. IT saw an increase in productivity as reduced manual effort meant more free time to focus on other tasks. Most interestingly, access to all this new data led to new questions, insights, analysis, growth opportunities and strategic ideas. Today, 250 people use the reporting system on a daily basis accessing several hundred reports with usage and client satisfaction increasing year over year.