(Analytics & BI)

Business intelligence people open on a Tuesday morning

Plenty of dashboards are built once, admired once and never opened again. Business intelligence work here starts with metric definitions and the decisions they feed; the Power BI or Tableau build comes afterwards.

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Analytics & BI

(Why the numbers disagree)

Three teams report revenue and produce three figures. None of them is wrong: one nets off refunds, one books on invoice date, one rolls up to the parent account. No reporting tool caused that and none can fix it. A semantic model with a single definition per metric, agreed by the people who argue about it, can.

That agreement is half the project and it is not a technical task. Expect workshops, a metric register, and somebody senior deciding whose definition wins when two departments will not concede.

(What we deliver)

What our business intelligence services deliver

Delivered in that order. Building dashboards before the definitions exist is how organisations end up with four versions of the same chart.

  1. A written register: the calculation, the grain, the filters, the owner and the date it was agreed. Contested metrics get both versions documented with the reason each department needs its own.

  2. The definitions built once in a Power BI semantic model, a LookML project or a dbt metrics layer, then reused by every report. Relationships, hierarchies and time intelligence are handled there rather than in each chart.

  3. Built around a decision somebody makes weekly, with the answer visible without scrolling and the detail one click away. Designed for the screen it will be read on, which is often a phone in a car park.

  4. Certified datasets, a shared field dictionary and row-level security so analysts can build their own reports without inventing new definitions. Training and a workspace structure matter more here than any feature of the tool.

  5. The paginated output nobody enjoys and everybody needs: statements, remittances, regulatory returns, scheduled exports that land in a finance inbox at the right hour and survive an audit trail request.

  6. Usage statistics across the tenancy, workspaces reorganised, duplicate reports retired and orphaned datasets removed. Most estates we review carry a large tail of reports nobody has opened in a year.

(What we work with)

(How we work)

How the work runs

Every engagement is scoped in phases, priced per phase, and reviewed with you at the end of each one.

  1. 01

    Discovery

    We map the problem, the systems around it and what a good outcome looks like, then scope the work in phases you can stop after.

  2. 02

    Design

    Flows, architecture and interfaces agreed before anyone writes production code.

  3. 03

    Build

    Two-week increments, a working environment you can open, and a demo at the end of each one.

  4. 04

    Testing

    Functional, performance, security and accessibility checks run through the build, not bolted on at the end.

  5. 05

    Launch

    Deployment, monitoring, documentation and the handover your team needs to run it.

  6. 06

    Support

    Fixes, updates and the next set of features, at an agreed monthly capacity.

(Why Team of Keys)

How we build BI that keeps getting used

Adoption is the only honest measure of a reporting project, and it is decided by things that happen before the first chart.

  1. 01

    One definition, written down

    Metrics live in the semantic model and the register, not in each report author’s head. It slows week one and it is the only thing that stops the figures drifting apart again.

  2. 02

    Security modelled with the data

    Row-level rules are designed alongside the model, so a regional manager sees their region and nobody discovers a leak by accident. Access changes follow your existing directory groups.

  3. 03

    Speed treated as a requirement

    Report performance is budgeted like any other requirement. Aggregations, incremental refresh and query folding are applied before anybody gets used to waiting for a page to render.

  4. 04

    Usage reviewed a month later

    Open rates per report come back to you a month after launch. Anything nobody uses is either fixed or retired, and that conversation happens with evidence on the table rather than opinion.

  5. 05

    Your analysts left able to build

    Handover includes the model, the register and enough training that your team can add reports without us. The alternative is a queue, and queues kill reporting projects.

(Related)

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All ai & data services

(FAQ)

Questions, answered

Power BI is the practical default for organisations already paying for Microsoft 365, with the strongest semantic modelling for the price. Tableau suits analyst-heavy teams who explore visually. Looker fits engineering-led organisations who want metrics defined in version control. All three are workable, so the existing estate and skills usually settle it.

Definitions and the semantic model are one phase, with dashboards quoted per subject area afterwards. Licences are separate and paid to the vendor directly, and they vary enormously between per-user and capacity pricing. Expect a licence comparison during design so the running cost is not a surprise.

Not to start. A first set of reports can run against a replica or a curated set of views, and that is often the right way to prove the definitions. Once several sources have to be combined, or refreshes start straining the operational database, a warehouse becomes cheaper than the workarounds.

Usually the model rather than the tool: queries that cannot fold back to the source, calculated columns doing work the warehouse should do, a fact table imported at full grain, or a refresh pulling everything nightly. A performance review measures each page, then fixes the model rather than hiding the symptom.

That is the intended ending. Training covers the semantic model, DAX or LookML patterns, the metric register and the workspace conventions. Some clients keep a small monthly capacity for reviews and new subject areas, and others take it entirely in-house after handover.

(Global presence)

Nine countries, one studio behind them.

Every project is designed, built and shipped from one studio.
Turn the globe, or pick a country to see what we deliver there.

NoidaDrag to turn

Studio · Noida, India · --:--

(Next step)

Tell us which metric two departments argue about

Send the report, the disagreement and the systems behind it. You get a definition workshop plan and a price per phase.

START

Or write to info@teamofkeys.com · Noida, India