Karbon

Situation: The Quest for Self-Serve Analytics

“The goal in moving to a new platform was twofold: to increase our ability to self-serve and for greater data transparency and trust. We thought there was some work to do there, and migrating to Tableau would allow us to do it.”

Modern accounting practices need connectivity between systems, workflows, teams, and clients. Karbon delivers that visibility and efficiency in a single platform, and they need data confidence and transparency to do it.

Unfortunately, Karbon experienced data quality issues with their old analytics tool. They hadn’t fully harnessed the platform’s power, and the team faced capacity constraints as they tried to manage the platform in addition to handling their day-to-day responsibilities.

For that reason, Karbon CEO Mary Delaney was eager to migrate her team to Tableau. “The ability to get on Tableau, have people self-serve, and create transparency in all of our analytics was going to be a powerful upgrade from our previous provider,” she said.

Karbon adopted the platform, but then momentum slowed. Their team lacked the knowledge and experience to support a quick deployment, and numerous other projects divided their attention. Seven months after signing the contract, Karbon still hadn’t optimized Tableau.

“I knew the power of Tableau and knew we needed to get there, but we were challenged by a lack of expertise and people’s capacity to complete the migration,” Delaney said.

Realizing her team needed extra support, she contacted Tableau to ask for a recommendation. “They suggested DataDrive as a managed analytics service,” she said. “We couldn’t be more delighted by the outcome.”

Solution: Unlocking Tableau's Hidden Value

“Having DataDrive come in not only accelerated our migration but gave us a much more powerful tool in Tableau than we had initially anticipated.”

DataDrive was a lifeline to Karbon’s data team, who were overwhelmed with juggling the Tableau migration alongside the company’s day-to-day operations. Within two months, the DataDrive team mapped the data so Karbon could complete their migration and start seeing the benefits of Tableau.

Thanks to DataDrive, every department at Karbon now has analytics at their fingertips. They can also innovate quicker, knowing they can trust their data and reports. “We have a collection of high-level reports that leaders and individual contributors can pull from,” Delaney said. “Having that without needing to click through five extra reports has single-handedly changed how we service our customers and what some of our team members do every day.”

One example is Karbon’s Customer Success team, which uses Tableau reports to better understand customer needs. “This new data visualization that [DataDrive] has done for account health helps them understand which customers to reach out to proactively,” Delaney said. “It also shows which ones need training in certain products or functionalities within our solution that will help them fully optimize the platform.”

The biggest perk of partnering with DataDrive was designing what stakeholders needed—not what they thought they wanted. “If DataDrive had listened to what all those decision-makers asked, they would’ve built exactly what our department heads drew,” Delaney said. “Instead, they listened for the desired outcomes, then helped us visualize a whole different way of looking at the business. That, to me, is the most valuable benefit of all.”

Benefits: From Data Uncertainty to 10x ROI

“Partnering with DataDrive has set us up to scale the business. We have trust in our analytics, and we have the dashboards we need to answer our most pressing questions and quickly execute.”

10x ROI

DataDrive streamlined, simplified, and migrated the company’s data within months. That, Delaney said, has led to an ROI of more than 10x. It’s enhanced the team’s understanding of their business and allowed them to confidently answer questions from the board, investors, department heads, or individual team members at a moment’s notice. “We have that information now at our fingertips,” she said. “That’s frankly priceless.”

72% FASTER DEPLOYMENT

The biggest challenge in implementing Tableau was the data team’s capacity constraints. DataDrive solved that issue and got Karbon back on track, taking a seven-month migration and completing it in two. “By partnering with DataDrive, we were able to talk to all our subject matter experts and understand the goal of each department. We had our data mapped out with Tableau in just two months, and the rest is history,” Delaney said.

GREATER DATA GOVERNANCE AND CONFIDENCE

DataDrive helped every department at Karbon gain access to analytics and identify opportunities for growth. This level of transparency empowers team members across departments to make data-driven decisions quickly, ensuring the right teams have access to the right data.

A CUSTOMIZED ANALYTICS EXPERIENCE

Even after DataDrive completed the migration, they continued to provide quality-of-life tweaks for the Karbon team. “They made sure we loved every dashboard and that the dashboards delivered on what we wanted,” Delaney said.

A lack of data trust and utilization inhibits business growth and prevents companies from providing topquality service. DataDrive has made sure nothing stands in Karbon’s way. “You need the data to tell you which decisions are on par and which decisions might need to move 20 degrees. DataDrive brings the rigor, the expertise, the desire, and the knowledge of business to deliver on that outcome,” Delaney said.