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Sisense Partners

Ido Darnell
Pixel-perfect design and reporting for Sisense, a review of available options

If you manage Sisense, you've had some version of this conversation: someone asks for a report that actually looks like a finished document, not a dashboard screenshot with the edges cut off. There are more ways to solve this than most admins realize, and each one solves a different piece of the problem. A quick rundown: Native PDF export - zero setup, but the layout is whatever the dashboard happens to produce. No control over page breaks, no way to add narrative text, and pivot tables cut off at the edge of the screen. Sisense Report Manager - solid scheduling and delivery, but it's still exporting the dashboard as-is. No design layer, no multi-dashboard composition. Jasper Reports - genuinely pixel-perfect for table and pivot widgets specifically, if you have developer resource to build and maintain JRXML templates. Doesn't touch charts or KPI widgets. SAP Crystal Reports via ODBC - full design control, but it pulls your data out of Sisense entirely to do it, which is a real consideration if data residency matters to you. Where this leaves most teams: something that handles scheduling, or something that handles pixel-perfect tabular data, but not both, and rarely anything that lets you design a report as its own document rather than a dashboard export. That's the gap QBeeQ Report Studio is built for: a canvas inside Sisense where you design the report as a report - pulling from multiple dashboards if you need to, with full control over layout, brand, and every widget on the page. Report Studio Deliver , our scheduled distribution layer, is coming in beta this month. For the full breakdown with a side-by-side comparison table, here's the complete write-up .
1 week ago
0
News & Updates
Driving sales and cutting losses: How MPP uses Sisense for smarter decisions

In my previous blog , I shared how MPP’s adoption of Sisense transformed our reporting processes, bringing clarity and consistency to our data. In this post, I’ll dive into the types of decisions that Sisense reporting helps us make and how it supports our mission to foster trust and transparency with our dealership partners. Driving Insights into Key Areas Sisense has become an indispensable tool for us, especially in two critical areas: production and claims processing . Here's how: 1. Production Metrics: Empowering Sales Conversations Sisense helps us analyze the contracts dealerships are selling—breaking down details such as contract types, durations, and coverage levels. Using this information, dealerships can compare their performance to their peer groups. For example: Peer Comparisons : Dealers can see how their F&I (Finance and Insurance) departments stack up against similar dealerships. Identifying Opportunities : If one dealership is finding more success selling contracts or specific coverage types, Sisense reporting can spark conversations about best practices and ways to improve sales performance. By providing this level of visibility, Sisense can foster collaboration among dealerships and help them refine their strategies to increase overall production. 2. Claims Processing: Uncovering Hidden Issues Another powerful way we leverage Sisense is by giving dealerships the tools to examine their loss ratios by product. Dealerships can see exactly where their spend is occurring and compare their costs to their peer groups. For instance: A dealership in one state might notice it spends 20% more on air conditioning repairs than its peers in the region. Sisense helps pinpoint this anomaly, allowing the dealership to investigate further. Perhaps their peers have identified a lower cost supplier of parts, or a less time-intensive method of performing repairs. There can be several drivers, but the conversation starts with the analysis from Sisense. Beyond Numbers: Strengthening Relationships At MPP, our approach to warranties is different. While some warranty companies focus solely on minimizing claims payouts, we believe our long-term success is due to the relationships we’ve developed over the years with our dealerships and customers. Our goal is to: Deliver a positive customer experience : When a customer has a good experience with their warranty, they’re more likely to return to the dealership for future service and purchases. Support dealerships in building loyalty : By paying all covered claims, we help dealerships build and maintain trust with their customers. Sisense plays a crucial role in this process. It allows us to identify best practices across all of our dealership clients, while also helping those dealerships maintain transparency and improve their operations. The Bottom Line Sisense isn’t just a reporting tool for us; it’s a decision-making platform. From identifying opportunities to improve contract sales to optimizing dealership and customer experiences, Sisense gives MPP and our dealership partners the insights we need to succeed. In a world where trust and transparency are key, Sisense helps us build stronger relationships with our partners and deliver better outcomes for everyone involved.
tmcgill2023Posted 1 year ago
0
News & Updates
Driving sales and cutting losses: how MPP uses Sisense for smarter decisions

Driving sales and cutting losses: how MPP uses Sisense for smarter decisions How MPP Revamped Reporting with Sisense Back in 2018, we at MPP were on a mission to find the right BI (business intelligence) software to streamline our reporting processes. After evaluating several platforms, Sisense stood out with its intuitive user interface and powerful capabilities. At the time, our plan was to roll it out to members of our finance and IT teams. Fast forward to today, Sisense has become an integral tool to our management team, while being managed by a single person—proof that we made the right choice in selecting a tool that was simple and highly efficient. A Quick Introduction to MPP At MPP, we specialize in writing vehicle service contracts and other products often paired with vehicle purchases. We work closely with over 100 dealerships. As you can imagine, this creates a vast amount of data to manage and analyze. Before Sisense, we relied heavily on Excel to aggregate and present this data to our dealership partners. But there was a significant challenge: The Challenge: Data Inconsistency Prior to adopting Sisense, we had a number of internal reports being generated in Excel by various departments, each of which used slightly different calculations and numbers. This lack of consistency meant dealerships often received conflicting information. From our perspective, this was a major problem. If we couldn’t confidently say which numbers were correct, how could we expect dealerships to trust our reports? It was clear we needed a single source of truth—a centralized system where all numbers tied back to reliable, granular data. Why Sisense? We knew that controlling our reporting processes required a tool that provided both flexibility and precision. Sisense offered exactly that. It allowed us to take the granular financial data we use internally, load it into a centralized platform, and create dashboards with parameters that cater to different dealership needs. How Sisense Transformed Our Reporting With Sisense, we achieved several critical improvements: Centralized Data Management : All data utilized for dealer reporting is now housed in one platform, eliminating discrepancies between reports. Customizable Dashboards : Dealerships can view metrics tailored to their needs. Whether they want to analyze loss ratios, claims data, or other KPIs, Sisense provides the flexibility to dig into the details. Enhanced Trust and Transparency : By enabling dealerships to drill down into the exact contracts, claims, or transactions behind the numbers, Sisense has increased confidence in the accuracy of our reporting. The Results With Sisense, we've streamlined our reporting processes and strengthened our relationships with dealerships by providing clear, consistent, and trustworthy data. It’s been a game-changer for MPP, allowing us to focus on what we do best—supporting our partners and delivering value through innovative products and processes. For anyone considering a BI platform, we highly recommend Sisense, especially if simplicity, flexibility, and reliability are priorities. As someone managing the building of data platforms and informational dashboards being used across our organization, I can confidently say that Sisense has exceeded our expectations. Check out MPP here: https://www.mpp.com/!
tmcgill2023Posted 1 year ago • Last reply 1 year ago
2
News & Updates
Implementing Self-Service BI with Sisense: Key Steps and Insights

Our Story: How We Implemented Self-Serve BI Using Sisense In a team set-up with only a few tech-savvy members but numerous data-hungry stakeholders, building and delivering a dashboard used to take weeks, if not months. The backlog of requests was ever-growing. To address this, we decided to roll out a self-serve BI platform using Sisense. Starting Point: Gathering Requirements The first step was engaging with the different stakeholders to gather their requirements. We then prioritized these requirements based on their impact and identified overlapping requests to avoid duplication of resources and efforts. Each requirement was broken down into specific metrics, and we documented the sources for each metric. Leveraging our existing BI platform, Sisense, we began setting up the self-serve solution. Building the Foundation: Elasticubes and Live Models One thing worth mentioning is that we translated the requirements into dbt models and made it a best practice to create and maintain most of the metrics in dbt. These models are the sources for our Sisense models. This approach ensures that we maintain a single source of truth, which is essential for self-serve analytics. By leveraging dbt, we can standardize the metrics across the organization, reduce discrepancies, and facilitate better decision-making Based on our requirement analysis, the team built Sisense data models for each category or department. For instance, the Sales model included information on complaints received. A separate model was dedicated to complaints and refunds linked with customer care data. These smaller models help stakeholders navigate easily and find what they need, rather than getting lost in a massive, complex model. We preferred Live Models over Elasticubes because they provide the most recent data from the lake without the need for frequent scheduling. This approach also saves a lot of memory. Creating Template Dashboards The next step was to create template dashboards with basic metrics from each model. These templates included simple to complex widgets showcasing metrics based on stakeholder requirements. The purpose of these templates was to give stakeholders a starting point and a reference. Training and User Adoption We conducted several workshops to ensure that all teams could effectively utilize the new BI tool. These sessions were designed not just as instructional meetings but as interactive workshops where stakeholders actively engaged with the tool and provided real-time feedback. Sisense’s intuitive UI and easy-to-navigate menu significantly contributed to the ease of use, enabling our non-technical counterparts to quickly get up to speed. Throughout the training, we fostered a collaborative environment where stakeholders were encouraged to explore the tool and share their experiences. This two-way engagement ensured that the BI team could address any concerns and adapt the training content to meet the users’ needs better. We’ve also implemented usage analytics and data governance dashboards to track how effectively teams use the self-serve BI platform. This dashboard allows us to monitor adoption and identify areas where additional support is needed. This proactive approach has been key to optimizing the platform’s impact across the organization. The dedication and enthusiasm of our stakeholders were instrumental in the success of this rollout. By working closely with the BI team, they not only learned to navigate the tool but also contributed to refining its use within the organization. This collaborative approach ensured that the deployment of the BI platform was smooth and well-received across all departments. Handling Feature Requests As we rolled out self-serve, some feature requests were not native to Sisense. For example, stakeholders wanted to perform 'What If' analyses, a feature available in some other BI tools. Another request was the ability to pick widgets from various dashboards to create a custom personal version. Thanks to Sisense's versatility and customizability, we achieved this by installing third-party add-ons. Ensuring Data Security Ensuring robust data security is paramount in rolling out a self-serve BI platform. We have implemented stringent measures to safeguard our data and prevent unauthorized access. One key aspect of our approach is the use of row-level security, which allows us to control data visibility at a very granular level. Additionally, the ability to create and manage user groups in Sisense provides us with the flexibility to assign appropriate access levels to different users, ensuring that each user has access only to the data they need. This comprehensive approach to data security helps us maintain a secure and reliable BI environment. By sharing our experience, we hope to inspire others to leverage Sisense to implement self-serve BI solutions efficiently and effectively. Testimonials: ‘We had a training today and I’m feeling super excited about it - it’s going to take a bit of upfront investment from my team to familiarise ourselves with how to use it but I think after that it will save us SO much time (and so much frustration - I was battling with pivot tables in excel for hours this week!).’ -Head of Food Development & Trading ‘When I first started using Sisense, I was a complete newbie, but I was surprised by how intuitive the tool actually is ! Self-serving in Sisense allowed me to explore different data visualizations and patterns and understand more about our data structures as well. I strongly recommend that people use it (not just for dashboards but) if they are interested in a quick data download or for quick visualizations to check a hypothesis ! And the data platform team is great in helping out and giving advice when needed!’ -Senior Analyst About the author: I am a Senior BI Developer at Gousto with nearly 14 years of industry experience. I am passionate about data and a strong advocate of Ronald H. Coase’s quote: “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything.” In my three years with Gousto, I have played a key role in shaping the company’s BI platform, driving innovation and data-driven decision-making. About the Company: We are a data company that loves food. We combine our passion for culinary delights with cutting-edge data solutions to deliver an exceptional experience to our customers. At Gousto, we harness the power of data to innovate and improve every aspect of our recipe box service.
PriscillareaganPosted 1 year ago • Last reply 1 year ago
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