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Manage Analytics Challenges with Sisense for Custom Furnishings and E-commerce
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Big Data Analytics
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Visualization
Applicable Industries
- E-Commerce
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Sales & Marketing
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
As the company grew, Online Commerce Group’s data become so large that, without a new generation Big Data Analytics solution, management couldn’t receive quality reports. The fast growth of the company meant that Data Manager Paul Auen was unable to run reports with large enough data sets to provide any real value to the business end. “Originally, we could do reports manually, but as the data sets got larger, the reports took longer and impacted the transactional database,” Auen recalled. “We were constrained between keeping the servers running or making it available for reports.” Online Commerce Group chose a popular business analytics tool, but it was too complex; Auen’s group was unable to run reports at the speed and frequency needed for the business. Quickly, the team abandoned and turned to Sisense. The company needed a solution that could: 1. Quickly analyze large data sets coming from multiple sources. 2. Provide drag-and-drop modeling and dashboard creation for business users. 3. Automatically generate reports and publish them to the company intranet. 4. Require a minimal capital investment and learning curve for use.
About The Customer
Since 2004, Montgomery, Alabama-based Online Commerce Group has specialized in upscale outdoor and indoor living space products for both residential and commercial markets. With a diversified portfolio of over 50 retail websites including CushionSource.com, Online Commerce Group sells custom-made furnishings and accents and has ranked for three years straight in Inc. magazine’s fastest-growing privately-held companies in the United States.
The Solution
Paul Auen’s team began evaluating traditional business intelligence platforms, but when he heard about Sisense as an up-and-comer in the Big Data Analytics space, he was intrigued and decided to test out the solution; he threw all his data at it, and soon was impressed. “We could easily import our data structure’s model without scripting, quickly build dashboards, and share analytics in minutes. We could do all that with the free trial before we had to put any money into it,” he said. “We could prove Sisense worked before we had to make an investment in it.” Auen appreciated the out-of-the box aspect of the Sisense solution – in one package, the solution provided a high-performance analytical database, along with reporting capabilities any business user could use to work with large data sets ad-hoc. Once he installed the software, he configured it to make sure it was connected to the many data sets Online Commerce Group uses. Deployment was so efficient that Auen was able to run reports on day 1, without training. This was far from the experience he had had with traditional vendors or even the more modern in-memory or visualization vendors. Auen can now accommodate his need to work with data in a constant state of change. No matter how data changes in structure, Auen can swap out dimensions and create reports by customer, website, or salesperson without having to completely rewrite the report. Data size is not an issue either – Auen can breeze through half-a-terabyte of data in minutes on standard hardware. This is important, as his need for real-time analytics has grown: reports to management and teams are automatically published to the company intranet – without bogging down the server.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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