How Origin Manages Data Across Their Organization with BrightGauge

[Case Study] In a time when measurables mean everything to a rapidly-growing business, the team at Origin IT found themselves looking for a more comprehensive data solution. Back in 2013, they were using one dashboard solution in their service area and for all the other areas of their business they were extracting data directly from SQL which was a manual process. While they managed to make the most out of wrangling their data sources, what they were originally looking for at that time were good-looking, external, client-facing reports.

Adopting BrightGauge

When Origin first launched BrightGauge as their data solution, they had an employee base of about 45 people and kept their focus solely on client reporting for a short time. However, the Executive team at Origin realized that rapid growth opportunities were on the horizon and they needed to assign a team member to focus the majority of their energy on managing data across their entire business. As Head of Services, Matt Treacy, explains he “didn’t have the time or knowledge with SQL” that would drive the type of customization the business was looking for.

The team found their solution in hiring an Operations Analyst, Georgia Anderson, for the growing MSP. As Matt explains, the adoption process was a quick one for the large team because they instantly realized how much was possible with BrightGauge, how quickly Georgia could pull it all together, and how their data ended up in a neat presentation using both reports and dashboards. 

The Results: How 7 Key Business Areas Incorporated Dashboards to Help Drive Their Success

In the last 3 years since becoming a BrightGauge customer, Origin IT has grown from 45 people to 125, and Matt tells us that they leveraged their data to support their massive growth because “data drives each department to understand what’s going on in their area”. Plus, the availability of data has opened the floodgates to wanting even more information at their fingertips. While the partnership began with a focus on pulling ConnectWise data for external reports, they now have automated reports and custom dashboards for individuals, teams, the management team and even their board of directors.

1. Finance: Where Origin previously had a custom SQL report with daily financials, there is now a live dashboard to show financials from across the business.
2. Sales: This group keeps an eye on the near future using an automated monthly rolling forecast based on new opportunities and probability of closure.
3. Service: For this team, additional data sources such as the phone system are imported via Dropbox to ensure that reports and dashboards reflect a true 360-degree view of Origin’s business operations.
4. Projects: For Project teams, there are daily updates on the amount being billed, the amount outstanding, and more.
5. Account Managers: In this group, each person has their own personal dashboards that show their sales activity, as well as dashboards for specific clients.
6. Customer Satisfaction: CSAT scores also end up on the big-screen TVs found in nearly every room of Origin’s spacious new office.
7. The Board: When the time comes for Board meetings, dashboards are leveraged again to quickly and easily show the data that used to require a more time consuming process involving SQL and Excel spreadsheets.

As Georgia explains, the beauty of creating all of these custom reports and dashboards is the time savings she sees: “once they are created, they are set for good”.

Recommending BrightGauge

As Matt tells us, “looking back about 8 months ago, when the owner of the business asked us for a report, it would take a week or two to create. Now it’s done by the end of the day or the next morning. Everyone knows they can ask for anything now. Before it was ‘no, can’t do that’. The process is now streamlined and easy.”