The Dashboard Effect

In this episode of the Expert Insights Series, Blue Margin Director of Consulting, Kate Eberle, hosts Pedro Renteria, the VP of Financial Planning and Analysis at SimonMed. Pedro works closely with operations and leans on business intelligence (BI) and analytics to drive company performance.
Click here to watch this episode on our YouTube channel.
Key Points:
- SimonMed's BI Journey: A Healthcare Case Study
- How SimonMed Uses Data Analytics to Increase Patient Volume and Employee Engagement
- SimonMed's Data-Driven, Human-Centered Approach to Performance Improvements
- Pedro's perspective on ROI and his observations of SimonMed's progress
Before joining SimonMed, Pedro served as VP of FP&A at Frontier Communications, Sr. Director of FP&A at financial services company Early Warning, Finance Controller at Amazon, and Finance Director at American Airlines and U.S. Airways.
Blue Margin increases enterprise value for PE-backed, mid-market companies by building and managing their data platforms. Our strategy, proven with over 250 companies to-date, expands multiples through data transformation, as presented in our book, The Dashboard Effect.
Subscribe here to get more episodes of The Dashboard Effect podcast on your favorite podcast app.
Visit Blue Margin's library of additional BI resources.

This episode is the third installment of Brick and Caleb's series on breaking down data terminology. They cover foreign and primary keys, data lakes and data lakehouses, parquet and delta parquet files, ETL and ELT, and data pipelines, before concluding with Python, PySpark, and visualizations.

Watch this episode on our YouTube channel.

Blue Margin increases enterprise value for PE-backed, mid-market companies by serving as their fractional data team. We advise on, build, and manage data platforms. Our strategy, proven with over 300 companies to-date, expands multiples through data transformation, as presented in our book, The Dashboard Effect.

Subscribe here to get more episodes of The Dashboard Effect podcast on your favorite podcast app.

Visit Blue Margin's library of additional BI resources.

Brick and Caleb discuss how an organization can quickly start doing real BI. Getting going is easier than you might think, but there are a few key things to keep in mind.
For further reading: The Quick Path to Winning with Data and Dashboards (bluemargin.com)

Brick and Caleb discuss the pros and cons of tackling your BI project using outside help versus doing all of the work with an internal team.
Read more here: When to Use an External BI Consultant (bluemargin.com)

Brick and Caleb discuss Blue Margin's use of Azure Data Lake for unified data management. Using a recent client project as an example, Caleb explains how he integrated multiple data sources using serverless SQL to create a single data repository with a semantic model to enhance consistency across projects and reports. They also discuss the current performance benefits of using a serverless SQL and the Microsoft Fabric OneLake updates they're waiting on before transitioning from Azure Data Lake.

In this episode:

• Introduction to Azure Data Lake: Caleb kicks off the discussion with an overview of Azure Data Lake, emphasizing its role in creating a unified data repository. The conversation highlights the significance of maintaining "one copy of your data" to eliminate redundancy and ensure consistency across various data analysis projects.
• Client Case Study: Caleb walks through a recent project of creating an Azure Data Lake for a client. Learn about the challenges of integrating multiple data sources and how serverless SQL views simplify data modeling and reporting.
• Serverless SQL Explained: Caleb outlines the benefits of serverless SQL, including its flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and how it caters to users familiar with SQL Server without the need for a traditional database setup.
• Semantic Modeling for Unified Reporting: Understand the process of creating a semantic layer that merges data from disparate systems, enabling consolidated reporting across different business units without compromising data integrity.
• Performance Insights: Caleb shares his experience with the performance of serverless SQL on Azure Data Lake, busting myths about query execution times and handling large datasets efficiently.
• Looking Ahead: Brick and Caleb discuss the features they're waiting on within Microsoft's Fabric OneLake before transitioning from Azure Data Lake.

Click here to watch this episode on our YouTube channel.

Blue Margin increases enterprise value for PE-backed, mid-market companies by serving as their fractional data team. We advise on, build, and manage data platforms. Our strategy, proven with over 300 companies to-date, expands multiples through data transformation, as presented in our book, The Dashboard Effect.

Subscribe here to get more episodes of The Dashboard Effect podcast on your favorite podcast app.

Visit Blue Margin's library of additional BI resources.