Making Data Visible: A Simple Use Case

A good start is to implementing a setup that allows to view currently available data and then see what else is needed for moving towards more flexible and proactive decision making.

The Challenge

Organizations often face a common issue: key data is spread across different systems. For example, accounting data comes from one source, budget forecasts are maintained in spreadsheets, and marketing metrics are pulled from another system. This separation makes it hard to get a quick, comprehensive view of daily performance.

Key Problems

Scattered Data: Different sources mean data is isolated, making it difficult to see the whole picture.
Manual Work: Keeping data up-to-date often involves manual steps, which can lead to delays and mistakes.
Limited Clarity: Without a consolidated view, it’s challenging to spot trends or understand daily variations in performance.

The Technical Approach

Daily Data Collection:
- Accounting API: A Cloud Function, scheduled to run daily, retrieves accounting data and saves it to Cloud Storage.
- Budget Forecasts: Data from Google Sheets is loaded directly into BigQuery.
- Google Ads: We can leverage BigQuery's data transfers to pull in marketing data from Google Ads.
Data Processing: Once the data is in BigQuery, it is transformed into a report-friendly data model. This makes it easy to analyze and compare information.
Visualization: A Looker Studio report displays daily metrics in clear, interactive dashboards. This lets users compare actual performance with budget forecasts and review marketing data alongside financials.
Security & Automation: Google Cloud's IAM restricts data access to authorized users. Cloud Scheduler ensures that data updates happen automatically every day.

How It Helps

Immediate Insights: By automating data collection and processing, the solution offers a clear daily snapshot of critical business metrics.
Less Manual Work: Automation reduces the need for manual updates, cutting down on errors and freeing up time for analysis.
Better Decision-Making: With all key data organized and presented together, it’s easier to spot trends, track performance, and make well-informed decisions.

This solution shows how to make data visible by unifying daily information from accounting, budget forecasts, and marketing. By streamlining these processes and using automation, organizations can gain clarity and make decisions faster.