Automation & ROI

Overview

HLK, a dynamic agency specializing in creative technology, creates dashboards and reports for clients to drive behavioral transformations and influence beliefs. However, their current workflow lacked documentation, SOPs, and relied on junior analysts manually creating reports in Google Slides. Calculations and metrics are ad hoc, leading to inconsistencies.

Role & Duration

Analytics Manager | HLK

Oversee data analysis, reporting, and insights generation to drive informed decision-making and optimize business performance.

Team: 4 Junior Digital Analysts and 5 Account/Project Managers

12/2021 - 03/2022

Client

The Challenge

  • Streamline the report and dashboard workflow to improve efficiency and reduce manual effort.

  • Develop documentation and SOPs to ensure consistency in calculations and metrics.

  • Automate the report and dashboard generation process using API integrations and event-based trigger automations.

  • Improve data accuracy and timeliness.

  • Enhance the overall quality and effectiveness of client deliverables.

95% Reactionary

The majority of billable reporting time was spent on ad hoc reporting, limiting opportunities for in-depth analysis and meaningful insights.

0% Documentation

Within a newly established department, there arose a favorable situation to develop comprehensive documentation.

100% Manual

The reporting process primarily involved manual tasks, including copying and pasting information.

33% Deadline Deliverable Rate

About ~33% of the existing reports and deliverables were completed on time, often requiring customer extensions.

The Solution

The Approach

Baseline Assessment: Conduct an assessment to understand the current limitations of stakeholders involved in the reporting and dashboard process. Identify pain points and areas for improvement.

Skill Evaluation: Assess the level of experience and skills of each analyst to tailor the training and support required for process optimization.

Stakeholder Engagement: Rally support from project managers and account managers to gain their understanding and buy-in for the initiative. Highlight the benefits it brings to their stakeholders, including clients and decision-makers.

Roadmap Development: Create a phased roadmap for the initiative. Begin by auditing all upcoming reports to identify areas where automation and process optimizations can be implemented.

Implementation

Documentation and SOP Creation: Develop comprehensive documentation and SOPs for the report and dashboard creation process. Define standard templates, guidelines for data collection, calculations, and metric definitions to ensure consistency.

Automation Tools and Technologies: Identify suitable tools and technologies to automate the report and dashboard generation process. Utilize API integrations to retrieve data from various sources and automate data collection. Implement event-based trigger automations to generate reports and dashboards based on predefined criteria.

Training and Support: Provide training sessions to the junior analysts to familiarize them with the new workflow, automation tools, and SOPs. Offer ongoing support and guidance to ensure a smooth transition and effective adoption of the optimized process.

By leveraging Looker Studio, we established connections with API databases and transformed our static reports into dynamic, real-time dashboards.

After centralizing static data, we established a "data lake" that enabled seamless integration of data with Looker Studio, facilitating efficient data blending.

We utilized Confluence as our primary Source of Truth for documentation and standard operating procedures (SOP), effectively democratizing institutional knowledge.

In a cross-functional effort, we adapted the DBAs' project management tool to accurately measure bandwidth allocation and turnaround times

Impact & Outcome

Improved Efficiency: The streamlined workflow reduced the time and effort required for report and dashboard creation, increasing overall team productivity.

Consistency and Accuracy: The implementation of SOPs ensured standardized procedures, resulting in consistent calculations and metrics across reports and dashboards.

Enhanced Timeliness: Automated report and dashboard generation, triggered by predefined events, eliminated delays and ensured timely delivery to clients and decision-makers.

Increased Data Accessibility: API integrations facilitated real-time data retrieval, improving data availability for reporting purposes.

Higher-Quality Deliverables: The optimized workflow, automation, and SOPs led to higher-quality deliverables with improved insights and recommendations for clients' business decisions.

80% Efficiency

Due to the transformation of the majority of reports into real-time user-friendly dashboards, there was an impressive 80% reduction in the time required for report creation.

75% Deadline Deliverable Rate

By accomplishing 75% of our deadlines ahead of schedule, we were able to allocate additional time towards automating more intricate reports and dashboards.

Increase in ROI

By automating the majority of our reports and dashboards, we gained the capacity to delve into deeper insights regarding our clients' business. This, in turn, enabled us to offer value-added services as an agency.