GBX Group, a prominent player in the U.S. real estate and investment sector, faced a common challenge: Managing a growing amount of data across various platforms and converting the data into actionable insights. Even at a relatively small company size with about 100 employees, funding over $100 million for 200 historic real estate projects across the U.S. created enough data that GBX had outgrown the spreadsheets and local files they had used until this point. As the company grew, it became a major challenge to find patterns in data to help search for new projects and track existing ones.
Leveraging CData Connect Cloud, GBX successfully leveled up their data strategy. Connect Cloud provided live data integrations with multiple Zoho products and other industry APIs, ultimately building comprehensive Power BI dashboards that serve as the company's single source of truth.
The challenge: A growing business brings data complexity
GBX Group's operations, like many small companies’, involved a multitude of data sources primarily found in local files and spreadsheets. As GBX expanded to support more markets and projects, the reality set in: They were outgrowing their data management practices.
The company struggled with multiple versions of conflicting data from siloed sources, blocking teams’ abilities to effectively use and find insights from their data. Julie Burklund, GBX Group Manager of Business Intelligence and Analytics, sought to develop a more sophisticated data strategy to deliver on the many requests for business insights across the company.
“Everyone had their own little pot of data. The legal department has it in a Word document. Someone else in valuations has it in a spreadsheet somewhere. [The data sources] weren't talking, so we put everything in Zoho.”
— Julie Burklund, Manager of Business Intelligence and Analytics, GBX Group
The first phase of the transformation was implementing the right data system to store all this data and be the new source of truth across the company. Burklund chose Zoho for its simple implementation and flexibility to work with a variety of data objects, including contacts and leads in Zoho CRM, financial data in Zoho Books, and project tracking in Zoho Projects.
Although this was a step forward, standardizing on Zoho created a new pressing need to be able to easily create many connections from Zoho to Power BI, as well as several smaller industry systems with difficult proprietary APIs. In evaluating solutions for this challenge, it was important for GBX to be able to create these connections with a nimble, largely non-technical team at a reasonable cost, while starting to bring some level of security and governance to sensitive data.
Enter: CData Connect Cloud.
“CData gives us really easy connection to our big pot of data, but we have these other little pots we were pushing CSVs out of, as well. I’ve got a small team and I’m not going to write a bunch of custom code and have to monitor changes in some company’s API. I don’t have time to write SQL and API queries, paginate them, copy them, etc. for six different systems.”
– Julie Burklund, Manager of Business Intelligence and Analytics, GBX Group
The solution: Straightforward, secure data connectivity with Zoho and more
The tool met GBX’s requirements to make robust live data connections without a complicated, expensive data stack. By implementing Connect Cloud, GBX can now get all the data they need into Power BI to create dashboards without having to build complex ETL/ELT jobs to move and integrate data into a data warehouse or database.
Burklund’s nimble team can now create seamless connections between Zoho products, third party APIs, and Power BI that don’t need to be managed and maintained over time. The connections built in Connect Cloud allowed for both import mode and direct query connections, ensuring real-time data availability.
Connect Cloud also brought a level of security and governance to GBX’s data strategy. Virtual datasets control data access and bring transparency to who is using what data, and where.
“We wanted to switch more reports to direct query. During fundraising season, we want the live numbers as the money’s coming in, as well as security. As our team is growing, we don’t want to [accidentally] expose data. Connect Cloud’s organized virtual datasets and security controls were key.”
— Julie Burklund, GBX Group, Manager of Business Intelligence and Analytics
Result: GBX is ready for next fundraising season with live Power BI reports
Despite being a small team with limited technical expertise, the GBX team found the onboarding process for CData Connect Cloud straightforward. Support from the CData team and intuitive product documentation facilitated a smooth transition. Speed and ease of use were a priority for GBX to get these Power BI dashboards up and running, and Connect Cloud was able to deliver on both with an easy cloud-based SaaS solution that requires no installation, connecting data in minutes.
“I've got Gen Z employees. They taught themselves Power BI,” said Burklund. “I send them [CData] documentation, and they figure it out on their own. The onboarding was easy because of the great documentation and support from CData.”
“The ability to connect all this data and have it live in Power BI is key to our business. We have more real estate every year, so we have to get smarter.”
— Julie Burklund, GBX Group, Manager of Business Intelligence and Analytics
Uplevel your data strategy with CData
By enabling seamless, real-time data access with CData Connect Cloud, GBX Group improved internal operations and enhanced their ability to make data-driven decisions, supporting its success in a competitive real estate market.
Are you a small to medium-sized enterprise looking to step up your data strategy? Explore how CData Connect Cloud can transform your data connection and reporting capabilities.
Ready to get started? Download a 30-day free trial.
