Honest Numbers Solutions
Enabling Better Decisions with Data

Data has become an invaluable asset for small business owners; when used properly, it provides business insights required to stay competitive and achieve organizational success. However, driving insights from data is easier said than done. This is due to data being siloed across multiple enterprise systems such as human resources, marketing, and sales. Additionally, siloed data leads to unclear and inconsistent reporting, due to which organizations miss the actionable information needed to drive better business outcomes. Amidst these challenges, businesses are looking for a single source of truth derived from unifying disparate data sources, enabling top management to formulate better business strategies. In comes Honest Numbers Solutions (HNS), leveraging Microsoft technologies such as Power BI, SQL Server, Azure and Office 365 to consolidate all business data into a single place, allowing the ability to make sense of data spread across multiple systems/ departments.

Being a minority-owned technology-consulting firm, HNS creates awareness about various Microsoft technologies as well as assists and educates other minority-based businesses/clients about the whole process involved in the data journey, starting from extracting data to the generation of insights from data. “Leveraging Microsoft technologies, we work with our clients to educate and facilitate their data processes and turn them into successful business outcomes,” mentions Tywan Terrell, founder, HNS. The company follows a three-stage client engagement process, in the first stage, the company sets up an initial meeting with the client to know the organizational needs and based on those needs forms an initial data strategy. After finalizing the key performance indicators, which will aid in the data discovery process, HNS moves to the second stage. It involves the company working with the key business stakeholders to create a proof of concept that would help them to visualize and better understand the solution that is being offered. The final stage, if the client decides to move forward, is the actual implementation of the solution.

Leveraging Microsoft technologies, we work with our clients to educate and facilitate their data processes and turn them into successful business outcomes

The timeline of the completion, however, varies from project to project, but HNS keeps a check on project status with weekly or bi-weekly touch points based upon the complexity of the project. Going an extra mile, HNS also provides a standard level of support for 60 to 90 days after the final implementation that involves things such as fixing any coding issues that may lead to a problem. Furthermore, clients can also take their IT support plans on a flexible monthly or weekly basis.

In an instance, HNS helped a client in creating a dashboard to give a holistic view of the complete processes happening in the organization. The client was inclined to have insights into sales, marketing, and employee performance metrics. HNS came up with the Power BI based dashboard built upon a minimum of three to five datasets per dashboard to help convey the exact information and incorporate Google Analytics as well as SurveyMonkey to provide a comprehensive view on a single window. The result was a Power BI reporting solution that helped the client to have a unified view of all the metrics throughout the organization.

Being a boutique firm, allows HNS to have high-level customer engagement and keeps them proactive in addressing the client needs. Envisioning the future, the company is working towards a unified analytics solution for the retail sector that will be a subscription-based service. “As a lot of the report analytics and visuals will be pre-built, it will accelerate the data initiative growth of the organizations,” concludes Terrell.