PowerBI Report for a Manufacturer of Packaging Machinery

Client

Hidden

Market

Germany

Sector

Mechanical engineering

Date

2023

Ongoing

A pioneer in the development of modular packaging machines and tailored services for a wide range of industries — from pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, beverages, food and confectionery to technical products — sought a dynamic solution to centralize and visualize its marketing and sales data. With an expansive network of data sources and the ambition to make smarter, faster decisions, the company partnered with our team to design and deploy a Power BI reporting system tailored to their unique business needs.

Objective

To design and implement a centralized Power BI reporting system that provides real-time insights from multiple data sources, enabling data-driven decision-making and operational efficiency for marketing and sales teams.

Challenges

Fragmented Data, Disconnected Insights

‍
The company's marketing and sales efforts span multiple platforms, each generating a wealth of valuable data. From LinkedIn campaigns to CRM pipelines, they faced a critical challenge: how to consolidate this data into a single, actionable view. Key issues included:

Siloed Systems: Data scattered across LinkedIn, LinkedIn Ads, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google Search Console (GSC), YouTube, PR print, PR digital, and CRM platforms like Dynamics and HubSpot.
Manual Reporting: Marketing and sales teams relied on labor-intensive, manual reporting methods that consumed valuable time.
Limited Visibility: A lack of real-time visibility into campaign performance and lead tracking hindered the ability to make agile, data-backed decisions.

Approach

From Silos to Synergy: How We Delivered Clarity

Data Integration

We leveraged Airbyte’s pre-built connectors to extract data from LinkedIn, Google, and PR platforms. Custom pipelines were created to pull total and won leads from Dynamics CRM. HubSpot’s data was also pipelined via Airbyte, ensuring no data source was left behind. All this data flowed into BigQuery’s cloud-based data warehouse, providing a single source of truth.

Data Transformation & Modelling

‍Once ingested, the raw data was transformed and modelled in BigQuery to create clean, analytics-ready datasets. We built unified data models that allowed for cross-channel performance comparisons. For instance, LinkedIn campaign results could be compared directly with lead data from Dynamics and HubSpot, closing the loop on marketing attribution.

Dynamic Dashboards‍

With clean data housed in BigQuery, we built custom Power BI dashboards. These dashboards provided key insights for marketing, sales, and leadership teams, including:

Campaign Performance: Visual breakdowns of ad spend, CTR, conversions, and ROI for LinkedIn, YouTube, and PR campaigns.
SEO & Web Traffic: Integrated insights from Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Search Console (GSC) to track visitor behaviour and content performance.
Lead Management: Real-time updates on lead volume, source attribution, and win/loss analysis, with data pulled from Dynamics CRM.

Automated Reporting & Alerts‍

To reduce manual effort, we implemented automated refresh schedules within Power BI. Custom alerts were created to notify key stakeholders when specific KPIs were met, such as reaching a new lead volume milestone or hitting a target ROI for LinkedIn Ads.

Solution

A Unified Data Ecosystem Powered by Modern Analytics

‍
To address these challenges, our team developed a scalable Power BI reporting solution built on an integrated data architecture. By leveraging the following tools and technologies, we created a seamless data pipeline that feeds real-time insights directly into Power BI dashboards.

Tech Stack

Data Ingestion: Airbyte — Flexible, open-source ETL to connect disparate data sources.
Data Warehouse: BigQuery — Scalable storage and transformation layer for large datasets.
Business Intelligence: Power BI — Intuitive dashboards for self-service analytics and advanced visualizations.
Customer Relationship Management: Dynamics CRM and HubSpot — Key sources for sales and customer engagement data.

Data Sources

LinkedIn (Organic and Ads)
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Google Search Console (GSC)
YouTube
PR (Print and Digital)
Leads from Dynamics CRM (Total and Won)

Result

From Complexity to Clarity: Measurable Impact

50% Time Saved on Reporting: Automated data pipelines and dashboards replaced manual reporting processes, giving teams back hours every week.
Real-Time Decision-Making: The company's leadership can now access up-to-the-minute insights from any device, supporting agile, data-driven decision-making.
Unified View of Marketing ROI: By integrating all campaign data into one Power BI dashboard, the company gained complete visibility into the ROI of their marketing efforts across LinkedIn, PR, and YouTube.
Closed-Loop Analytics: Integration of lead tracking data from Dynamics CRM enabled the company to measure the true business impact of their marketing campaigns, connecting ad spend directly to customer acquisition.

Conclusion

This case study demonstrates the transformative impact of a comprehensive PowerBI reporting solution. By integrating data from diverse sources and delivering real-time insights, the company now operates with greater agility, transparency, and data-driven precision. The transition from manual reporting to an automated, data-driven approach has streamlined operations and empowered stakeholders to make informed decisions with speed and confidence. This initiative underscores the value of robust analytics infrastructure and the role it plays in driving growth, efficiency, and competitive advantage.

More about our technology stack