Clifton’s need for digital transformation was truly acute. As rapidly scaling player in one of the fastest growing industries in the world—even during a pandemic—Clifton was experiencing serious operational friction. 

The amount of data that serving 850 clients produces had greatly outpaced the company’s ability to manage and interpret it in a timely manner. 

When they needed to track variables like machine sales, coffee sales, regional hot spots for sales, and departmental profit and loss, it meant hours of exporting and collating data.

To support Clifton in becoming proactive rather than reactive, we needed to increase the company’s high-level oversight. 

To this end, we set out to create dashboards and customized reports that were directly connected to the company’s data sources (Excel, Sage 50, and Cropster). 

These could be refreshed in real-time, anytime. They would be integrated with the Microsoft 365 communications platform so that all team members could access and share them. Best of all, these tools automated interpretation.

This would enable Clifton’s people to stop “puzzling over” what they were seeing, and what strategic actions they should take as a result. 

Using the Power BI platform, we created:

• Director’s dashboard showing Gross Sales, trended over time
• Customized Roasted Report visualizing the volume of various products being sold
• Dynamic Map dashboard with a heat map showing recent sales by region/customer

We are also currently testing a mobile app and a decomposition tree that visualizes data in multiple dimensions. This tree allows Clifton to drill into what is driving their highest sales figures.

“In the past, trying to access our data and then organize it to perform strategic actions has been really slow and painful,” says Josh. “But after stepping into this Power BI project, we could take this data, understand it, and act really quickly on it. Particularly in the current climate, this is really setting us apart from our competitors.” 

“The visualizations we’re working with are amazing. When we speak to customers now, we can bring so much more value. The conversations are juicier, more substantial, because we have so much more insight into what’s happening. We feel so much more informed and have much greater peace of mind, and that’s critically important in a year like 2020.” 

“The coffee industry has tended to be very far behind the curve. For example, we've had this attitude about baristas where it's all about manual machinery and the skill of a barista. And I think we’ve been really afraid of automation. But harnessing technology that automates data analysis is allowing us to springboard forward in this industry.”

“Greg [of Big Wave BI] is phenomenal. He’s the lynchpin of all of this progress we’ve made. Without his skills and expertise, I don’t think we would have solutions that are so customized to our business, our industry. He’s a delight to work with.”

Josh Clarke
Clifton Coffee Roasters