Case Study - Power BI Dashboard Development and Data Analysis for a Global Manufacturing Company
Ranae Peterson • September 3, 2025
Introduction: Bridging Strategy and Visibility in a Global Enterprise
Cortland International, a leading global manufacturing company, had recently implemented several high-impact strategic initiatives aimed at improving operational efficiency, reducing costs, and driving long-term growth. These changes included optimizing international shipping practices, refining workforce planning, and aligning global operations across departments. However, six months into these efforts, leadership found themselves facing a critical question: what impact were these initiatives actually having on the bottom line?
Despite operational execution, Cortland lacked the tools, systems, and visibility needed to measure financial returns and communicate outcomes across executive leadership and the board. The absence of a centralized reporting environment made it difficult to draw clear lines between action and outcome. The result was growing frustration, delayed decisions, and the risk of misalignment at the leadership level. Cortland needed a data-driven solution that could quantify, visualize, and communicate success, and they needed it fast.
The Challenge: Strategic Execution Without Strategic Insight
While change was happening on the ground, the lack of visibility at the top was holding the company back. Cortland's teams were collecting data, but it was fragmented across systems, spreadsheets, and teams. Without a robust reporting framework, the organization struggled with:
- Inability to quantify the financial return of recent initiatives, leaving results open to interpretation rather than rooted in fact.
- Limited visibility into how changes impacted day-to-day performance, especially across operational KPIs.
- No clear method for communicating outcomes to executive stakeholders, resulting in lengthy board discussions with incomplete data.
- Missed opportunities for timely, data-driven decisions, as relevant insights were buried or inaccessible.
- Misalignment between departments and leadership, due to the absence of shared dashboards or unified performance metrics.
These challenges created a disconnect between strategic planning and operational execution, and left leadership with more questions than answers.
The Solution: A Modern Business Intelligence Platform Built to Scale
To close the gap between performance and visibility, Cortland International partnered with Brewster Consulting Group to design and deploy a centralized, executive-ready Power BI dashboard ecosystem. This platform would serve not only as a visualization tool but also as a decision-making engine capable of aligning leadership and operational teams around shared, validated insights.
Executive Dashboards with Targeted Metrics
Our team developed custom Power BI dashboards focused on tracking and visualizing annualized savings and performance improvements resulting from strategic initiatives. These dashboards included cost savings from international shipping shifts, productivity gains from workforce realignment, and other operational enhancements. Dashboards were built for both executive summary and operational detail, ensuring alignment at every level.
Foundational BI Infrastructure for Future Scale
We didn’t stop at dashboards. Brewster laid the groundwork for a scalable business intelligence environment, establishing flexible data models, transformation logic, and reporting structures that could grow with Cortland’s evolving needs. This provided a long-term foundation for analytics maturity.
Integrated and Trustworthy Data
We worked directly with Cortland’s internal teams to integrate, clean, and align data sources, eliminating redundancies and ensuring consistency across the platform. The result was a trusted dataset that gave stakeholders confidence in what they were seeing, without second-guessing or delays.
Strategic Collaboration with Stakeholders
From the start, our approach was collaborative. We partnered with operations leaders, finance teams, and executive sponsors to define meaningful KPIs, tailor visuals to the audience, and ensure that the dashboards reflected the real-world priorities of the business. This wasn’t a generic BI tool, it was a strategic solution built for Cortland’s goals.
Results: Transforming Insight into Action
With Brewster’s support, Cortland International made a significant leap forward in its ability to measure, manage, and communicate strategic success.
Key outcomes of the engagement included:
- Real-time visibility into ROI from major initiatives, allowing leadership to make smarter, faster decisions with financial clarity.
- Clear communication tools for board-level conversations, enabling more productive and focused executive meetings.
- Organizational alignment through shared dashboards, giving every department the same understanding of what success looks like.
- Improved confidence in reporting accuracy, reducing time spent validating numbers and increasing trust in strategic planning sessions.
- Reduced reporting complexity, freeing up internal resources and shifting focus from number wrangling to strategic thinking.
Cortland’s executive team can now evaluate initiatives not just with hindsight, but with ongoing, real-time insights that shape future action.
Conclusion: Turning Operational Performance into Strategic Proof
For any organization, executing change is only half the battle. The ability to measure, communicate, and act on results is what turns strategy into sustained impact. With a centralized Power BI reporting system built by Brewster Consulting Group, Cortland International has finally unlocked the full power of its data, giving leadership the tools they need to showcase progress, steer direction, and plan the next phase of growth.
This engagement is a testament to the value of blending technical expertise with strategic understanding, and it marks a pivotal step in Cortland’s journey toward smarter, faster, and more confident decision-making.
At Brewster Consulting Group, we recognize that managing data can be a daunting task for small and mid-sized enterprises. Allow us to assist you in harnessing the potential of operational intelligence! Reach out to one of our specialists today to refine your data strategy, optimize your processes, and establish solid governance. Ready to cultivate data analysis and propel scalable growth? Your journey begins right here!
Many small businesses are laser-focused on growth, sales, and staying afloat. In that constant hustle, one of the most valuable assets, data , often gets overlooked. Even when businesses “look at the numbers,” that doesn’t always mean they’re collecting the right data, tracking the right KPIs, or translating those insights into actionable strategies. Fractional analytics bridges that gap. It allows small businesses to access experienced data analysts or analytics teams on a part-time or project basis, essentially bringing enterprise-level data expertise without the full-time cost. Think of it as analytics-as-a-service for small business owners who need clarity and insight but can’t justify a full analytics department. The Reality: Why Data Gets Overlooked While most business leaders know data is “important,” it can be hard to see its impact until it’s visualized through dashboards, real-time reporting, or guided by a professional who knows how to turn information into action. Without these tools and expertise, business decisions often rely on gut instinct instead of insight, leading to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and in some cases, failure. Statistics show that: About 20% of small businesses don’t survive their first year. Nearly 50% fail within five years. Around 65% close within ten years. While the reasons vary, from financial mismanagement to poor planning, many of these challenges stem from a lack of data visibility or poor data management . In other words, the root cause often isn’t just financial; it’s analytical . Real World Analogy Imagine running a restaurant without ever checking what inventory levels, most frequent orders, or best margin products. You might think you’re doing well because the restaurant is busy, but when you do the books, you’re not actually making any money. Now, imagine having a fractional analytics consultant helping you organize and visualize your data. They don’t need to be in the kitchen every day, but when they are, they bring order to chaos, tracking inventory and margin by menu item, predicting staffing needs, and saving costs by cutting waste. That’s what fractional analytics does for your business data. It helps you understand what’s really happening across operations, finance, and customer service so you can make smarter, faster decisions. Common Operational Challenges Solved by Fractional Analytics Here are a few common pain points small businesses face that fractional analytics services can address: Inefficient reporting and manual data entry. Lack of clear KPIs or performance tracking. Inconsistent financial forecasting. Missed revenue opportunities due to incomplete data. Poor inventory or resource management. Lack of clarity around customer behavior and profitability. Benefits of Fractional Analytics for Small Businesses Engaging a fractional analytics provider offers far more than just numbers and dashboards. It’s about empowering smarter decisions without breaking the bank. Cost efficiency: Avoid the high salary and benefits of full-time analytics hire. Speed to impact: Gain immediate access to expertise, no lengthy onboarding or training required. Scalability: Bring in analytics support when you need it and scale it up as you grow. Better decision-making: Replace guesswork with data-driven insights and actionable KPIs. Time savings: Spend less time in spreadsheets and more time growing your business. Long-term cost reduction: Identify duplicate payments, missed invoices, and inefficiencies that quietly drain profit. Fractional analytics also enhances cash flow management and enables business leaders to spot opportunities for optimization, often resulting in measurable growth and sustainability. Why It’s a Make-or-Break Decision Choosing whether to work with a fractional analytics consultant could be the difference between surviving and thriving. Many business owners don’t realize that outsourced analytics is even an option, one that offers flexibility, affordability, and strategic insight without high overhead. The truth is, small business leaders don’t have to do it all alone, nor do they need to rush into hiring a full-time team. Fractional analytics gives them the best of both worlds: the expertise of a senior data strategist and the flexibility of a part-time engagement. Final Thoughts In today’s competitive market, data-driven decision making isn’t optional; it’s essential. Small businesses that embrace fractional analytics gain clarity, confidence, and control over their operations. By investing in the right insights today, they set up the foundation for sustainable growth tomorrow. If your business is ready to move from guessing to growing, now’s the time to explore what fractional analytics services can do for you.
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