Fueling strategic data use across the business

Sophie Albrecht leads the data and insights team at Once Upon. The team consists of analysts, data engineers, and user researchers. They oversee company data and are responsible for empowering the rest of the organization with data to drive decision-making.

Background Limited analytics and BI

Once Upon's goal was to build a strong analytics foundation to empower the entire company with better data and insights. Initially, the data function at Once Upon was small and a part of the marketing department. The BI tool in use was limited in scope, only supporting the data needs of two departments. Seeing these limitations, Sophie and her team began shaping a broader data strategy.

Challenges Disconnected insights

Initially, as a small team, the analytics function lacked established processes, and much of their work relied on solutions that weren't scalable to the company's needs. This made it difficult to manage data effectively, leading to scattered data sources and inconsistencies.

• Lack of connectivity to all data: The BI tool was used to track sales data, but lacked data for other functions. It made it inefficient and time-consuming for Sophie's team to analyze overall company performance across multiple tools.
• Inconsistent definitions: Different definitions of KPIs across tools, like Google Analytics and the BI tool, made it hard for employees to know what data to trust, creating misalignment.
• Distance to data: Without easy-to-use tools, business users didn't have easy, comprehensive access to data that could help them understand and track business performance, limiting their ability to make informed decisions.

Solution Providing the company with accessible data

To meet the needs of a growing team and company, Sophie was determined to create a culture where all employees could access relevant data. With her initiative Once Upon could implement a BI tool that enabled self-service and transparency. The goal was to find a lasting solution that suited both business users and the capacity of a small data team.

Results Analytics gaining strategic importance in the company

Implementing Steep allowed Once Upon to replace dashboards with metrics. Using Steep has helped Once Upon introduce simpler and more accessible analytics processes, and the ease of use has enabled the entire company to explore data easily.

1. Single source of truth: Data from all of Once Upon's departments is now accessed in Steep and centralized in metrics. The data quality is consistent and accessible to all users in a clear format with relatable definitions. All teams can now access cross-functional data in one place to understand business performance from different angles.
2. A more strategic position for the analytics team: Streamlining analytics with metrics has helped Once Upon gain insights faster and make better decisions. It has resulted in all teams being able to use data effectively, bolstering the data team to become its own function. Sophie's team now reports directly to the CFO, reflecting the growing strategic importance of data in the company.
3. Data adoption and literacy: Once reliant on the data team for insights, business users at Once Upon are now using data independently more than ever, with around 70% of employees active in Steep every month. Each metric has a dedicated owner, ensuring accountability for tracking performance, and everyone can access data that helps them make informed decisions.

Using Steep Row-level data access boosts workflows

A real-life example of how Once Upon uses Steep to improve workflows is their global VAT reporting. With Steep's entities feature, the finance team can drill down to row-level details on their own. With sales across multiple countries, dealing with complex tax regulations would typically require ad hoc requests to the data team. With entities, the finance team can easily access VAT, pricing, and order details for different countries and export relevant lists.

Looking ahead, entities will help Once Upon's customer care team track orders and assist QA teams in analyzing data without relying on the data team.

Fostering a strong data-informed culture

Sophie highlights that Steep's intuitive UI has helped the entire company — from operations to C-level — engage with data like never before. All new employees get access to Steep and are introduced to the data culture early on, and Sophie shares that employees are showing great commitment to data by requesting more metrics to explore.

Sophie's team has been able to speed up processes and strengthen the role of the data team in the company. She's committed to knowledge sharing to improve the use of data and continue promoting a strong data culture at Once Upon.

Want to say goodbye to dashboards? Book a demo with Steep today and discover how our intuitive BI tool can transform how you work with data.