Delivering new understanding with human-centred dashboards

Client: Ports of Auckland

The Brief: Help us get timely, reliable information into the hands of users efficiently. 

Whilst frontline container operations staff were able to get some visibility into the performance of container throughput, it was time consuming, untimely and sometimes confusing. In the back office, reporting and tracking of performance against KPIs wasn’t as good as it could be, with duplication, confusion and long lead times to get important information to support data-driven decision making. Lastly, the platform being used was unfit for the current data demands and future aspirations that supported POAL’s digital vision.

The Solution: Business-led, human-centred metrics in near real-time on a platform built for the future.

We worked with POAL Data Analytics function and business users to completely change how they experience their engagement with Data & Analytics. Hybrid delivery squads were formed including people from X is Y, Ports Data Analytics team and business functions. Business-led user stories guided our sprint teams to deliver human-centred dashboards that showed users exactly what they needed, when they needed it. Our Agile BI approach delivered unprecedented value at pace, fitting the needs of business users exactly, creating a fresh understanding and appreciation of analytics for POAL. Our built-in data governance as part of the sprint process provided the assurance that business users were looking for and giving them confidence in the results. We also helped shape a cutting-edge cloud-based data platform that could handle any system or data complexity that POAL could throw at it. We were able to deliver extremely complicated data pipelines and dashboard updates at 15-minute intervals to give 24/7 visibility. 

The Benefits: New understanding, efficient delivery, reliable results.

As a result of our ongoing engagement with POAL they now have:

  • A collaborative and open channel between business users and data and analytics.

  • Metrics that are agreed, understood, documented and in use every day in a centralised workspace, so everyone is seeing the same information, saving time and confusion.

  • Automated and efficient dashboard views into key metrics that matter, saving hours of effort across dozens of users.

  • Unprecedented visibility into new metrics, drastically reducing risk and improving efficiency.

  • Reliable, governed metrics cutting out confusion and duplication.

  • A highly targeted understanding of data deficiencies that relate to metrics that matter - providing high value guidance for data improvement.

  • A data platform that allows POAL to build data pipelines with 95% less code and in a fraction of the time.

  • A set of patterns, support mechanisms, and architecture that supports POAL to own and scale their platform with confidence into the future. 

“Working with X is Y has been a pleasure throughout. They have helped us establish Agile BI deliveries with fast results and great transparency, and introduced us to cutting edge technology and methodologies that have accelerated our Data Foundations program of work. Our Metrics That Matter project has become a key strategic initiative for our executive.” Ratneesh Suri - Head of Data & Analytics - Ports of Auckland

Below is our webinar on how we used Ascend to establish Ports of Auckland's data platform.

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