The Business Problem

Urban Edge was looking to move away from spreadsheet reporting - which took time to prepare and quickly became outdated - to a more automated model which would remove information silos and provide everyone with access to reports in real time. They wanted one place to drive their reporting and dashboard agendas instead of having reports in separate tools and files. Due to Urban Edge’s alignment with the Microsoft stack, that place became Power BI.

The Outcome

Reporting methods did not meet current and future business needs. The Power BI reporting solution was created resulting in a number of benefits to the business.

Automated Reports

Challenge: Reporting files could take weeks to prepare and did not scale.

Solution: Built automated reports which had dynamic report graphs and summaries, utilizing tenant and property data from the ERP system of record (MRI) as the one source of truth.

Impact: Instead of manually compiling report data, users spend time analyzing report insights which enables them to make better decisions.

Data Refresh

Challenge: Files quickly become outdated and new files needed to be created for new reports. This meant that the latest reports contained non-current data most of the time, requiring a 2+ month lead time.

Solution: New data seamlessly brought into reports through scheduled and ad hoc data refreshes, moving to a near real-time view.

Impact: Better decisions can be made faster by being able to view reports and data in its current state and view changes over time for possible trends.

Interactive Reporting

Challenge: Reports were not dynamic and the data behind reports could not be examined for further insights.

Solution: Reports can be grouped by tenant classifications and drilled through from summary to detail. Commentary can be added. Robust visualizations provide valuable insight and can be adapted quickly.

Impact: Further insights into report figures gained, promoting fast decision making. Future reporting needs are easily incorporated.

Accurate and Transparent

Challenge: Reporting responsibilities spread amongst teams resulted in inefficient collaboration and data timeliness.

Solution: Underlying data is easily viewable and automated reports removed potential reporting time gaps. Insights highlight potential data discrepancies.

Impact: Underlying data is easily accessible, providing quick insight into outliers and potential issues.

Single Source of Truth 

Challenge: Similar information was used by different people to create separate reports. Information silos existed.

Solution: Data brought together into one solution. One source of truth established, used to build and tailor reports to an individual or teams’ needs.

Impact: Teams report on the same underlying transactional data, providing transparency and uniformity.

Mobile Access

Challenge: Unable to access latest data while on the go (leasing agents and property managers).

Solution: All reports made accessible via mobile devices. Quick views on property and tenant data reports help users to gain real-time information prior to meeting with tenants.

Impact: Teams have current data at their fingertips to assess trends and have relevant discussion with tenants.