Karbon Intelligence Best Practices


Userlevel 1

We are exploring signing up for Karbon Intelligence to gain visibility in to all of the aspects of how our team works together and supports clients. We use the insights at a high level, but we are looking to go deeper regarding the length work sits at various stages, time to complete specific work items and more. Has anyone rolled out Intelligence yet and do you have any tips or learnings from your experience yet if so?


17 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

We have not yet. I plan to dig into it when I wrap up a few other projects. I’m curious to see who is using it now and how. 

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

We are also interested in the value insights can offer, it is an investment but the power of the data I’m sure could huge. Would be good to hear from those using it already and what they are learning 

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Have you gone anywhere with this Jeff? I am interested in what it can do. I have watched the promotional video but it doesn't spell out what you get with Practice Intelligence and what requires Power BI as well

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

Practice intelligence gives you a specific kind of access to your Karbon database tables (ex: obdc). This gives you access to the back-end database tables that contains your data. With the entry-level tier you don't get access to all of your data. You only get access to preformed tables that show the most relevant data, which is enough for most use cases.

You can connect to this data using anything that analyzes data. Power BI as one popular software that people use to analyze data, but you could alternatively use Excel, Tableau, or Google Data Studio, etc.

Karbon offers a Power BI template to analyze your data, but you could manually create your own dashboards using whatever platform you choose.

Does that help at all?

Userlevel 6
Badge +10

We are working with KPI now.  Initial tips if you are considering this:

  • Make sure you have someone on your team that is well versed with Power BI - that will make the world of difference for you.
  • If you opt to use the Excel option, make sure you have someone well versed with pivot table and dashboard creations in Excel
  • Have an idea of how you want to see your data ahead of time and goals on specific layouts and uses
  • Have a way to “balance” your data exports back to what you see in Karbon to make sure there are no data glitches or missing items

Hope this helps!

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Does anyone have tips for where to start creating our own reports in Power BI?  Do I start with Modeling? We are new to Power BI and I have been watching a lot of tutorials. Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

Userlevel 6
Badge +10

@Kari Hannum Here are some tips from our in-house Power BI guru @Angelica Gonzalez :

  1. I would say start by connecting all the tables to each other (if not connected) - i.e. "Modeling"
  2. Then identify what information they would like to see
  3. Make a draft board with visuals (play with different ones to see which gives them the most useful views), placing the information they identified as wanted
  4. Add filters to drill down into specifics

Also, make copies of your boards, in-case you need to start over!

Hope this helps!

Kylene

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

@kylenecarse Thank you!

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Can anyone tell me what the basic reports show? I see we get a 2 week trial but as we have only been using KarbonHQ for a month, then I am reluctant to start that if we don't have enough activity history. Which is why it would be useful to know what the "basic" reports actually are.

Userlevel 1

Just jumping in to say this was something we were super keen to drill into - particularly the time in status for work items, and time spent within each work task type too. We have a PowerBI specialist in-house working on optimising this, but keen to hear if anyone has best practice tips and tricks on how to make the most out of this functionality. 

Userlevel 2
Badge

Does anyone have tips for where to start creating our own reports in Power BI?  Do I start with Modeling? We are new to Power BI and I have been watching a lot of tutorials. Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

Hey Kari, We also offer pre built PowerBI workbooks that we hope to add many views to in the near future. Please let us know if there is a theme of particular importance to you. 

Userlevel 2
Badge

Can anyone tell me what the basic reports show? I see we get a 2 week trial but as we have only been using KarbonHQ for a month, then I am reluctant to start that if we don't have enough activity history. Which is why it would be useful to know what the "basic" reports actually are.

Our initial reports show working hours, time utilization and work by status but am looking to expand these reports to your needs. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

@Logan Baillie I see the data refreshes daily (12 UTC), is that 12am or pm? Is it possible to increase the frequency at all (e.g. 2 x per day)? 🙂

Userlevel 7
Badge +13

I have had several sessions with Logan recently.  He will help you understand how the prebuilt workbooks function and help you add some customization to your workbooks to show the data in a meaningful manner for your firm. He is easy to contact by email or you can schedule a meeting with him and he will help you make the most out of your data.

Some knowledge of how Power BI works is helpful.  Microsoft offers several free classes to help you get up to speed. I watched some of their basic videos and attended a full-day power BI workshop. I am still a beginner when it comes to power BI, but the workbooks are easy to use, the data is easy to manipulate, and we are getting some very valuable insights into our problem areas.

Userlevel 2
Badge

Thanks so much for this @DianeK . PowerBI is our current solution for visualising data but we understand there is a learning curve. We are keen to hear if there are other ways Karbon Firms would find more convenient to do this visualisation.

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

Thanks so much for this @DianeK . PowerBI is our current solution for visualising data but we understand there is a learning curve. We are keen to hear if there are other ways Karbon Firms would find more convenient to do this visualisation.

My vote is to stick with PowerBI, or at least keep a connection that PowerBI can use.

Userlevel 7
Badge +13

@max  I think we should keep Power BI as well.  A few training courses and a meeting with Logan and we are up and running. The workbooks that have been provided are great and can be customized to meet your needs.

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