Matillion reduces 80% of report requests with ThoughtSpot
60%
adoption company wide
£75,000
annual cost savings
80%
elimination of report requests
About
Believing that every business needs to compete using data, Matillion became a leading provider in this space, enabling businesses to leverage their data effectively and efficiently through their Data Productivity Cloud platform. A cloud software company based in Manchester and Denver, Matillion’s primary focus is on giving data engineers the tools to be more efficient and productive. On a mission to empower businesses to utilize their data better, Matillion operates in the same sphere as ThoughtSpot, engaging with customers passionate about getting the most value from their cloud data platform.
Industry
High Tech
Use Cases
Sales
Marketing
Financial Planning and Analysis
Modern data stack
Challenge
Matillion’s data team, led by Jean Mandarin, Senior Manager of Data Insights, set out to democratize data access with a small but determined team comprising two data engineers and two data analysts. While Matillion was able to increase data accessibility using their own product to build and manage their data pipelines at scale, easily getting into the visual presentation needed wasn’t possible. Despite their use of Tableau for visualization, they faced challenges due to the technical expertise required to perform further detailed analysis with existing dashboards. This resulted in bottlenecks when delivering insights and scaling to meet the demands of a growing user base. As Matillion's momentum accelerated, pressure increased to empower stakeholders, including new analysts and data science functions, with self-service data access.
Matillion identified two primary hurdles. The growing sales team sought deeper insights into go-to-market data to understand customer behavior, uncover business opportunities, and reduce costs. This created personalized data cuts and rapid creation of new dashboards to address pressing business inquiries, as delays in obtaining detailed customer dashboards from the data team impeded Sales Leaders' ability to promptly engage with customers.
Similarly, the FP&A team required the agility to analyze financial trends on-the-fly. Relying on the data team to build these analyses caused significant bottlenecks and hindered scalability. Without addressing these challenges, Matillion risked overlooking critical opportunities and high-risk.
These obstacles highlighted the pressing need to democratize data access across the organization, enabling users to analyze data independently without extensive technical training.
In response to these challenges, Matillion sought a new BI tool capable of addressing scalability, user-friendliness, and data access democratization. This paved their transition to ThoughtSpot.
Solution
Recognizing the importance of seamless integration with their current data infrastructure, including Amazon Redshift and Snowflake - which is centered around their own product - Matillion Data Productivity Cloud. Matillion carefully evaluated multiple solutions. Initially, ThoughtSpot stood out for its modern design, technical capabilities, and flexibility.
Matillion treated ThoughtSpot deployment similar to a product launch. They began with an assessment and a proof of concept (PoC) to test its fit. Next, deployment occurred in phases, starting with a private preview for heavy data users, followed by a public preview and a general announcement. By strategically packaging ThoughtSpot and engaging stakeholders early, Matillion ensured a smooth transition and enthusiastic adoption across the organization. Their innovative approach showcased ThoughtSpot's capabilities, setting the stage for transformative change.
Impact
The impact of the transition to ThoughtSpot has been nothing short of what Matillion was looking for. Matillion saw a rapid 60% company-wide adoption rate, of employees actively engaging with the platform, a substantial increase in user engagement compared to their previous BI tool.
Notably, the implementation of ThoughtSpot led to an 80% elimination of report requests that were previously burdening the data team. This not only streamlined operations, but also gave back analysts' time, creating £75,000+ in annual cost saving for Matillion. Analysts are enabled to redirect their efforts towards strategic endeavors and innovative data science initiatives. Now, both the sales and financial reporting teams can self-serve insights. "With ThoughtSpot, data analysis is no longer confined to the data team; it's become an integral part of decision-making across the organization," explains Jean Mandarin.
What's next
Matillion plans to leverage ThoughtSpot Sage, an AI-powered search experience to enhance their data analysis through natural language search. With predictive analytics and anomaly detection features, Matillion aims to anticipate market changes and make proactive decisions. They'll also explore ThoughtSpot for data management, quality assurance, and security use cases – all underpinned by Matillion’s Data Productivity Cloud.
By continuing to showcase ThoughtSpot's capabilities internally, Matillion aims to drive efficiency and innovation and stay a competitive leader in the industry.
ThoughtSpot is the AI-Powered Analytics company that lets everyone create personalized insights to drive decisions and take action.
