How CData Connect Cloud Is Helping Businesses Power Better Analytics with Live Data Connectivity

With so many data integration solutions on the market, it’s hard choosing the right one to solve your data challenges without overcomplicating things. CData Connect Cloud enables you to build all the live data connections you need to power a variety of analytics use cases without the fuss. From analytics to automations, having live data where you need it can make the difference between the seeing the whole picture or just a part of it. Connect Cloud lets you to build live data connections without expensive or complicated data pipelines – no data movement or intermediary data warehouse required.

In this post, we’ll look at real use cases from companies that use CData Connect Cloud to unlock their data’s potential, including:

• Consolidating information into a single source of truth
• Building real-time dashboards
• Enabling complex automations

1. Mid-sized retail company gets a consolidated view of the whole picture in their BI platform

One of the most common challenges organizations are facing is scattered, siloed data—sales information in one system, customer data in another, and finance details elsewhere. This fragmentation slows down decision-making, making it harder to get a full picture. Customers using CData Connect Cloud say it’s invaluable for consolidating data from multiple platforms into a single source of truth for accurate analytics and reporting. Connect Cloud’s unique pre-built data connections also lets users to skip the intermediary data warehouse, simplifying their organization’s data stack and cutting storage costs.

This retail company was using several different platforms at once: Shopify for their e-commerce, Salesforce for their customer relationship management (CRM), and QuickBooks for finance. Each system held valuable data, but the retailer needed to combine the isolated information into a unified analytics dashboard. By leveraging CData Connect Cloud, they connected these disparate sources into a robust business intelligence (BI) platform, PowerBI. This provided a consolidated view of their sales, customer engagement, and financials, making it easier to track performance and guide strategy—all without moving any data. Everything remained live and current as updates flowed from the source systems, and the company was able to trust their insights in PowerBI because Connect Cloud was connecting data behind the scenes, entirely removing the manual download and upload process.

Key outcomes

• 30% reduction in operational costs related to data management
• Approximately 15 hours per week were saved on manual data processes
• Decision-making time was cut by an average of 25% because all key metrics were updated in real-time in Power BI

2. An energy company manages shipping exceptions and updates in real time

Static reports are quickly becoming obsolete. What more and more businesses need today are live dashboards that update as soon as new data enters upstream systems. CData Connect Cloud’s live data connection enables real-time insights that stay synced with the data at its source. Whether tracking KPIs, inventory, or market trends, teams can access up-to-the-minute data in platforms like Power BI, Looker, or Tableau.

A company in the energy industry that handles supply chains for shipping industrial materials uses CData Connect Cloud to monitor shipments in real time. They needed a live dashboard that could pull in tracking information from multiple sources, including their internal enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and third-party shipping providers. The result was a real-time logistics dashboard in Tableau, giving the operations team instant visibility into shipment statuses, delays, and other critical supply chain data. Whenever the underlying data changed—whether through an internal update or a change in third-party data—the dashboard reflected those changes immediately, keeping the company agile and responsive, and trucks running continuously across America.

Key outcomes

• Shipping delays were reduced by 20% and on-time deliveries improved by 15%, thanks to instant visibility into potential supply chain disruptions
• The company saved an estimated $500,000 annually in potential delay-related costs
• Manual tracking efforts were reduced by 40 hours per week, allowing their operations team to focus on more strategic tasks instead of firefighting logistics issues

3. Automating sales order creation to take care of a manual process in seconds

Beyond reporting and dashboards, CData Connect Cloud is helping customers power their more technical and automated workflows. Using iPaaS and automation solutions like Microsoft Power Automate or Microsoft Power Apps, customers are automating repetitive tasks and complex workflows without needing deep technical expertise.

A sales team wanted to automate purchase order (PO) processing to speed up their sales-to-delivery cycle. Their IT partner uses CData Connect Cloud to create a seamless integration between their sales platform in Oracle NetSuite and Microsoft Power Automate. Now, whenever a new PO is created, CData Connect Cloud connects the data from the sales ERP, checks it against their inventory in real time, and automates the approval workflow. This process, which used to take hours of manual coordination, now runs automatically in seconds, giving the sales and finance teams more time to focus on strategic tasks instead of waiting on POs to process.

Key outcomes

• Time spent on manual PO processing was reduced by 90% with CData Connect Cloud, speeding up the workflow from several hours to just seconds.
• The sales-to-delivery cycle was accelerated, resulting in a 20% faster time-to-market for their services
• The streamlined process is estimated to save the company $250,000 annually by minimizing human error and manual intervention in PO handling

Unlocking new capabilities with live data connectivity

CData Connect Cloud offers the flexibility and power to meet diverse business needs, whether it’s creating real-time dashboards, connecting multiple data sources, or automating processes across departments. By providing live, direct access to your data wherever you need it, CData Connect Cloud ensures that your decisions are always based on complete, up-to-the-minute information. The power to create these connections on-the-fly, with no/low-code, accelerates the data agility and literacy needed in a world where everyone has some role to play with data.

Ready to create all the data connections you need without complicated data pipelines and see what CData Connect Cloud can do for your business? Start a free 30-day trial today.