Considering a Move to Sigma Computing? How to Navigate a BI Migration

Choosing the right Business Intelligence (BI) tool is vital to ensure your organization has access to the necessary insights to develop and refine strategy and processes. Each tool provides unique features and functionality, impacting how your data is transformed and presented to end users. 

As experts in the data and analytics space, our engineers have extensive experience with many different BI tools. While the same tool might not work for everyone, one tool our clients are increasingly migrating to is Sigma Computing.

Why Sigma Computing? 

Sigma is a cloud analytics platform built for users of any level of technical expertise. With numerous choices on the market, how do you know if Sigma is the right fit for you?

1. Direct Data Access: Sigma offers direct access to any cloud data warehouse, enabling real-time analysis without data movement.
2. Collaborative Platform: Designed for collaboration, Sigma allows teams to work together in real-time on the same data.
3. Simplified Modeling: Users can perform complex modeling without extensive SQL knowledge, benefiting users with a less technical aptitude.
4. Scalability: Sigma scales well to support growing data and user needs.
5. Single Source of Truth: Custom metrics can be managed at the data source level in Sigma and also limit access to the data source and still give edit access to the workbook. This ensures that not everyone can change it, and it is also easy to make sure everyone is using the same metrics because the data source is editable and then reusable across any workbook.
6. Customer Support: Need assistance? The Sigma support team is dedicated to client success and will work alongside your team to overcome any challenges.

The BI Migration Process

Data Clymer is a trusted and experienced partner in migrating clients from other BI platforms to Sigma Computing. After evaluating your business needs to ensure Sigma is the right fit, our engineers will work diligently with your team to stand up Sigma and deliver a seamless transition. 

Discovery

Once your organization has made the decision to invest in Sigma, the Data Clymer Sales and Engineering teams will collaborate to develop a detailed project proposal to fit your unique needs. In scoping the project, we focus on several key areas including:

• State of the Data: Is there an established data warehouse? Are there any source data concerns that need to be addressed prior to moving forward with the project?
• Current Reporting: We’ll review the number of dashboards (with consideration to tabs and elements included in each), which of them are most frequently used, and which are considered most business-critical.
• Drivers of Complexity: This will vary by individual projects, but this includes user roles and permissions, desired functionality (such as tool tip and custom calculations), and ideal delivery timeline.
• Deadlines: Cutoff date for the current BI tool is a major consideration, but we will also evaluate individual dashboard priority and deadlines.

All of these factors help determine the level of effort for both development and testing time for each dashboard. 

Project Initiation & Development

Congratulations, it’s time to kick off our partnership! Once we have aligned on scope and timeline, we move to active project mode so your organization can start realizing the benefits of Sigma as soon as possible. To ensure project success through the development portion of the BI migration, we will provide:

1. Clear Requirements: Data Clymer will work closely with your team to define requirements for each dashboard and visualization. The more detailed the requirements are, the more efficient the development and testing process will be.
2. Experienced Developers: Our deep expertise in Sigma and BI migrations allows us to implement best practices and help you avoid common pitfalls.
3. Transparent Documentation: Throughout the project lifecycle, you will have visibility into the status of work items and a shared project plan with individual dashboard timelines determined by priority level.
4. Feature Review and Recommendations: Our engineers will review current reports and advise on opportunities to reuse calculations, add beneficial features, and update functionality to optimize performance in Sigma.
5. Scheduled Touchpoints: Our teams will meet regularly to ensure expectations remain aligned throughout the project and an open line of communication is maintained.

User Acceptance Testing

Testing, 1-2-3! Once a dashboard is complete, our engineering team will hand it off for review and User Acceptance Testing (UAT). This process gives your team the opportunity to dive into the details of the dashboard and request updates. This could be something as minor as changing the shade of blue, or taking a deep dive into the underlying calculation to ensure accuracy. Thorough and timely user testing is critical to ensuring a successful project. The Data Clymer team will provide support throughout UAT and drive progress with:

• Continuous development: Our engineers can’t stop and won’t stop! By handing off individual dashboards on a rolling basis, it allows development to continue on the next dashboard in line.
• Standardized processes: We know what works. During UAT, we utilize a streamlined change request process to maintain efficiency and eliminate redundant documentation. 

Knowledge Transfer

Once UAT is complete and final approval has been obtained for all dashboards, our engineers will develop tailored documentation with key details unique to your data and visualizations. Want to learn in real time? No problem! We will set up meeting time for training, demonstrations, and knowledge transfer to ensure your team is fully equipped to take ownership and manage Sigma independently. 

Customer Example: Rapid Migration to Sigma Embedded Dashboards

A golf course management software provider faced a tight deadline to migrate their 13 embedded dashboards, with a total of 51 dashboard pages, from Tableau to Sigma. The migration was critical, as over 100 clients relied on these reports for their businesses, necessitating a quick and seamless transition without downtime.

Data Clymer set off to work with a detailed 8-week project plan executed by two of our expert data engineers – but we were working against the clock. Our client’s access to their previous BI tool was set to expire only 6 weeks into the project, so a quick pivot was needed. Data Clymer adapted by adding an additional engineer to ensure the migration was completed before the cutoff. 

Making a change to a new BI tool often means that current features cannot be matched one-to-one. Data Clymer successfully completed the migration of the 13 dashboards while managing design tradeoffs to preserve a similar aesthetic and functionality across the different BI platforms. Additionally, Data Clymer enhanced the dashboards by optimizing custom calculations for better performance and readability, and by shifting transformations to the modeling layer, resulting in improved load times. Throughout the design and development process, Data Clymer maintained a focus on data integrity and security by implementing row-level security in all dashboards, validating data accuracy, and conducting user-acceptance tests with our client for final approval.

Ready to Get Started With Sigma Computing?

As a Sigma Computing consulting partner with deep platform expertise, we help organizations at any stage in their data and analytics journey to get the most value from this highly robust data visualization tool. If your organization is looking to migrate from a different BI tool to Sigma, we can help you get started with a free data strategy session with one of our Sigma experts.