A Written BI Plan Before You Commit to a Dashboard Build
BI consulting is a scoped engagement that reviews your data sources, current reports and reporting requests, and ends in a written recommendation — useful on its own, whether or not a build follows it.
What This Engagement Produces
This is not a proposal in disguise. We look at where your numbers currently come from, what is actually being asked for by whom, and what tools or approach would answer it — then write that down as a plan you can act on with anyone, including us. If the honest answer is that you do not need a build yet, the engagement says so.
When to Start Here Rather Than With a Build
No One Technical Has Reviewed Your Reporting
Reports have accumulated over years of requests with nobody stepping back to check whether the current set still matches what the business needs.
Requests Keep Arriving Faster Than Anyone Can Prioritise
Every department wants a dashboard and there is no ranked list of which one would actually change a decision first.
You Are Unsure Whether to Buy a Tool or Build Something
Licensed BI products and a custom build solve different problems at different costs, and choosing between them without a review usually means guessing.
A Previous Reporting Project Did Not Deliver
Money was spent on a dashboard that is no longer used, and before spending again you want to know what actually went wrong.
What Gets Reviewed
- The reports and dashboards currently in use, and who actually opens them
- The systems where your data lives today, and which one should be treated as the authoritative source for each figure
- Requests and complaints your team has raised about reporting over the past year
- Any licensed reporting tools already paid for, and whether they are being used to capacity
What You Receive
- A written inventory of your data sources and what each one is fit to report on
- A prioritised list of the reporting gaps worth closing first
- A recommendation on tooling — a licensed BI product, a custom build, or neither yet
- A rough scope and sequencing for the work, if a build is the right next step
Frequently asked questions
Can the assessment conclude that we should not build anything yet?
Yes, and it sometimes does. If your current reporting can be fixed with a smaller change, or if a licensed tool would answer your questions without a custom build, the recommendation says that plainly.
Are we obligated to have GullySystem carry out the build afterwards?
No. The written plan is yours to take to any team, including your own, once the engagement ends.
How long does the consulting engagement itself take?
It depends on how many systems and stakeholders are involved, but it is deliberately shorter than a build — most of the time goes into interviews and reviewing what already exists, not into producing new artefacts.
We already brought in a BI vendor once before this. Is a fresh assessment still useful?
Often, yes. Part of the review is understanding why the previous attempt did or did not stick, which usually points to a specific fixable cause rather than reporting being the wrong idea altogether.
Will the recommendation always favour a custom build over an off-the-shelf tool?
No. Recommending a licensed tool costs us the build revenue and we still do it when it is the better fit — a small reporting need does not usually justify custom software.
Who keeps the written document at the end?
You do, permanently, regardless of what you decide to do next with it.
Tell us what you need.
Send a short brief and one of our engineers will come back to you — usually the same day.
- No obligation
- We reply the same working day
- Your details stay private