Infomedia is a global leader in data-as-a-solution (DaaS) and software-as-a-solution (Saas) products that empower the data-driven automotive ecosystem. Their solutions are trusted by over 250,000 users across 50 OEM brands, as well as NSCs, dealerships and third-party managers. In terms of global scale, their customers span 186 countries. Infomedia’s ultimate mission is to help their customers create convenient customer journeys, drive dealer efficiencies and grow sales.

External and Internal Analytics Strategy

With data and analytics as a central part of Infomedia’s product offerings, the need for accurate and timely data, both for external and internal use cases, is critical. With increasing demand across both channels, Infomedia saw a real need to rethink their overall analytics strategy.

Tableau Server acted as the centralised hub for all use cases, including a staggering 300,000 users across Infomedia’s customer base. The challenge with using the same Tableau Server deployment for everything was that certain types of activity could have potential effects on all reports across their customer base. For example, if Infomedia’s Finance department wanted to try building a new report that worked off the same data extract as other reports, it was possible that external-facing reports could experience performance issues.

Infomedia came up with the solution to focus on moving the internal report use cases from Tableau Server to Tableau Cloud and, at the same time, apply a different solution for external reports. The migration from Tableau Server to Tableau Cloud in this instance would provide many downstream benefits. Firstly, it would reduce the administrative and maintenance burden on Infomedia’s Engineering Team, headed by Edward Lee. It would also provide a considerable performance boost, allowing internal teams such Finance, Product and Sales to spin up new reports and projects without affecting the performance of the standard external reports being delivered to Infomedia customers daily. Finally, the advanced functionality of Tableau Cloud would also allow these teams more latitude to explore new insights that could generate new ideas for enhancements to Infomedia’s product offerings.

Delivering Results on Time and on Budget

When it comes to Tableau Cloud migration, though Infomedia is familiar with Tableau, they had to decide whether to take on this migration themselves, which would require significant internal resources, or to lean on the expertise of a Tableau consulting firm. As they were approaching some tight deadlines, Infomedia’s contacts at Tableau recommended InterWorks to help them get the job done.

InterWorks’ Account Executive Angela Kang, Platform Architect John Saunders and Solutions Engineer Roger Garcia jumped in to immediately start the work. After conferencing with Informedia’s Edward Lee and other stakeholders, the combined Infomedia and InterWorks team quickly established concrete milestones and deadlines for the Tableau Cloud migration to happen. While a lot of expertise and platform-specific help would come from the InterWorks team, Edward’s team would play perhaps an even more integral role by ensuring that Infomedia’s numerous data sources, reports and business logic were ready to port over seamlessly to Tableau Cloud.

“I was personally impressed that InterWorks hit the ground running. They had their templates and processes well planned out, making it to where we simply had to follow clearly defined steps. The specific dates and timelines really helped me team, and our people really turned it on to hit those on time.”

– Edward Lee, Head of Engineering, Infomedia

Thanks to incredible teamwork, coordination and organisation, Infomedia and InterWorks were able to complete their stated goals on time and on budget in under two months. Though many of the benefits of moving to Tableau Cloud will be felt downstream and in the long-term, Infomedia is already experiencing a shift in how they approach analytics. Case in point, teams across the organisation are diving back into the data, asking more questions and seeking expanded access.

For Edward and the Engineering team, the type of work they spend most of their time on has shifted from reactive maintenance to more proactive partnership. With the administrative burden of Tableau Cloud being far lower than Tableau Server, they are able to spend more time partnering with other groups to create new and innovative products that Infomedia can in turn provide their customers. By embracing he bold decision to change their analytics infrastructure, Infomedia has built an even stronger foundation to build upon for many years to come.

“The ability for my team and InterWorks to deliver on time and on budget without any hiccups was important to our success. As someone who runs an engineering team, I know how challenging this actually is. We also appreciated InterWorks’ willingness to advise on things that weren’t in the original scope of the project, which made us feel that they were genuinely invested in our success.”

– Edward Lee, Head of Engineering, Infomedia