be the change you want to see in the world a revolution often starts with one
person and the one person in this case is Eric Briggs, reporting analysts in the
call center division of a fortune 1000 company. Now, he saw what was going on
with reporting in his company lots of different reports all disconnected from
each other. Most just spewing out numbers not really useful and you know you need help
when you have an Excel report tracking the other excel reports, Now that's not you is it?
Now listen to how eric
introduced Power BI not just to clean
house and consolidate reports but go
beyond the numbers to answering
questions that really matter it's
stories like Eric that get me excited
stories from real people just like you
and me using power bi to make a real
impact these are the power bi pioneers I
would also love to hear about your bar
be a journey so share that in the
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don't miss a thing let's hear it from
Eric hey Eric how you doing I'm good how
are you I am doing great well sterling
glad to be here with you so as a mine
terrific terrific so let's get started
tell me about how power bi is being used
in your company around call center
reporting yeah tell me tell me about
that we're using it for call center
reporting agent level Q level you know
getting a good indicator of what our top
drivers might be what it could look like
next year and really just getting down
to the nuts and bolts of what's driving
the calls and maybe what areas of focus
you know need need to be addressed Wow
so case the escalations Q escalations I
don't think we've ever really up until
now been able to
look at the time of a case has been open
and then interactively filter that with
you know time of year case type customer
that sort of thing yeah love that oh boy
so I already heard a little bit of that
in that you know which he just said but
still tell me how is this different than
how it was being done differently I'm
sure because Center has been around a
long time I'm sure people have been
churning out of course a long time how
is this any different any different I'm
gonna say probably the biggest impact is
we've because we cover a wide you know a
wide variety of drivers or just
reporting in general we had so many
freaking Excel reports it was insanity
we even had a list to track all of the
recurring ones who the go-to you know
time up here that sort of thing
the thing that I saw the most potential
of power bi in itself was just just that
it effectively eliminates and
consolidates a lot of that uh-huh just a
few different models and it makes it so
much easier to manage the other thing is
because you know large company people
have their own way they want to look at
the data so it was common occurrence for
people to request some kind of ad hoc
report you know to have to pull the data
modify how they wanted to see it and
then send it off to him power bi takes
that away and it effectively lets them
slice it however they want and the
questions already been answered it's
just a matter of them going in there and
looking at it wow that's pretty cool
okay so I definitely want to ask you
more about that but let's backtrack a
bit and maybe tell me a bit about your
journey maybe at this company maybe
prior to that that what brought you to
that what brought you to our bi um
so creating most of my reports in Excel
I've always been exposed to power pivot
didn't really use it hindsight now I
probably should have
how I got started was a team member of
mine said oh hey this is kind of like a
visual way you can pull a query from a
sequel database now I'm no sequel wizard
right it's kind of funny how that was
described but you know no sequel wizard
I know the basic stuff can get what I
need from there so I decided well I'll
check it out
well after jumping in there I mean this
and this is maybe eight months ago
hasn't even been a year after jumping in
there I quickly saw the potential and
you know I I got the free trial you know
which I think was like 30 days or some
but I was able to get enough out and
show it to enough you know managers and
people above me that I started getting
some attention yeah and you know I had a
couple people asked me to create reports
for other departments so you know I was
doing that and I got a couple of them
hooked yeah you know I was worried well
well once the license is out the show is
kind of over but I was able to have them
put some money down we got five licenses
so only a few of us have it and but
they're currently evaluating how we're
gonna deploy it you know large scale so
that's all you need that's all you need
is just the hook for anyone that's in
this situation you just seeing is
believing right you know come in and
show you the best of demos you see it
with your own data and head it turns
heads right so that's not great that's
pretty amazing you've been able to pull
that off so so yeah so so one one
question I would I ask you is that sure
I mean it's funny how it was described
initially like visual Wayne and a lot of
people fixate on that like the visual
end and of course when you're showing it
to somebody is management or somebody
else they only see the visual that's
what you show them well what do you
think about the the part about what's
under the hood and building the model
so that is something I was never exposed
to before for data modeling and I'm glad
that it's in there because I mean that's
it's not just really to power bi but I
mean it's any kind of background
background with databases it exposed me
to that world which something I've
always wanted to dive into but never
forgot the chance that the connectors
alone in power bi it's flexible and it's
vast enough that no matter where your
data is that you can get it and that's
the fact that love it's anywhere and
yeah I mean the more I look around I see
that the problems are kind of universal
I mean every company pretty much you
know you look at the analyst role or
somebody in the in the business area
they're struggling with pulling data
from multiple sources and combining them
cleaning it and it just does that so
easily and of course goes beyond that
all the measures and all the stuff right
so so that's great
what about was there any resistance did
you encounter some naysayers or somebody
who brushed it aside did you encounter
any of that I mean there were some that
you know they thought oh this was cool
but don't really see the full potential
of it and I mean that was probably my
biggest frustration is I knew the
potential was there it was just getting
them to see it and there was one one
dashboard that I worked really long on
and I didn't even it wasn't even my own
department that finally flipped the
switch it was one of our I guess you
could say our sister departments you
know they help us we help them sort of
thing yeah I got the manager over there
hooked and yeah he started showing yeah
my department lead and you know I go
okay well maybe there is something here
you know the yeah so you know I have had
the similar experience not just my own
story but so I call I call I use the
term power bi pioneers right these
people who are pushing you know power
I kind of add the edge and trying to
evangelize it within their team
organization but the the story I've seen
is that inevitably they kind of rise up
they rise above and beyond just their
own team I mean they inevitably get
connected with other members and my
story is that I was I don't know I was a
business analyst and kind of heads down
kind of guy just doing my own thing but
after discovering power bi I started
doing brown bags
that's so uncharacteristic of me like
right so but I hear some of that in your
story too that it just seemed like
organically happened that he got in
touch with other people and started
working with them mm-hmm that's exactly
right okay pretty cool so hey I want to
end this back where we started talking
about the reporting part we had reports
that you guys are using a call centers
now I use this phrase you've probably
heard it before we're peeling the onion
and you started off with something
really basic and what's mind-bending is
what's basic in power bi could be still
really really cool in mind-blowing in
the old world but it certainly seems
that you have gone on you've pushed the
envelope there in terms of pushing
beyond and and looking deeper and deeper
tell me a little bit about that journey
amande how long has it taken NIH's it
has it been kind of back and forth tell
me a little bit about that how it
evolved over time are you just like
learning power bi in general well so how
do you go back and forth like if you
have clients do you give them a report
and they come back with sports I just
want to yeah hear from you like how is
that experienced me how's that journey
been it's been pretty good overall I
mean the the biggest challenge I think
is me just having to learn the new tool
right when your first turn out with
power bi it goes easy then extremely
difficult and then it's easy again it's
it's bingo I mean I've seen I've gone
through the same same curve and I've
seen so many others
so so I get it I think it's it's easy
you start off just with the visuals then
you get hit with some of the Dax and M
stuff but you know it's not hard once
you figure that out then it opens so
many more possibilities for you right
mm-hmm
so I mean there's I guess to go back to
that is there's some things that people
would they oh it was done this way in
Excel can I have it look like this yeah
power bi it's you can get that but y-you
can get something so much more if you do
it you know the power bi way right yeah
so I mean I think change for for
audience can can be difficult sometimes
but really just keep pushing and
eventually they're gonna see that it's
better and that's what I'm starting to
experience
oh man this is this is the good stuff my
friend so I'll I'll code one of my other
friends and he talked about change and
managing change and and you know it's
it's funny I mean in a way it's not
really about power bi power bi as a
means to an end and it's a tool but it's
still an enabler in every power yeah
pioneer that I've talked to he they talk
about these people and kind of working
with them so that other friend of mine
he talked about that they don't fear
change
they fear loss right I mean loss of
whatever you know safety security you
have and so forth so one trick that I
sometimes use is and I don't know maybe
you tell me if you use this that if they
say yeah I want this this is my Excel
report or whatever something they're
getting from SSR has exported or
something to eat it just give me that
and I try to give them that as close as
I can and I'll say yeah here you go just
what you're asked for oh by the way this
is other thing here's this visual and
you know I give them something
graphically it's so interactive and you
have to use it you know just just try it
out if you pulled that off yeah yeah I
have and actually some kind of similar
is people like well I like to see the
data when you send Excel why I have the
data there I was like well here I'll
provide you this visual but if you want
to see the underlying data click these
three dots and there you go it's it's
the same thing just weed
have to send it to you in an excel sheet
alright alright hey this has been great
so last question I'm gonna ask you is
that you curve you talked about that
Barbie is easy and that it gets really
hard and it's easy again what would you
say to somebody who's stuck on that that
uphill climb and say oh this is so hard
and they're about to give up for me um
you know always I've always been a
self-help kind of guy and actually the
first time I've ever really considered
you in a class was for this because I
hit a brick wall and I just I couldn't
get over it you know if there's just
some things that you can't learn on your
own you need a push and if you're if
you're stuck go through training read
you know do do something get good
instructor help I guess a mentor and and
that's what I did and I'm so happy I did
because I don't think I would have ever
I mean maybe I would have but it would
have been frustrating and nail-biting
experience so what's waiting for them on
the other side though bliss it's
happiness I mean just not having to
manually send out reports is a godsend
that that's awesome you know answering
most of people's questions or concerns
power bi does that already by itself you
don't have to do a side little report
for them it it just makes maintaining
and doing everything so much easier
awesome Eric thank you so much for your
time today I really enjoyed her
conversation Thank You Man you're very
welcome thank you hey so what did you
think my favorite moment was when Eric
talked about the Excel report being used
to track all the other Excel reports
what was your favorite moment let me
know and if you would like to join Eric
inside to learn probably our family
there is information in the details
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