Have you ever been asked to prepare a report using data that is spread out between two or more systems? I’ve been there.. In my professional life, I work in multiple systems and each is a purpose-built, off-the-shelf product that integrates with other solutions but that reports primarily its own data.
So, what happens when you need to compare that data side by side? Sales vs. actual financials, or support requests compared to product requests? These are just two examples from my world, but I imagine anyone who is responsible for reporting can think of others and knows how painful it can be to try to bring that data together from different systems and make it work.
Spieker Point is an Edmonton-based company that builds enterprise-level software to make reporting an easier process. I sat down with Greg Campbell, CEO of Spieker Point to learn more about their products and their approach.
Fifteen years ago, Greg and his team started out as a custom development shop but they realized they were building key building blocks over and over. Each time you build software from scratch you have to take into consideration the user interface, administration, security, performance, scalability, installation procedures… the list goes on. This came at a cost for each customer, and at a big cost for Spieker Point in terms of testing and support.
As they worked through their options, they chose to build Deck Decision Ware as an operations management platform, rather than focus on custom development, combining the building blocks above with the ability to integrate and share data between systems. From there, organizations can set up reporting and dashboards as well as workflows so that as data becomes available, they can set up tasks to kick off the next step in a process.
Greg shared an example that he worried might not sound exciting, but I thought was pretty impressive. For one customer, using automated data connections and automated workflow reduced the “load” on one of their large enterprise clients for a manual monthly report that used to take two high-end staff accountants 12 business days (24 business days per month) to turn out every month, to zero time. Now the report is available first thing in the morning on the first day of the month.
Imagine your team gaining 24 days per month and a key report showing up two weeks earlier than it did before?
Greg and his team support users across Canada and the States—with customers that scale from 150 to one million users with the ability to provide performance, security, automation and reporting. Now that is impressive!
I asked Greg why Spieker Point and why Alberta? Greg says he is a builder, and when he started Spieker Point, he wanted to design great solutions, and treat both his employees and his customers well. Greg is excited for his team as they are expanding and having fun to boot, but their HQ will remain in Alberta. He sees tremendous potential in Alberta. We have hidden gems in terms of the technology being built here, with a great reputation for quality and world-class tech.
Want to learn more? Tune into my full interview with Greg:
And check out Spieker Point’s website: https://www.spiekerpoint.com/