Keyrus

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm an executive at a life sciences solutions company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Keyrus?

We wanted to use software solutions for business intelligence to use our data better. So we were looking for a partner to help us with that and implement dashboards for executive use.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Keyrus has helped us develop robust data models to make data analysis. They’ve worked in everything related to that, including data management and data analytics, using Tableau as their main tool for business intelligence.

What was the team composition? 

For this project, we’ve worked with five members of Keyrus’ team.

How did you come to work with Keyrus?

We initially found them through Tableau, but we’ve worked with Keyrus on previous projects related to customer data, so we decided to pull them into this project too.

How much have you invested in them?

So far, we’ve spent around $500,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working with them in February 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our partnership with Keyrus is great, and we enjoy working with them. They have quick turnaround times, are flexible, and listen to our feedback, which is very important. Overall, they’ve helped us in many different ways. 

How did Keyrus perform from a project management standpoint?

Keyrus has been able to stay close to the budget we initially agreed on despite the situations arising out of scope. Regarding communication and project management, we use Microsoft Teams and monday.com.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Keyrus’ ability to listen and understand their customers and products is one of their biggest strengths. They also have very open communication, and their expertise is very robust.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their quality is great, but there’s always room for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the data strategy and delivery manager at Lamb Insurance Services. We’re an insurance broker company specifically for nonprofit and human services organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Keyrus?

We wanted to switch our business intelligence (BI) tool from Sisense to Tableau. We had a quick turnaround and needed help getting some of our key dashboards up and running within one week.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Keyrus developed custom dashboards on Tableau and provided our finance team with Tableau training. We had custom dashboards in our old BI tool and took screenshots of them, downloaded, and shared them with Keyrus since we lost access when we stopped using our old tool. 

Keyrus built our custom dashboards on Tableau using the old dashboards as references. They also developed our main sales dashboard and its data source. Keyrus used Tableau desktop and custom Microsoft SQL Server connections for development. Additionally, Keyrus conducted a half-day training for our sales team to get them familiar with Tableau as our new BI tool. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with Keyrus’ Tableau consultant and managing consultant. The Tableau consultant managed most of the development work, and the managing consulting consultant oversaw the project’s deliverables.

How did you come to work with Keyrus?

Keyrus was recommended to us by Tableau when we signed our contract with them since Keyrus is one of Tableau’s partners. We did an initial consult and decided to go with Keyrus. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $7,000 with Keyrus.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together in January 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Keyrus developed a functional dashboard that we still use four years later. We’ve updated it but still use the core development features Keyrus built. 

Moreover, Keyrus listened to our feedback and had a quick around. They helped us with the dashboard that needed the most work, which was great. 

How did Keyrus perform from a project management standpoint?

Keyrus was great to work with from a project management standpoint. They met deadlines and communicated clearly through email and in-person meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed by Keyrus’ consultants since they were Tableau experts. We trusted Keyrus completely and knew they’d work following Tableau’s best practices. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were pleased with the output and can’t think of anything for Keyrus to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend to have a clear project outline when you start working with Keyrus; this helped our project because we had a clear understanding of what we needed to accomplish.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of operations for Pajama Program, a national charitable nonprofit that promotes a comforting bedtime routine and healthy sleep for children. Our program provides new pajamas, storybooks, sleep health education, and caring connections. 

Our goal is to ensure that children facing adversity across the US have the tools they need for a better bedtime, particularly families with low-income, housing insecurity, and family instability.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Keyrus?

Initially, we needed an overhaul of our Salesforce platform. In 2020, we acquired a separate charitable organization with their own Salesforce platform, so we needed to merge the two platforms.

Moreover, each year we partner with 900–1,000 classrooms that collect pajama sets to donate to our community partners, and a books publishing company donates a book for each pajama set. In the past, we would manually match the participating classrooms to their closest community partner, which was a big amount of work. We needed to automate this process with a custom platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked on different projects with Keyrus. Initially, they helped us merge two separate Salesforce platforms into one. Keyrus assisted with data migration and data mapping. They also realized a complete overhaul of our Salesforce platform and unified all our disorganized data collections. Keyrus enhanced our organizational architecture and frameworks around CRM management. 

Moreover, Keyrus designed a custom platform that automatically matches participating schools with the closest five nearby community partners using geolocation. They helped us design this solution since the discovery phase and used the backend on Salesforce to generate a real-time list of the registered classrooms.

At first, Keyrus analyzed our workflow and internal process. The development and fundraising team worked with Keyrus to identify how we could streamline our process through Salesforce. In the past, the program’s team used Microsoft Excel to track their programmatic deliverables, and Keyrus helped us ensure the same information was mirrored on Salesforce. 

Keyrus also helped us create the communication pieces with the feedback provided by the participating classrooms, which are mostly returning partners. They used to wait up to two months for their donations to be matched with a book and a community partner. 

Additionally, Keyrus documented all the process steps to ensure clear communication was rolled out for internal and external stakeholders. Keyrus supported us with this task and created a step-by-step playbook that I can refer to when needed. 

What is the team composition?

I mainly worked with Rick (Principal Salesforce Architect) and Keyrus’ salesforce technical lead, who worked as our project manager. They helped us put together a scope of work, review the budget, and manage invoices.

How did you come to work with Keyrus?

When I started working at my organization in November 2021, they already had a relationship with Keyrus, so I’m unsure how we initially found them. I joined the project during the discovery phase. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $58,000 with Keyrus. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Although I’m unsure of when our engagement with Keyrus started, the initial overhaul of our Salesforce platform concluded in August 2022. Additionally, the automated platform development concluded in January 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The automated system developed by Keyrus streamlined our complete operation and saved us about two months of work. This tool was a big game changer for our organization’s operation and a tremendous asset to our business model. 

We interviewed around 500 participating teachers and had a significant representative sample response of about 300 teachers. One of our questions was about our new automated system, and we received an 80%–90% positive response.

Moreover, Keyrus understood our company's struggles and identified automation opportunities to enhance our process. They were in tune with our needs and processed them to deliver results as needed. 

The playbook Keyrus created was a great resource for us since I could go back to it when I needed to. Keyrus ensured our staff had the necessary tools and proper guidance to navigate our new interface.

We continue to automate and enhance our processes as much as we can to succeed as an organization. We will seek Keyrus’ advice in the future since we consider these relationships important for small organizations like ours.

How did Keyrus perform from a project management standpoint?

Keyrus was on point in meeting deadlines from the beginning of our project. We had meetings through Microsoft Teams and Zoom. I scheduled meetings on Microsoft Teams and had a close relationship with Keyrus’ team — I could call them if I had an emergency. 

Overall, we had a great working relationship, and I could trust Keyrus would deliver results in a timely manner. I feel as if we were their only client because of how much time Keyrus dedicated to our project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have a significant background in Salesforce as a lead system administrator, and I’ve also worked in the corporate sector. Keyrus is the best company I’ve worked with. Their work speaks volumes, and they were really dedicated to our project. 

Moreover, Keyrus cared about our organization’s mission and were invested on an emotional level too. They understood the impact our work has and how it benefits the lives of young people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for Keyrus to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you work with Keyrus, you can rest assured that you’ll be in good hands. You can trust Keyrus’ level of expertise. Moreover, have as many discovery sessions led by Keyrus’ team as you can, this will help to have a successful deployment of your new Salesforce platform.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a director at a digital media company in the health industry. We publish health-related content online. In our broader business, we work on health information, content, and services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Keyrus?

We recently acquired a business unit that publishes health content, such as hospital and physician reviews. We needed to migrate this business unit from their legacy Salesforce instance to a new one. The project entailed migrating the instance and rewriting the entire experience because we wanted to clean up the old instance and make the new one more usable and effective.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Keyrus migrated one of our business units into a new Salesforce instance. They started with a discovery phase where they did several deep-dive sessions with our internal team to understand the business use case, how we wanted to use the system, and how to improve it from the legacy system. 

From there, Keyrus moved into the migration and implementation phase. They rebuilt the Salesforce instance from scratch and developed our requirements. Then, Keyrus moved into testing and launch. They also provided post-launch support. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with three main teammates from Keyrus: a lead engineer, a junior engineer, and an analyst. 

How did you come to work with Keyrus?

We found them through a referral from another business unit that had worked with Keyrus on a tableau project. Our other business unit gave us really good feedback about the team, and since our experiences with previous providers weren’t as strong, we decided to go with Keyrus. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $380,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2021, launched in July 2022, and then Keyrus provided post-launch support until October 2022. The team is still on call in case we need services.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Our measures for Keyrus’ success were usability, adoption across the sales team, and efficiency in using the system. The legacy instance was built for another business, so many of its features weren’t relevant and caused bottlenecks. The new instance is really clean and purpose-built for our team, allowing us to move through the system more quickly and efficiently. The system also enables us to capture more quality data. 

How did Keyrus perform from a project management standpoint?

They met our deadline and stayed within our budget. We used Zoom to communicate and had regular check-ins a few times a week and ad-hoc meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Keyrus picked up on our business really quickly; they understood our use cases and were thoughtful about their recommendations. The team really took the time to understand our needs, going above and beyond. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Initially, they had a project manager on the engagement who only sat in on meetings and wasn’t super helpful. Therefore, some management tasks fell on our plate. However, they were awesome at tracking tasks on their side and following up with us. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as clear and specific about your requirements as possible. Keyrus is very good about running the discovery phase, so you should spend that time outlining your business needs and use cases.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a communications agency called SPI Group. I also help work with our development team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Keyrus?

We hired Keyrus for their cloud consulting services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Keyrus is helping us with one of our client projects. Right now, we have a website and two apps, and they’re helping us move them from our physical server to AWS. They’ve built the AWS platform for us.

What is the team composition?

We work with four people from their side, including a project manager and a cloud developer.

How did you come to work with Keyrus?

Keyrus was recommended to us by someone in our company who had worked with them before.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2022, and our engagement is still ongoing. We’re about to wrap up the project soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’re still in the process of launching the AWS environment, so I don’t have any metrics to share yet. However, our whole team really likes working with Keyrus; we appreciate all the insights and guidance they’ve given us through this process.

How did Keyrus perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is fabulous to work with. They’ve been really transparent throughout the process, especially about what they’re working on and meeting deadlines. We also have a lot of meetings together, including training sessions. For communication, we interact via email and phone calls.

We’ve slightly gone over our budget, but that’s because of the extra work we require.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We really don’t have experience with cloud services, so having more documentation would be helpful for us in terms of gaining knowledge.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of enterprise application and data services for a public transportation service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Keyrus?

We needed someone to implement an enterprise data warehouse containing all disparate data across our organization, so we can mine and utilize them for decision-making processes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Keyrus provides us with data warehouse and business intelligence project consulting services that started with a discovery phase to identify our business and technical needs. We then moved to the procurement phase where they helped document the scope of the project and necessary details required to publish a RFP seeking the services of an data warehouse and business intelligence implementation partner.

Currently we are in the implementation phase with the new implementation partner. Keyrus is providing us with project management and oversight for the entire process, making sure the solution implemented meets our needs.

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with a site engagement supervisor, project manager, business analyst, and data architect.

How did you come to work with Keyrus?

We evaluated several vendors through a bidding process and chose Keyrus because of their experience and proposal.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve invested about $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership with Keyrus started in October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They were able to conduct multiple interviews with different businesses across 18 departments successfully, so they can better analyze and utilize the information they’ve gathered to create a custom Data Warehouse strategy based on our needs and environment. They didn't try to shoehorn us into a cookie-cutter solution but leveraged their experience, knowledge and best practices to develop a roadmap for us.

How did Keyrus perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent from a project management perspective as they’ve consistently adhered to our schedule and budget so far. They’re very meticulous and detail-oriented in the development phase, which makes us very happy.

We typically communicate through Microsoft Teams, phone, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We haven’t worked with any other vendor for this type of project but based on our experience, we’re very impressed with Keyrus’ responsiveness, attentiveness, and willingness to go above and beyond the scope of the project.

Moreover, they’re very thorough and they can easily explain complex concepts in a way we can understand, so their technical communication skills are very good. The quality of their work is also impressive, as their proactive approach allows them to ensure every detail of the project is taken care of.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing stands out so far, but we’re always providing feedback which they’ve used to continuously improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise potential customers to ensure that you're on the same page with the Keyrus by explaining your needs thoroughly and candidly including strengths, any weak points and challenges within your organization. This is so they can evaluate it fully and bring you the best possible solution customized for your business.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a home and garden products manufacturer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Keyrus?

We needed help with our cloud architecture.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Keyrus helps us navigate, set up, and improve the way our AWS cloud environment is set up. The team provides support for us offsite. Initially, they presented a scope of work for us to approve.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with four people from Keyrus, including teammates from sales and the developers.

How did you come to work with Keyrus?

They were referred to us by AWS, our main supplier. We spoke with Keyrus and explained our needs, and they provided a proposal which we agreed to.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve invested around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Keyrus has drastically improved the quality of our infrastructure; it’s now more reliable. Before working with them, we had a lot of inefficient, improvised setups. Now, we have a world-class structure. Keyrus has implemented a very deliberate, high-quality system for us. Overall, we’re very satisfied with their work.

How did Keyrus perform from a project management standpoint?

We typically communicate via email, and we have Microsoft Teams meetings. Although they meet the budget, they haven’t delivered on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed by Keyrus’ understanding of the subject matter; they’ve made really good recommendations. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

If anything, they could improve the timeliness of their deliverables. That wouldn’t be completely fair given the circumstances, though, so I don’t have any constructive feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Every case is different, and everybody will have particular needs. If I were starting over, it’s hard to pinpoint what I would do differently. Some things weren’t apparent to us in the discovery phase; we found complexities related to third parties, and there wasn’t anything Keyrus could have done in advance.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the IT Manager for a lighting manufacturer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Keyrus?

Keyrus will be assisting with our migration from our current business intelligence tool into Tableau

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Tableau recommended Keyrus as our vendor. They were very helpful during the pre-sales calls and meetings and gave a lot of flexibility to get this project approved.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Keyrus assisted in making sure we had all the information and access needed to test the SaaS. Once we happy with our testing, they extended our test keys so that we were able to present the software to upper management which allowed us to seal the approval for moving forward with the migration.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had multiple resources including two sales reps, our technical sales rep, an engineer to assist with scoping and our account rep.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The actual project has yet to be started but the pre-sales and support we received from the team were magnificent. I am very pleased and look forward to moving into the project.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There was a lot of open communication and support on both sides. Because of this, we were able to move forward with the migration project.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They've been extremely flexible and helpful with anything that we request.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None that I could think of so far.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CFO for a supplier of metal food cans in N. America

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Keyrus?

Our company was challenged with having current information around our production levels as the month progressed. Frequently, we would be surprised with large overhead variances vs. forecast when we closed our books.

Keyrus was hired to build out a dashboard that provided us a snapshot of where we were trending at any point in time, down to a very granular level. In addition, they were tasked with building a second dashboard that visualized at our historical production trends and outliers across various reporting dimensions.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We had good experience with Keyrus on a previous project.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Keyrus helped us organize the data in a manner that would produce the desired result. They conducted scoping sessions with me and members of our Pricing team to understand what deliverable we were seeking. The work on calculated field logic and an iterative design process to ultimately arrive at the final product.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had 2 primary resource that worked on the project. Dorna, Director of Delivery, and Nick, Tableau Consultant. Dorna kept the project moving and us informed of project costs and roadblocks. Nick did most of the data optimization and dashboard build. He was fantastic to work with.

Nick was very responsive and consistently provided value add ideas, most of which were incorporated into the final product. Nick was quickly able to obtain an understanding of our business and use that knowledge to efficiently work through the challenges presented.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

While it's still early, the deliverables are giving us timely insight into our business we haven't had before. Based on the visualizations developed, we can focus efforts on problematic areas early and reverse or mitigate unfavorable outcomes.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was effective. Both companies used screenshots frequently to communicate thoughts and observations.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They had the ability to quickly learn our business and use that knowledge to bring value-added ideas to the project. In addition, we requested a handful of technically challenging visuals, and Keyrus was able to deliver them. The visualization metric Keyrus came up with for outliers was exactly what we wanted.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Only area I would mention is that early on the refresh of the workbooks was quite delayed. This slowed down the iterative process and idea-sharing between the two organizations. Towards the end, the dashboards were updated much more frequently, which I believe benefited the efficiency aspect of the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO for a global risk management certification. I joined the company about a year ago.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Keyrus?

When we first engaged with Keyrus, we were trying to aggregate data from various sources. We didn’t have a data warehouse solution for a good visualization across multiple data. We had reporting within each of the departments and applications, but we wanted to get a holistic view and pull together executive-level reporting through dashboards so we’d be able to provide insights and leverage information with our board directors.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I prefer to work in the office, but we worked remotely due to COVID-19. We had already picked out the technology. We selected Tableau for the frontend, Rivery as the ELT tool, and Snowflake as our database.

Keyrus gathered the functional and technical requirements. Their team built out the design of the database and ELT tool, as well as the dashboard layout. Then, they did the full implementation and execution.

Right now, we’re in the warranty period. My team manages the daily support, and we escalate up to them if something doesn’t work out or we need additional knowledge.

What is the team composition?

There were two full-time people and a couple of part-time people on the project. The full-time person was the project manager and business analyst. Then, we had a full-time developer, a couple of engineers for spot consulting work, and an account manager.

How did you come to work with Keyrus?

They came recommended through a key member within the organization. Also, we compared their service, capabilities, and estimate against other midsize players within our area. We selected Keyrus for their knowledge and experience with the technologies we had selected and the case studies we reviewed.

How much have you invested with them?

It was about $200,000 altogether.

What is the status of this engagement?

We engaged with them in early 2020, but we started the project until September 2020. They helped us with a proof of concept, and then they helped us build the next phase of the project. We started the actual production environment in February, and they completed it in June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Their work improved the velocity of our reporting capabilities. What used to take days or weeks now takes hours to produce, so we’ve saved a lot of business productivity with this project. They also provided training for our team on how to use the application.

In terms of timelines, it was definitely better than if we’d done this in-house. We didn’t have the expertise or capability for the project. In terms of money, it was an investment for us. Keyrus wasn’t the cheapest option, but they weren’t the most expensive.

How did Keyrus perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. The team was on top of things. They communicated their progress, met deadlines, and followed up with us on what we needed to deliver to them to make sure they met their milestones.

We primarily used Teams, and since everything was remote, all the meetings were over Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Keyrus stood out for the quality of their developers. They were able to demonstrate their technical knowledge and a deep understanding of our business. It was a big factor to select them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Since we were 100% remote, we wanted to be more cost-efficient with the implementation. We asked to leverage the Israel team, which had a lower rate card. Keyrus came back and stated that they’d already selected the team. However, I would’ve loved to extend my budget.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you interview the resources that you’ll hire. Keyrus has many different developers and project managers, so make sure your team has a cultural fit.