Analytics

A reporting problem is rarely about the dashboard itself. It starts upstream: a report pulling from two different views of the same donor, a rollup field configured for last year’s fiscal calendar, or a metric that finance and program teams each define differently. We settle the data model, the security model, and the definition of each metric before we build the report, so the number on the dashboard is the number everyone in the room agrees to.

Tableau

Tableau is the right platform when a report needs to reach beyond a single Salesforce org, blend Salesforce with data from your SIS, donor platform, or finance system, and reach an audience who never logs into Salesforce at all: a board packet, a state reporting portal, a public impact page. We build and maintain Tableau workbooks, connect them to Salesforce and the other systems in your environment, and support both Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server deployments.

• Board and funder-facing dashboards that blend Salesforce with outside data sources
• State and compliance reporting (attendance, enrollment, outcomes) for K-12 districts and colleges
• Cross-system dashboards spanning Salesforce alongside finance, SIS, or donor platforms
• Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server implementation, connection, and ongoing maintenance
• Ask Data and natural-language querying, so a board member or program director can ask a question directly instead of waiting on a report request
• Tableau Pulse, which pushes a subscribed metric to an inbox or Slack on its own schedule instead of waiting for someone to check a dashboard
• Prep flows that clean, join, and reshape data from multiple source systems before it reaches a workbook
• Row-level security tied to your Salesforce login, so one dashboard shared broadly still shows each viewer only their own data

CRM Analytics

CRM Analytics is built into Salesforce itself. It inherits the security and role hierarchy already configured in your org, so a dashboard respects who can see which student, donor, or constituent record without a second permission model to maintain. It fits when the audience is your own team, working inside Salesforce, and the reporting needs to update as records change instead of on a nightly refresh.

• Native dashboards embedded directly in the records and list views your team already works from
• Real-time reporting that updates as records change, with no separate export or refresh step
• Advancement and fundraising rollups: giving history, gift officer pipelines, portfolio views
• Enrollment and admissions funnel dashboards for cabinet and counseling teams
• Grant and program outcome reporting for inbound and outbound grants management
• Dataflows and recipes that transform Salesforce data into analytics datasets on a schedule, without a separate ETL tool
• Einstein Discovery predictive insights (a donor less likely to renew, a student at risk of not re-enrolling) surfaced directly on the record
• Actionable dashboards: a gift officer or counselor can log a call or assign a task straight from a chart, not just view it
• Mobile access through the Salesforce app, so a dashboard reads the same on a phone in the field as it does at a desk

Data Cloud

Data Cloud extends reporting past what a single Salesforce org can see on its own. When a report needs the SIS, the LMS, and Salesforce at the same time, or when two systems each hold half of a constituent’s real history, Data Cloud unifies that data into a single source Tableau and CRM Analytics can both report from.

• A single unified view of a student, donor, or constituent across SIS, LMS, donation platform, and Salesforce
• Reporting across multiple Salesforce orgs or business units without a manual data warehouse
• The data foundation that advanced or predictive reporting in Tableau and CRM Analytics builds on
• Identity resolution that matches the same student or donor across SIS, LMS, and donation-platform records, even when names, emails, or IDs don’t line up exactly
• Calculated insights: a metric like lifetime giving or attendance rate computed once and reused across every dashboard, instead of recalculated differently in each report
• Ingestion connectors that bring in source-system data on a schedule, sized for reporting rather than a full integration build

How These Work Together

Most analytics engagements use more than one of these. Data Cloud unifies the data, CRM Analytics puts it in front of your team inside Salesforce, and Tableau carries it out to a board, a state agency, or the public. We start by mapping what you need to report on, who reads it, and where they read it, then recommend the platform, or combination of platforms, that actually fits.

Our Analytics Process

Every analytics engagement follows the same three-part discipline, whatever platform it uses.

• Define What “Done” Looks Like: identify who reads this report, how often, and what decision it drives. Confirm metric definitions across departments before any dashboard gets built, so finance and program teams aren’t reporting two different numbers under the same label.
• Build on a Clean Data Model: map the data model, security, and rollups the report depends on. Choose Tableau, CRM Analytics, or Data Cloud based on the audience and the source systems involved, then build and test against real records before anyone sees a live dashboard.
• Maintain and Refine: hand off documentation of every metric definition and data source. Review dashboards on a regular cadence as fiscal years, program definitions, or org structure change, and retire reports nobody uses anymore.

Let’s Talk About Your Reporting

Whether you need one dashboard your board will actually trust or a full Tableau and CRM Analytics build across every team, we can help you figure out where to start.