Mobile Lavatory Client Becomes Flush with Profitability Insights and Actionable Data

Disjointed data and a lack of insight visibility made the client unable to determine route profitability

The client can now view and analyze data in Power BI thanks to a process workflow created using Azure Data Factory and connected APIs from the client’s data acquisition applications

Our client provides mobile lavatories for customers around Connecticut. The company installs, services, and removes portable toilets along designated routes. Each driver may service a total of up to 60 routes per week.

When the client initially approached Chateaux, work was being logged in two separate applications: ServiceCore, a business software solution used by drivers via a mobile app on their phones, and Samsara, an electronic logging device (ELD) system used by the truck fleet via a tablet manually activated when the driver began their workday.

The client attempted to use Power BI as a front-end tool to collect and view the information from each system but was unsuccessful. This made it impossible for our client to determine route profitability. They needed a way to join the truck and driver data together in a way that could be analyzed rather than inferred. They also sought to achieve these insights without having to overhaul their data collection processes.

Based on Chateaux’s expertise and experience in analytics and data management and their MS Gold Partner status, the client sought Chateaux to create a new solution in Power BI that would allow them to properly assess their data.

Chateaux evaluated the client’s data acquisition process and identified multiple organizational red flags. First, the client’s data was sitting in files across multiple repositories including SharePoint, One Drive, Google Docs, and email, making it challenging to collect and gather. Next, the data itself was in the wrong place, unformatted, unreliable, and/or required maintenance.

One of the key contributors to these disparities was over-reliance on vendor recommendations. Although one recommendation may work best for a specific product, it may not pair well with other tools simultaneously in use. This can inadvertently break a solution that relies on the harmonious functionality of multiple components.

Following their evaluation, the Chateaux analytics team determined that using data integration tool Azure Data Factory with the Samsara and ServiceCore APIs would create the most reliable and secure workflow to retrieve information. As requested, Power BI would be used for data visualizations.

Chateaux connected the Samsara and ServiceCore systems and aligned all data between them using key pieces from the APIs of each within Azure Data Factory. The data was then run through an optimized process flow that connects to Power BI, allowing the client to have a holistic view of all data at once. Data is now clean, up-to-date, and reliable.

By combining the two existing solutions, the client now has insight into cost profitability, including cost basis on products, trucks, and drivers. They can now reconfigure routes and make modifications as needed to address profitability based on facts. Without having to overhaul the data acquisition systems used by the drivers and truck fleets, the solution was achieved with minimal impact to operations.

Additional benefits to this solution include:

Improved efficiency:

• process run time reduced from hours to minutes
• fully automated process cuts down on manual input and busy work
• streamlined data acquisition also minimizes manual input and mitigates errors

Greater insights:

• option to easily change views to grab different insights
• more reliable, trustworthy data

Enhanced safeguards:

• notifications sent by text or email if process fails
• centrally aligned data within Azure Data Factory makes it easier to address missing data or sync errors

Conclusion

Businesses outside of the tech space can almost always benefit from a tech solution. But it can be challenging to implement a solution that maximizes the benefit of multiple out-of-the-box products if IT is not your expertise. By bringing in Chateaux’s data management and analytics experts, the client was able to maximize the benefits of their existing data acquisition systems and front-end tools with a cost-effective data integration solution.

The client is a family owned and operated portable restroom business based out of Connecticut. The company provides portable restroom and toilet trailer rental services to customers throughout the Northeast USA. Their fleet of over 10,000 portable toilets, 60 restroom trailers, and 80 trucks provide lavatory resources for large scale events, construction sites, and municipal projects.