Viracon Achieves Business Continuity and Data Insights with Pyramid Analytics

Viracon Achieves Business Continuity, Increases Use of Data and Insights

Architectural glass fabricator leverages Pyramid Analytics for its technical and self-service capabilities

Viracon is the leading single-source architectural glass fabricator, known for its innovative products, reliable service, and technical expertise. Viracon is part of Apogee Enterprises, Inc. Founded in 1949 and headquartered in Minneapolis, Apogee provides distinctive metal and glass solutions for enclosing commercial buildings, as well as glass and acrylic solutions for picture framing and display applications.

The Challenge

Viracon began its data warehouse project in 2007. Their tech stack consisted of on-prem databases, Microsoft SQL, and “lots of Excel.” They had been using ProClarity, which was sunsetted by Microsoft and replaced with Power BI.

“We wanted an easy transition for our users at a reasonable cost,” says Jill Kubicek, Viracon’s senior developer. “The cost of Power BI was more than we wanted. The other important thing is that we have a multidimensional cube. Power BI would take our multidimensional cube and generate a tabular cube in the background. Users would have had to do multiple refreshes. That was another big No.”

“We wanted something that just hits the cube we have developed already,” adds Bob Hoen, Viracon’s lead developer. “That’s how ProClarity worked, but we couldn’t find anything to replace it. We were wringing our hands trying to figure out what we were going to do. We also realized this was going to be a heck of a conversion effort, because all our users were trained on ProClarity.”

Viracon needed a platform that could handle its multidimensional cubes — and would be easy for its employees to learn quickly and use themselves. They needed Pyramid Analytics.

The Solution

Pyramid’s unified Decision Intelligence Platform provides Viracon with the technical capabilities and ease of use it needs, including:

• ​Direct access to their multidimensional cubes, with no data movement or duplication required
• ​An AI-guided, no-code user experience with secure, governed self-service for anyone to access data and uncover insights
• ​A robust automated and customized report and dashboard publishing module

In addition to being able to handle Viracon’s multidimensional cubes with ease, Pyramid has trained Viracon employees, helping develop “super-users” across its various departments. These users are helping to lead the way for everyone in the company to access data and gain insights quickly and easily.

“Pyramid’s self-service capability is really the biggest benefit for us,” Kubicek says. “For example, we have a finance super-user who has really latched on and is producing automated reports and dashboards on his own. Now, other departments want to mimic what our finance user is doing, so that they don’t have to run reports and then e-mail them out.”

The Result

Viracon users were able to transition seamlessly to using Pyramid Analytics. Hoen marvels at the business continuity they’ve been able to achieve, thanks to Pyramid’s functionality and support: “There’s a lot of cool stuff in there, and the fact that we were able to keep it going and familiar to our users as we’re moving from version to version is a great thing.”

“Our users tell us Pyramid is just easier to use,” Kubicek says. “They love that they don’t have to rely on other people and that they can automatically distribute their reports. Pyramid has lessened the number of requests our department receives, saving us tons of time.

“Pyramid is easy to use and intuitive, and it has allowed our organization to make faster and smarter decisions. It is night and day from where we were.”

"Pyramid is easy to use and intuitive, and it has allowed our organization to make faster and smarter decisions."

– Jill Kubicek, Senior Developer at Viracon