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Practical writing on data you can trust.
Guides, case studies and research from the Swift team on data foundations, BI and AI.
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01 Articles
Longer reads on getting the numbers right.
Sigma vs Power BI: Which One Fits Your Team?
Sigma and Power BI are both strong BI tools, built for different teams. Power BI is strongest in a Microsoft environment with a dedicated team of BI professionals. Sigma is strongest when semi-technical managers and analysts need to build, analyze, and update data themselves.
6 min readOct 2026Sigma vs Tableau: Which One Fits Your Team?
Sigma and Tableau both turn your company's data into dashboards and reports. The right one depends on who builds your reports and where your data is kept.
4 min readOct 2026What costly data mistakes stall good decisions?
Mid-market companies are rarely short on numbers. The costly mistakes come from numbers spread across too many systems and owners.
5 min readAug 2026Why doesn't leadership use the dashboards we built?
A capable team can still miss leadership if the dashboards are not tied to a decision. The failure sits in strategy, infrastructure, and what the page shows.
4 min readApr 2026What mistakes do leaders make when deploying AI analytics?
Rolling out AI before the data foundation is ready produces fast answers to the wrong questions. Three mistakes show up again and again.
5 min readApr 2026What is an AI-ready data foundation?
An AI-ready data foundation is the architecture, governance, and infrastructure under the model. Skip it, and most AI work stalls between the pilot and production.
3 min readMar 2026Why is data visibility the bottleneck in decisions?
Companies collect more data than ever. Without a clear view of it, leaders still struggle to act quickly.
4 min readMar 2026How to defend an analytics budget in a review
Analytics budgets fail when the work cannot be tied to an outcome. Leaders keep what protects a decision and cut what feels optional.
3 min readJan 2026Why did moving off Excel make reporting harder?
Teams expect clearer reporting after leaving Excel and often get the opposite. The spreadsheets had been hiding the problems that business intelligence then exposes.
3 min readJan 2026Why do analytics strategies fail in execution?
Analytics strategies usually fail after approval, when real decisions start to depend on the data. The break is ownership, definitions, and decision context.
3 min readJan 2026Why do executives stop using dashboards when it matters?
Dashboards hold up while the questions stay routine. Under pressure, executives set them aside because the picture is fixed and the decision is not.
3 min readDec 2025Why do AI programs stall after early success?
AI programs often stall after a strong start, when adoption slows and teams slip back to spreadsheets. The break is the execution layer between the insight and the decision.
3 min readDec 2025Why does AI ROI come from data quality, not models?
AI ROI shows up when the data is clean, shared, and stable. A stronger model cannot make up for definitions and pipelines that leaders do not trust.
4 min readDec 2025Why is our analytics team stuck in reactive mode?
Analytics teams stay reactive when systems are unclear, processes are scattered, and the data is unstable. Four changes move the work from fire drills to decisions.
3 min readDec 2025Why do AI projects fail, and how does governance fix it?
AI projects fail when the data under them is scattered, inconsistent, or ungoverned. Governance, ownership, and lineage are what make the model reliable.
3 min readNov 2025What does mature data governance for AI look like?
Mature data governance for AI is automated lineage, quality rules at ingestion, and access controls that keep sensitive data out of training. Without that foundation, projects stall, results stay shaky, or audits fail.
4 min readNov 2025Why do dashboards cause decision lag?
Decision lag is the delay between having the facts and making the next move. Dashboards cause it when they report the past and leave leaders to find that move themselves.
3 min readNov 2025Five questions every chief data officer should ask
The chief data officer role now reaches past governance alone. These five questions cover decisions, real-time platforms, literacy, data risk, and fit with where the business is going.
3 min readOct 2025Why does a BI team need a partner to clear the backlog?
A capable BI team can still fall behind as dashboard requests, pipeline fixes, and data quality issues pile up. An outside partner clears that work.
2 min readOct 2025What dashboard habits separate top-performing companies?
Five dashboard habits separate top-performing companies from the rest. They start with the decision, keep the design simple, tie the view to an outcome, automate for trust, and use the dashboard to decide what to do next.
3 min readOct 2025Customer retention and CLV dashboard in Tableau and Power BI
Who stayed, who left, and what each customer is worth, with retention, churn, and lifetime value on one page.
8 min readSep 2024How do you improve customer conversion with data?
Customers face too many choices, and broad marketing guesses no longer convert. Data shows who they are, where the journey stalls, and what they need next.
3 min readAug 2024Healthcare data analytics: one view across EHR, PMS and lab
One view of the EHR, the practice system, the lab, and payer data, with one definition for each metric. The KPIs, the dashboard, and the access rules are below.
9 min readAug 2024Marketing ROI dashboard: metrics and layout (Tableau, Power BI)
A marketing ROI dashboard shows which campaigns return the most. Watch click-through rate, conversion rate, cost per click, and return on ad spend, and keep the layout simple.
3 min readJul 2024What does cheap DIY analytics actually cost?
Cost is the usual objection to hiring a data consulting firm. The real question is what cheap DIY work costs against the value of professional help.
3 min readMar 2024How to track marketing data: 6 ways
Six ways to track marketing data, from website analytics through attribution. Each one shows a different part of what the spend is doing.
2 min readFeb 2024Business Intelligence / Analytics · Data Architecture · AI Analytics
All articles →02 Guides & tutorials
Step by step, from first source to first answer.
How to Migrate an Excel Forecast to Sigma: A Private Equity Example
We took a private equity fund forecast built in Excel and moved it into Sigma with one prompt, using Sigma's Excel migration skill. Every total matched Excel to the cent, and the forecast assumptions stayed editable.
6 min readOct 2026What a Sigma Implementation Looks Like, Step by Step
A Sigma implementation involves more than connecting the tool to your data. This guide outlines each stage of the process, from defining business objectives through user adoption and ongoing support.
4 min readOct 2026Cloud cost dashboard in Tableau using AWS cost data
Cloud spend grows when nobody watches it. A Tableau dashboard of AWS cost data, read with the Well-Architected Framework, shows where to cut waste.
4 min readOct 2024How to track sales: metrics, dashboard and 5 steps
Record every opportunity in one place, then read pipeline, performance, and activity. The formulas, the five steps, and the dashboard layout are below.
9 min readMar 2024When should you hire a data analytics firm?
Hire outside help when skills, data complexity, scale, a deadline, or cost are the problem. You can wait if a few reports in one or two systems already have an owner.
2 min readMar 2024Business Intelligence / Analytics · Data Architecture
All guides →03 Blog
Short notes from the work.
What did most data programs get wrong in 2025?
Most data programs in 2025 delivered more information without making decisions easier to own. The miss was design: ownership, governance, and how a decision is supposed to happen.
5 min readDec 2025Tableau vs Power BI: which fits your team?
Tableau and Power BI differ on learning curve, cost, interface, community, and performance. The fit depends on price per person, the tools you already use, and the skills on the team.
2 min readMar 2024Business Intelligence / Analytics
All posts →Nothing matches that yet.