November 2018 Summaries

Bucketing, also known as binning, is a valuable technique in SQL for grouping continuous data, such as numbers and timestamps, to identify trends and opportunities within a business context. This method involves using functions like `trunc` for numbers and `date_trunc` for time intervals to categorize data into manageable segments. Additionally, custom buckets can be created using the `width_bucket` function in Postgres, allowing for more tailored data grouping based on business needs. The article demonstrates the application of bucketing using mock data from Numeracy, highlighting how it can segment user behaviors and influence marketing strategies and product design. By categorizing users into defined personas, such as those who connect to a database within 15 minutes, within a week, or later, businesses can better understand conversion rates and optimize for higher engagement. The ultimate goal of bucketing is to transform raw data into actionable insights that can guide strategic decision-making and uncover untapped potential within an organization.

Fivetran has developed a repeatable framework for their sales process, aiming to make it as predictable as riding a bike. The steps include studying recordings of other reps' calls to build a mental model of the sales cycle, analyzing major inflection points in the cycle, preparing answers to common objections, understanding the company's business model and its economic implications, empathizing with customers to solve their problems, and staying consistent and focused despite setbacks.

Fivetran has partnered with Greenhouse, an industry leader in applicant tracking systems. The partnership aims to help companies optimize their recruitment processes by integrating Greenhouse data with other business applications. With Fivetran's data connectors and automatic schema adjustments, customers can gain deep insights into their recruiting metrics and make data-driven hiring decisions. This collaboration showcases the importance of data analysis in talent acquisition and provides joint users additional opportunities to evaluate their recruiting data alongside reports from other HR functions.

NetSuite, a leading provider of ERP software, presents significant challenges with its API, characterized by complexity, poor documentation, and inconsistent naming conventions, making it difficult for companies to integrate with it effectively. Fivetran, recognizing these challenges, developed a NetSuite connector that addresses these issues by using the better-documented JDBC API, despite the arduous process involving extensive reverse-engineering and collaboration with customers. The development journey spanned several years and required innovative solutions to create a connector that delivers reliable and timely data, though some aspects remain imperfect. Fivetran's connector has become essential for companies facing difficulties with NetSuite's API, offering a solution to the classical engineering trilemma of balancing cost, speed, and scope, thereby saving companies the effort and frustration of developing their own solutions.

Fivetran has partnered with Zuora, an industry leader in subscription management. The partnership aims to make it easier for customers to access, own, and leverage their data by strengthening technology alignment between the two companies. Fivetran replicates business data from Zuora and other applications into cloud warehouses, enabling advanced analytics and data-backed decision-making. This collaboration will provide a comprehensive view of the customer journey and support growth for businesses in various industries.

Using SQL for funnel analysis can provide valuable insights into various aspects of a business, such as sales and marketing success, customer progression through a website, or the efficiency of a recruiting pipeline. Funnel analysis is useful for analyzing processes with multiple steps and attrition. By using connectors from platforms like Salesforce, Greenhouse, and Shopify, businesses can conduct comprehensive funnel analyses to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions.

Fivetran, a company specializing in agile analytics and data replication, has announced its partnership with UserVoice, an industry leader in actionable user feedback. This collaboration aims to help businesses gain deep insights into their customers' behavior by combining UserVoice data with data from all other applications. Both companies are part of the growing cloud ecosystem and believe in using data to inform business decisions. The Fivetran UserVoice connector is free for first-time users, and partnership opportunities are available.

The article discusses the costs associated with building a bespoke business intelligence solution, including monetary expenses, time consumption and emotional strain on employees. It provides an example of how much it would cost to build connectors for five common APIs (Salesforce, Marketo, Zendesk, Jira, and Zuora) in terms of engineering hours and salaries. The article also highlights the benefits of using a pre-built solution like Fivetran, which can save time and resources while improving data accessibility and decision-making speed for businesses.