The GoSpotCheck application helps retailers and brands collect thousands of data points each day.
Although it seems instant to many of our customers, the process to aggregate data from the field into an online dashboard is complex.
The information from the app goes into the SQL database, which is accessed by our data team. Then, there are two separate pools that the data team addresses differently – customers that do want advanced reporting, and customers that do not.
If the data does not require advanced reporting, our data team is not involved. The data comes in from a device – mobile phone, tablet or computer – and is kept in a data store. This store drives almost everything visible within the product and is also the source of aggregations in the mission overview page – or homepage – for customers. Then, a web application makes an aggregation request of the data store and does the necessary calculations. The initial data that comes in from various devices is like stored static records – counts, totals, sums and other operations transform raw data into a map, graph or other framework.
This process creates a dashboard for customers to view online. The GoSpotCheck dashboard charts out each individual question from a mission into the requested format.
For customers that do want advanced reporting, the data team accesses the SQL database that holds all collected data. A member of the GoSpotCheck data team communicates with our customer to determine what solutions will best satisfy their needs. Then, depending on the agreed outcome, the data team puts the necessary information into GoodData – which is essentially a platform for reporting. By using key metrics, this process creates custom reporting on an online dashboard. Advanced reporting involves data from multiple missions, whereas basic reporting breaks data down by each individual mission.
Often, the data team helps customers find correlations between sales data and collected information from the field – this could be an examination of market share, competitive analysis or a comparison of internal data. After the data team finishes aggregating the data points into tables, charts and graphs, customers can filter the information with specific needs in mind.
The decision to have advanced reporting is not right for every customer. Regardless, real-time data gives GoSpotCheck customers insight into the marketplace from locations all over the world. Through data collection on the GoSpotCheck app, the answers to thousands of questions appear on a clean, concise dashboard for further analysis.
