Holistics' benefits extend beyond self-service and interactivity. For Michael’s team, the ability to manage dashboards programmatically was transformative, shifting time-consuming tasks into effective, manageable workflows.
Holistics offers not only a GUI but also a code-based way to programmatically build and manage dashboards. This dual setup allows them to quickly make global updates across dashboards and reports when data definitions change, reducing the need to tweak each one manually. With bulk find-and-replace capabilities, dashboards are updated in one step, bypassing the laborious manual "click-through" updates common with GUI-only BI tools.
Your DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) philosophy resonated very well with me. The fact that I can write just BI definitions once at the semantic modeling and dashboard level and reuse them anywhere is huge.
When our dashboard logic changes, I can just update that definition in one spot, and we’re good. No more of that ‘whack-a-mole’ chaos where you’re scrambling to update every dashboard you might’ve missed. Our data team is very lean, so being able to handle bulk edits, and updates across dashboards, all without having to sift through the UI manually, is game-changing.
-- Michael K., Head of Enterprise Analytics
Canvas Dashboard quickly emerged as the standout feature, allowing Michael and his team to build reusable dashboards. They could define widgets, parameters, and layouts programmatically. This meant instead of manually creating hundreds of widgets for an executive dashboard, they could define a reusable template.
Before Holistics, making small adjustments to executive dashboards could take hours. “It took me four hours to do the last one, just changing one little filter,” Michael recalled. With the Canvas Dashboard, parameterizing elements reduced the time spent on such tasks from hours to mere minutes.
Now, Michael’s team can focus on higher-value tasks rather than getting bogged down by repetitive manual work.
Our executive dashboards have 97 widgets. If there’s a change, then I have to remake all the widgets. I found out about the functions that you can make the table names and parameters, variables. [..] This one chunk of code makes 48 rows of gauges and KPIs, which I can now reuse across multiple dashboards.
It was a total game changer because I can now parameterize the dashboard and rebuild that 97-widget dashboard easily if I need to make it again. When I did so, it took a few minutes instead of hours.
-- Michael K., Head of Enterprise Analytics
With Canvas Dashboard, more front-end customization options are now available.
It reimagines dashboard elements as "Blocks" that can be freely arranged on a canvas. This enables Michael and his team to create custom layouts, place relevant filters next to charts, add explanatory text, and break free from the rigid structures of traditional dashboards. The team can also customize branding through custom themes, allowing StrongMind to standardize the look and feel of dashboards across both internal and external reports.
We’ve been chunking out special headers or situations where we want a chart to be different. We’ve been standardizing those into a single theme so we can just reuse it and call it.
-- Michael K., Head of Enterprise Analytics
Holistics’ programmatic approach also enables StrongMind to implement granular governance at the dashboard level. With detailed backup and restore capabilities similar to those in standard DevOps tools, StrongMind no longer has to rely on the limited options of traditional BI tools, which often lack detailed backup for dashboard configurations.
We need governance for the dashboards as well, because if somebody screws up my dashboard, I'm out of luck.
The benefit of Holistics governance setup is if something breaks, or if somebody screws this up, I have a backup. So if my guy goes in there and screws something up, I can undo it.
-- Michael K., Head of Enterprise Analytics
Holistics’ backup and restore functionalities ensure that even if configurations are unintentionally changed, there’s a safety net. This granular governance allows StrongMind’s data team to confidently manage extensive, complex dashboards, even when frequent adjustments are necessary.
As Michael noted, "Many BI tools don’t allow the visual configurations of dashboards to be backed up in as detailed a manner as Holistics, so having this was an assurance."
Today, Strongmind couldn’t be happier with Holistics.The platform has become a cornerstone of their data workflow, continuously adapting to meet their evolving needs. As Michael puts it, "Very satisfied, seeing how the product grows". He also appreciates the constant stream of innovative features, noting, "I constantly sign up with your new beta because you released a lot of cool things".
I don’t have any complaints. I recommend you to folks at data conferences all the time. If they’re looking for a BI tool, I’d go tell them - check out Holistics.
-- Michael K., Head of Enterprise Analytics
Canvas Dashboard, in particular, has become a favorite for the team, tremendously elevating their experience with Holistics.
Canvas dashboards have opened up a whole new level of flexibility for us, letting us visualize and organize our data just the way we need. It's clear there's always room to improve, but overall, Canvas has been an incredibly powerful addition to our toolkit. I’m loving Canvas!
-- Michael K., Head of Enterprise Analytics
