How North Labs transformed 4TellX’s data and related processes while contributing to a 50 percent growth in revenue

BIG DATA NEEDS WITH LIMITED RESOURCES

4TellX is a predictive analytics company that aims to change the way school districts analyze student data by continually collecting and organizing data across multiple district database systems. The company’s algorithms are explicitly created for K–12 clients and provide deep insights so administrators can make decisions based on comprehensive analysis. The richer the data source 4TellX can build for a district, the more 4TellX can help the district not waste its resources, avoid poor performance, and minimize teacher turnover.

However, being a startup, 4TellX had limited resources to meet the needs of its clients.

“It was a challenge to deal with all of the complex client requests,” said CEO Roy Nieto. “We simply did not have the technological expertise on our team to be able to respond as quickly as we wanted.”

To take command of the data it processes and provide better service to clients, 4TellX needed help. Roy’s initial plan was to hire developers who would create a reporting tool for in-house processes.

“I wasn’t fully comfortable adding a person to our staff to just handle our technical issues,” said Roy. “Instead, I started looking for a technology partner that could resolve all of our issues.”

That’s when Roy found North Labs.

ESTABLISHING A PARTNERSHIP WITH NORTH LABS

“When we initially partnered with North Labs, we weren’t even sure what type of user interface we needed to develop,” said Roy. “Fortunately, they knew exactly what we needed and how to get us there. And, they understood that the solution had to be budget-friendly.”

The team at North Labs recognizes that no two data roadmaps are the same and cohesion throughout the build process is crucial. That’s why they spent time unearthing the why behind 4TellX’s efforts and learning what the company would ultimately do with the data. 

The team then recommended that 4TellX abandon the path it was on and instead use a different business intelligence platform. North Labs selected QuickSight, a cloud-native, serverless, platform developed and maintained by Amazon Web Services (AWS). North Labs uses QuickSight to connect to and combine data from many different sources in the cloud. In a single data dashboard, North Labs can direct QuickSight to include AWS data, third-party data, big data, spreadsheet data, SaaS data, and B2B data to allow decision-makers to explore and interpret information in an interactive visual environment. Moreover, the platform has usage-based pricing. 

Though the North Labs team had to recreate QuickSight in what 4TellX had been using, it took just six weeks for them to rebuild everything and improve the look and feel of the user interface.

“We were excited about what the North Labs team had done for us in such a short period,” said Roy. “After talking with a few of our customers to gauge their needs, the team added intuitive color coordination and took the initiative to build special reports that we didn’t even ask for. All of that effort proved that we made the right decision going with QuickSight.”