Jobvite consolidates data across four organizations and delivers embedded analytics

[LookerExperts]

This content, written by Zach Linder, was initially posted in Looker Blog on Nov 5, 2020. The content is subject to limited support.

is a comprehensive suite of talent acquisition tools that intelligently attract, screen, engage, onboard, and retain talent by combining the power of data and the human touch. We’ve grown rapidly through acquisition, and the biggest challenge we’ve faced has been consolidating the data tools and processes across four companies. We needed to build a unified, complete internal view of the business for ourselves as well as deliver a comprehensive and cohesive data product for our customers. It’s challenging enough getting data management and access right at a single company. Tackling this for a combined four companies required developing a cohesive strategy and that meant getting data “right” quickly.

Before: multiple user interfaces with no data self-service

Before , we had no fewer than five business intelligence interfaces: a homegrown solution, several BI tools, and several dated in-app reports (many of which were inherited through acquisitions). We knew our existing tools would not support where we wanted to go. We needed to create repeatable, customizable reports, and we needed to empower internal users and customers with self-service data exploration. Finally, the most important thing for my team was to create a common user interface (UI) and a common data language across the organization.

Finding flexibility and speed with Looker

As we got serious about choosing a single data solution, Looker emerged as the sensible choice for several reasons. One reason was the fast time-to-value. We needed a solution that could quickly unify internal access data as well as deliver to our customers. Both boxes were checked with Looker’s . Another key benefit was that we could build and maintain Looker without bringing on additional resources. The speed at which we could implement and customize our embedded offering with Looker — without requiring significant resources on our end — was a big value add. We set quick time-to-market goals and it was critical that we met them.

I was also impressed with the way lets you build a data model once, and then reuse that governed logic. And finally, the ability to use Looker to bring data into people’s workflows (by scheduling data alerts to their email inboxes, for instance) made Looker the right solution for us. It satisfied both our front-and back-end data needs.

Looker + Snowflake: A tech stack that saves time and resources

Today, we bring all our data together in Snowflake’s cloud data warehouse and leverage Stitch as our ETL solution. We have four applications running and need to switch domains often, so the permissioning, drilldowns, and deep links needed to provide us with granular flexibility can get very complicated. The ability to automate our deployments with Snowflake ensures it works well every time.

Our decision to go with this technology stack has not only saved us time and resources, but it’s also enabled us to go to market with our embedded offering much quicker. If we’d decided to build a solution on our own, there’s no way we would be able to roll out new data products as quickly as we do now. In less than a year, we were able to streamline our internal access to data while also building an for our customers across different products. We accomplished all of this with a team of just six people. Without , I have no doubt the team would have been much larger.

Exceeding customer needs and reducing customer churn with data

As a company in the human resources space, a big part of the business is finding ways to identify how to acquire and quickly move new candidates through the pipeline — from applicant sourcing and tracking to onboarding. We’ve long provided dashboards to our customers to help them visualize this pipeline. Now, when Looker rolls out enhancements and , we can roll that straight out to our customers. There’s no need to differentiate between Looker updates and our updates because, for our customers, it’s the same end result: the data is there, it’s useful, and it looks great.

For our more sophisticated clients looking for additional self-service exploration options, the repeatable, templatized dashboards we can provide via Looker have been a game changer. Thanks to this specific offering, we’ve seen a reduction in customer churn. And in addition to reducing churn, we use Looker to address customer needs in the exact moment they’re raised. I was recently on a call with a prospective customer who was describing the kind of dashboard they wanted. I built it and demoed it to them while we were on the call. We wouldn’t have been able to have this kind of conversation with a customer before, because we didn’t have a product that could support it. With Looker, we do.

From disparate applications to a cohesive data solution

For our needs and data goals at Jobvite, Looker was hands down the right choice. It’s enabled us to continue growing quickly despite having to consolidate data from so many disparate applications. And because we can rapidly access and make sense of our data, our customers can too — meaning everyone who works with us gets accessible, trusted data at their fingertips.

You can learn more about our data journey with Looker at Jobvite so far in my talk, “”.