From data scattered across 15+ tools to self-service data analytics: How to evaluate whether your current BI setup can handle 3-5x growth.
You’ve raised Series A (or more – congrats!), grown 3x in the last year, and now your makeshift data setup is creaking under the pressure. Is it time to get serious about BI before your next growth phase?
This question sparked an in-depth conversation during our recent live session with industry experts from Tasman Analytics, Omni, and Paired (watch the full live session here). What we discovered was that many fast-growing companies are stuck with BI tools that create more friction than value, yet they hesitate to make a change because migration feels complex and risky.
Our experience over the last few years: the cost of staying put almost always exceeds the cost of moving forward.
The Hidden Friction Points of BI
The startup instinct is to jump straight to solutions. No shame – we’ve all been there. But it’s worth taking a bit more time here and making sure we get what we need.
Before diving into solutions, let’s focus on recognising the symptoms of BI friction that many teams have normalised. Not surprisingly, these aren’t just technical inconveniences – they represent massive competitive disadvantages.
1. Dashboard Sprawl: Death by a Thousand Reports
When we worked with data teams across 60+ companies, we consistently found the same pattern: organisations with hundreds of dashboards but no single source of truth. Reports named “Final_Dashboard_v2_FINAL_USE_THIS” sitting alongside outdated boards maintained by employees who left years ago.
The real cost: Decision-makers lose confidence in data when they can’t trust which dashboard to use.
2. Poor Adoption: $150k+ stack,but Excel still dominates
You’re investing in sophisticated BI tools, but your marketing team still exports raw data to Excel for analysis. Your sales team maintains critical business logic in Google Sheets. This isn’t a training problem – it’s a user experience problem.
The real cost: “Shadow BI” creating reconciliation nightmares and inconsistent metrics across teams. Often only found the night before the board report is due.
3. Slow Queries: Coffee Break Data Analytics
When every report takes long enough to grab a coffee, spontaneous analysis dies. You can’t ask follow-up questions when each query requires overnight processing or fails at 3am. An industry research from FMI confirms that ‘performance issues are consistently cited as a top barrier to BI adoption.’
The real cost: Reduced agility and the inability to iterate quickly on business questions.
4. Analyst Bottlenecks: Every Question Through the Data Team
Your data team spends 2-3 weeks on “simple” requests like adding a new pivot to a chart. Every stakeholder question creates a backlog item instead of immediate insights.
The real cost: Data teams become order-takers instead of strategic advisors.
When is the Right Time to Consider BI Migration? The Migration Readiness Framework
Right, so we’ve covered the main BI scaling bottlenecks. Now the million-pound question: when should you actually do something about them?
We recently worked with Mat Raczynski, Head of Data at Paired, on their BI migration from Looker to Omni. Our first step was making sure they were genuinely ready – that the benefits would outweigh the inevitable friction. Here’s how we evaluated their readiness across five key areas:
- Technical Bottlenecks
- Business User Frustration
- Modern Data Stack Alignment
- Scalability and Growth Constraints
- Strategic Readiness
If you’re curious to hear Mat dig in and explain the evaluation process, watch the video below.
Want to assess your BI migration readiness? To make this super simple, we pulled together a simple self-evaluation framework PDF that takes less than 10min to fill. The comprehensive evaluation framework includes the scoring rubric used by Paired and dozens of other fast-growing companies.
ASSESS YOUR BI MIGRATION READINESS
The Five Dimensions of Modern BI Tool Fit
Once you’re confident in your BI migration readiness and have screamed from the rooftops: “THIS IS THE TIME FOR A BI MIGRATION!” not once but at least twice, we have the unfortunate news to tell you that you have another important decision to make – find a replacement tool. With the abundance of available tools out there, this can seem overwhelming. At the end of the day, it truly boils down to looking at five essential criteria:
1. Performance and Scalability
When scaling BI, performance and scalability forms the foundation, extending far beyond simple query speed to decision speed – the ability for stakeholders to iterate on business questions at the pace of thought. This means live query performance on your actual data volumes, sophisticated handling of complex calculations, and concurrent user support that doesn’t degrade as your team grows. The critical question isn’t just how fast queries run today, but what breaks first as you scale: the queries, the costs, or the complexity?
2. Governance and Trust
Modern governance means maintaining your single source of truth in your data warehouse rather than duplicating it in your BI tool, ensuring metric consistency across all reporting surfaces, and implementing change management that evolves with business definitions. This creates confidence in numbers and business accountability through reliable, consistent metrics.
3. Flexibility and Ease of Use
The best modern platforms offer multiple interaction modes – conversational AI for executives, point-and-click interfaces for analysts, familiar spreadsheet formulas for finance teams, and direct SQL access for technical users. This enables exploration at the speed of thought while supporting custom solutions beyond standard templates. Flexibility and ease of use ensures your BI tool grows with your team’s sophistication.
4. Modern Data Stack Integration
A properly implemented modern data stack integration amplifies rather than duplicates existing investments through CI/CD pipelines and version control for data analytics code, native dbt integration that leverages existing models, and compatibility with observability tools. When your BI tool treats data analytics as part of your software development lifecycle, it becomes a force multiplier for your data team’s expertise.
5. Cross-Team Adoption
For companies scaling BI across departments, cross-team adoption ultimately determines success, measured in daily active users who rely on the system for real decisions. This means sticky engagement that brings users back every morning, measurable business impact through improved decision quality, reduced friction for creators and consumers, and rapid iteration capabilities so dashboards stay current with changing business needs.
BI migration readiness → CHECK
BI migration tool → SELECTED
BI migration budget → WIP
Busting BI Migration Myths
Even with a clear business case and solid migration plan in hand, senior management often harbours lingering doubts. Here are the three most common myths that consistently block dream migrations from getting signed off – and how to overcome them:
“Good BI Is Too Expensive”
Majority of migrations actually reduce costs alongside improving capabilities, so where’s the downside? Harvard Business Review research supports this, showing that ‘businesses using BI report a 15% increase in profitability and 20% reduction if operational costs.’ The challenge isn’t the technology investment—it’s implementing systems that people actually use effectively.
“Migration Is Too Risky”
If your data model is properly separated from your presentation layer, switching BI tools can happen in weeks, not months. If it can’t, your data architecture – not your BI tool – is the bigger problem.
“Migration Is Too Complex”
If your data team is drowning in dashboard change requests, that’s precisely why you should migrate. Modern BI tools enable self-service, freeing your data team for strategic work.
The Bottom Line: BI That’s 80% Perfect and 100% Adopted
As MIT puts it, ‘BI friction isn’t just a technical problem, it’s a business problem.’ When your team normalises slow queries, dashboard sprawl, and analyst bottlenecks, you’re accepting a competitive disadvantage.
The goal isn’t perfect BI; it’s BI that’s 80% perfect and 100% adopted. Choose tools that move you forward fastest while building sustainable foundations for growth.
Ready to evaluate your readiness for BI scaling? Download our comprehensive evaluation framework, including the scoring rubric used by Paired and dozens of other fast-growing companies. It includes red flags to watch for, qualification questions to ask, and guidance on what to do based on your results.
Ready to explore your options? Tasman Analytics specialises in accelerating data capabilities for fast-growing companies. We’ve helped 60+ teams navigate BI migrations, from initial assessment through successful implementation. Our fractional approach means you get expert guidance without the overhead of traditional consulting engagements.
Connect with us if you have any BI migration questions remaining – no strings attached. We’d love to hear from you.