September 8th
February 22nd
The shift towards self-service exploratory self-service dashboards is revolutionizing how businesses operate by empowering users with autonomy and access to real-time data.
When KPN started leveraging Zebra BI, it enabled business users to independently access, analyze, and visualize data without relying on BI teams or report creators. This autonomy accelerated decision-making, as users could finally generate insights on the fly and make informed choices swiftly.
KPN used Zebra BI to build and foster a truly data-driven culture that boosts efficiency, reduces delays and bottlenecks, and minimizes the ubiquitous dependency of exporting data to Excel or using PivotTables.
Here's how Zebra BI helped them create customizable, flexible dashboards their team can now easily tailor to suit their specific needs, regardless of whether they are Business Analysts, Financial Analysts, Marketing Managers, HR, Operations Managers, or any other business role.
KPN is a leading telecommunications and IT service provider in the Netherlands, serving more than 6.5 million customers with high-quality services like internet, TV, mobile telephony, and fixed-line telephony.
Their mission is to connect people by providing reliable solutions that enhance their lives and make the world a better place.
As one of the largest companies in the Netherlands, KPN deals with large volumes of data from multiple sources. Their BI team was responsible for creating reports and dashboards for various business units across the company. However, as demand for real-time insights increased, it became challenging to keep up with requests from different departments.
On top of it, many team members were also creating Excel dashboards that were not following the IBCS (International Business Communication Standards) and creating dashboards that already existed in the managed dashboard environment.
It was time for KPN to find a solution to save their BI team time, ensure consistency across reporting, and speed up the whole process across the entire organization.
Peter Jan de Vries (Product Owner in the Finance Insights and Analytics department) and Wilko Nachzam (Data Analytics consultant) took on the challenge.
We got a lot of questions with minor changes which has to be made on the dashboards and then that will give a lot of pressure on your team because there are a lot of different wishes.
Zebra BI came as a solution for all of the issues KPN was having with their reporting.
By implementing Zebra BI, KPN achieved significant improvements in customization, consistency, efficiency, visualization, and integration -- ultimately enabling teams to work more effectively with data. Here's how Zebra BI helped KPN achieve these outcomes:
KPN needed a solution that allowed users to create personalized dashboards that catered to their specific needs without relying on IT support. Zebra BI’s flexibility empowered KPN team members to design and adapt dashboards independently, creating data views that were both relevant and actionable for their business needs. This customization enabled teams to focus on insights that mattered most to them.
Maintaining a uniform look and feel across dashboards was critical for KPN to align its data analytics with international best practices. With Zebra BI’s adherence to IBCS standards, KPN ensured its dashboards were not only professional-looking but also consistent across teams and departments. This consistency enhanced the clarity and credibility of the company’s reporting.
One of KPN’s biggest challenges was the heavy reliance on BI teams for creating and modifying dashboards. Zebra BI addressed this by reducing dependency through its intuitive user experience. Non-technical users at KPN could now explore and interact with data independently, making changes quickly and efficiently. This empowerment saved both time and resources while enabling faster decision-making.
KPN wanted to improve its ability to communicate data insights effectively. With Zebra BI’s advanced visualizations, including charts, tables, cards, and annotation features such as commenting and highlighting, KPN significantly enhanced its data storytelling. Teams were now able to interpret and present data with greater clarity, improving comprehension and driving more informed decisions.
KPN already relied on Power BI as part of its analytics ecosystem. Zebra BI’s seamless integration with Power BI allowed KPN to utilize existing data models and report structures effortlessly. By enhancing their existing BI platform with Zebra BI, KPN was able to unlock even greater potential from its data.
The people that don’t actually know Power BI, they don’t actually have to deal with picking the visualizations now. They just want a chart. And with Zebra BI, it is as easy as that: click on chart and boom, you have it.
With great power (BI) comes great responsibility. When they embarked on this project, Peter and Wilko were fully aware that any transformation project like this will come with different iterations.
In their case, it was the bookmarking that gave the implementation team some initial hassle. More specifically, the team identified an issue with the bookmarking system used to create and share links with consumers. While these bookmarks facilitated easy access to self-service dashboards, a recurring challenge arose when new dashboards replaced old ones. This replacement broke existing bookmarks, leading to dissatisfaction among users and frustration directed at the technical or BI department.
To address this issue, the managed dashboarding department implemented a versioning system using Zebra BI. Instead of overwriting an existing dashboard (version A) with a new one, they began creating additional versions—such as version B and version C—whenever improvements were made. This approach allowed users to continue using their existing bookmarks tied to version A while giving them the flexibility to transition to newer versions at their own pace.
The versioning system also included a structured timeline. After multiple versions were released, the team would prompt users to adopt the latest version, ensuring consistency and encouraging progress. This strategy allowed creators and consumers to transition smoothly between versions and prevented the disruption caused by broken bookmarks. Ultimately, this solution not only resolved the issue but also improved user satisfaction by providing greater flexibility and minimizing interruptions.
The whole project was a resounding success. By incorporating Zebra BI, KPN:
Not only were the results more than satisfactory – they were so good KPN now has further plans for Zebra BI, as they plan to expand the dashboard's functionality by adding more data dimensions and integrating HR information. They continue to experiment and pilot new features to enhance the solution.
KPN’s successful implementation of Zebra BI demonstrates how the right tools can transform data analytics, empowering teams to work smarter, faster, and with greater autonomy.
The implementation of the Zebra BI dashboard at KPN became a very large time saver here.
