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February 22nd
03 Sep 2025 Tellu, a fast-growing Norwegian scale-up in the telecare and welfare technology sector, needed smarter ways to manage financial and sales reporting with a small team.
Native Power BI visuals fell short in delivering clarity and efficiency. By adopting Zebra BI for Power BI, Tellu streamlined financial reporting, improved understanding of growth drivers, and gained stronger financial control.
Even as a small company, Tellu discovered that Zebra BI was the best tool to extend Power BI’s capabilities, proving that cutting-edge reporting is not just for large corporations.
The combination of Power BI and Zebra BI is a very powerful combo. It helps us understand what drives our growth, gives us better financial control, and improves how we report deviations vs. the plan.
Tellu is a 50-employee SaaS company based in Norway, providing telecare and welfare technology services to municipalities across the Nordic region. Their solutions range from safety alarms to remote supervision and sensor technology, helping elderly and vulnerable individuals live safer, more independent lives.
As a scale-up with a small finance team, Tellu operates in a dynamic market with strong growth potential. For CFO Thomas Andersen, ensuring productivity and financial control with limited resources meant turning to advanced yet user-friendly technologies.
When Andersen joined Tellu as CFO, reporting was primarily Excel-based. Over time, he experimented with specialized finance tools but found them either too rigid or resource-heavy for a small company.
The team turned to Power BI, drawn by its flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and strong global community. However, the native visuals in Power BI came with limitations:
“Some of it can be done with native visuals, but Zebra BI adds far more powerful capabilities in a much more user-friendly and visually engaging way.”
Tellu needed a solution that combined Power BI’s flexibility with advanced financial reporting features without the complexity of enterprise systems.
While exploring ways to enhance Power BI, Andersen discovered Zebra BI. What sealed the decision was not only the product itself, but also Zebra BI’s strong community, expertise, and wealth of learning resources.
Tutorials, webinars, and templates showcased practical financial reporting techniques, giving Andersen confidence that the tool was built by a team that understood real CFO challenges.
“The webinars and tutorials showed me that Zebra BI really knows the challenges of financial reporting. It wasn’t just about using the tool, it was about learning how to do better reporting overall.”
Among the various custom visuals explored, Zebra BI stood out as the most powerful and user-friendly. “It really added superpowers to Power BI,” Andersen recalls.
Implementation was quick and straightforward, which was another key advantage for a small, agile company. Instead of a lengthy procurement process, Tellu could test and adopt Zebra BI immediately. Three years on, it has become an essential extension of Power BI, embedded across Tellu’s financial, sales, and project reporting.
For Tellu, Zebra BI was more than a reporting add-on. It became a way to work smarter as a small team. From streamlining financial reporting to enabling sales and project analysis, the impact has been felt across the business.
For a small finance team, efficiency is everything. Zebra BI reduced the manual work that previously slowed down reporting. Interactive cards for KPI tracking, out-of-the-box variances, and advanced visuals (like waterfall charts and P&Ls) made reports clearer and more actionable.
“Once you know what kind of visualizations you need, making them in Zebra BI and getting the variance calculation is really a breeze.”
Although Zebra BI was first adopted for financial reporting, Tellu quickly expanded its use. Today, the visuals also power sales pipeline analysis, revenue tracking, and reporting on innovation projects. This broader adoption turned Zebra BI into a cross-functional tool, giving the company a holistic view of performance without additional reporting systems.
Disclaimer: This is an example of a SaaS sales Power BI dashboard (source).
Variance tracking became intuitive, helping the team spot key growth drivers and focus on what truly mattered.
“Variance analysis is one standout feature, as you pull in the data and super quickly get really good results. It helps us understand where the growth is coming from, where the variances are, and focus on what matters.”
With Zebra BI Cards, Tellu consolidated multiple KPIs into a single, efficient view. This reduced clutter, improved clarity, and even enhanced report performance.
Disclaimer: This is an example of a SaaS sales Power BI dashboard (source).
With clearer insights and structured visuals, the finance team can now easily track revenue drivers, monitor deviations, and maintain stronger control over business performance. While IBCS wasn’t a requirement, the underlying philosophy resonated with Andersen.
“It’s not supposed to be a firework show. It’s about making the key insights stand out.”
Tellu’s journey shows that advanced reporting is not only for large corporations. With Zebra BI, even a 50-person scale-up can gain clarity, efficiency, and stronger financial control.
Key takeaways from Tellu’s experience:
“Zebra BI adds superpowers to Power BI. It’s helped us streamline reporting, improve financial control, and work smarter as a small team.”
