Why Counsyl Chose Looker to Unify Access to Data
Company Size
200-1,000
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- Looker
Tech Stack
- Looker
- CRM Software
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Process Control & Optimization
Services
- Data Science Services
About The Customer
Counsyl is a genetic testing company that combines deep expertise in genetics and a sophisticated robotics platform to make DNA testing more broadly available and affordable. The company is committed to compassionate customer service, delivering test results to patients using straightforward, easy-to-understand language, along with one-on-one counseling, as needed. Counsyl has screened more than 700,000 patients to date through an automated lab that runs 24/7, evaluating lab samples for risk factors related to preconception, prenatal and hereditary cancer — including breast, ovarian, and colon. The company uses modern media technologies to help patients access, interpret, and understand the test results.
The Challenge
Counsyl, a high-tech genetic testing company, was struggling with financial modeling and optimizing operational workflows. The finance and billing departments were particularly challenged with billing medical services to health insurance companies, which made predicting revenues and cash flows difficult. The company initially tried using their CRM software for reporting, but it wasn’t a good fit for their industry-specific requirements. As a result, the finance team had to manage multi-gigabyte Excel files with complex nested pivot tables and VLOOKUPS, which took hours every morning to manage and often resulted in frozen machines. Additionally, they had to pull developers and software engineers away from their work to get the raw data needed for their analysis.
The Solution
Counsyl's data analysts chose Looker for its advanced analytics capabilities. They built a platform using Looker that helped accelerate revenues, empowered employees to manage their daily workflows, and eliminated time spent refreshing massive and complex Excel models. The first problem the analysts tackled was in finance. By moving the logic behind the finance team’s nested pivot tables, and unwieldy VLOOKUPS into Looker, the analysts were able to create a replica of the model that automatically updated every night and was ready for use as soon as coffee was brewed in the morning. This move saved dozens of hours every month and empowered the group to make improvements to the model with ease. On the operations front, Counsyl needed to build a window into where the team was spending time through their many touchpoints with patients, doctors, and insurance companies. By feeding the workqueue data into Looker, the team was able to visualize where they were spending the most of their time, discover bottlenecks in their operations, and eliminate redundancies in their flows.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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