Business Intelligence & Executive Dashboard Development

Request for Proposal (RFP) Enterprise Business Intelligence & Executive Dashboard Development Project Overview We are seeking an experienced Business Intelligence consultant or development team to design and implement an enterprise reporting and dashboard solution for our manufacturing business. Our objective is to create a centralized reporting platform that consolidates data from multiple business systems into meaningful dashboards and reports, providing management with accurate, timely, and actionable information across all departments. This engagement will be completed in two phases. The first phase will focus on business analysis, requirements gathering, KPI development, and solution design. The second phase will involve the development and implementation of the reporting platform based on the approved requirements. We are looking for a partner who can contribute to the design of the solution, challenge assumptions where appropriate, recommend industry best practices, and build a reporting environment that will continue to grow with the business. ⸻ Phase 1 – Discovery & Solution Design Before any dashboards are developed, we want to invest the necessary time to ensure the reporting requirements are clearly defined. This phase should include: * Discovery sessions with management and department leaders * Review of current business processes * Identification and definition of key performance indicators (KPIs) * Identification of reporting requirements by department * Review of existing data sources and data quality * Data modelling recommendations * Dashboard planning and wireframes * Definition of drill-down paths * Documentation of business rules and KPI calculations * Recommendations for future scalability At the conclusion of this phase, we expect to have a complete roadmap for development before implementation begins. ⸻ Phase 2 – Dashboard Development Following approval of the solution design, the selected consultant will develop the reporting platform. Power BI is our preferred platform, although we are open to recommendations if another solution better meets the project’s objectives. The completed solution should include: * Executive dashboards * Department-specific dashboards * Interactive reports * Drill-through functionality * Scheduled data refreshes * Role-based security * Mobile-friendly layouts where appropriate * Well-documented data models * Documentation to support future maintenance and expansion ⸻ Business Areas The reporting platform should provide visibility into the following areas: Executive Management Company-wide performance Financial summary Operational performance Sales performance Production performance Inventory health Cash flow Forecast vs. actual performance Strategic KPI scorecards ⸻ Finance Revenue Gross margin Net profit Operating expenses Cost of goods sold Accounts receivable Accounts payable Inventory valuation Budget vs. actual Sales by customer Sales by product Profitability analysis Cash flow reporting ⸻ Sales & Customer Service Sales performance Sales by customer Sales by product Sales trends Customer profitability Open quotations Order backlog Order conversion rates Sales forecasting Customer retention New customer acquisition ⸻ Manufacturing Production schedule Manufacturing orders Work orders Capacity utilization Machine utilization Labour efficiency Production efficiency Scrap Yield Downtime Production bottlenecks Lead times Cycle times ⸻ Inventory Inventory valuation Inventory turns Inventory accuracy ABC analysis Slow-moving inventory Dead stock Stock shortages Backorders Warehouse inventory Minimum and maximum stock levels Cycle count reporting ⸻ Purchasing Purchase order status Supplier performance Vendor lead times Purchase spend Price variance Supplier scorecards MRP recommendations Open purchase orders ⸻ Human Resources Headcount Attendance Overtime Employee turnover Training Safety metrics Labour costs Productivity metrics ⸻ Data Sources The reporting solution will need to consolidate information from multiple sources, including but not limited to: * Sage Accounting * MISys Manufacturing * Microsoft Excel * CSV imports * Other internal business systems * Additional systems that may be introduced in the future The solution should be designed to accommodate future expansion without requiring significant redevelopment. ⸻ Dashboard Functionality The dashboards should support interactive exploration of data. Examples include: Company Revenue → Customer → Sales Order → Invoice → Invoice Line Inventory Value → Warehouse → Location → Item → Transaction History Production → Manufacturing Order → Work Order → Operation → Labour and Material Consumption Users should be able to begin with high-level summaries and drill down into the underlying transactions that make up each metric. ⸻ Deliverables At a minimum, we expect the following: * Business Requirements Document * KPI Definitions * Data Dictionary * Data Model Documentation * Dashboard Wireframes * Final Dashboards and Reports * Documentation describing calculations, relationships, and refresh processes * User documentation sufficient for future maintenance ⸻ Preferred Qualifications Please highlight experience with: * Power BI * SQL * Data modelling * Manufacturing environments * ERP systems * Sage * MISys or similar manufacturing software * Executive reporting * Financial reporting * Production reporting Experience working with manufacturing companies is considered a significant advantage. ⸻ Proposal Requirements Please include the following in your proposal: * Company or individual background * Relevant project experience * Examples or screenshots of previous work * References (if available) * Your proposed approach to this project * Estimated timeline * Estimated cost for Phase 1 (Discovery & Solution Design) * Estimated cost for Phase 2 (Development & Implementation) ⸻ Additional Information We are not looking for someone to simply build dashboards from a list of requested reports. We are looking for a consultant who can work with our team to determine what information is most valuable to the business, recommend best practices, and design a reporting environment that supports informed decision-making across the organization. This project has the potential to evolve into a long-term engagement as additional reporting requirements and data sources are identified.