Your Power BI dashboard is gorgeous and wrong, because the data underneath never reconciled
When a Reading firm has Power BI or Tableau dashboards that look polished but show numbers sales, delivery and finance each dispute, the fix is the data layer beneath them. A proper BI build runs £40k to £100k over 3 to 6 months, with a trusted core dashboard live in about 10 weeks.
Tableau, Power BI and Looker are only as good as the data feeding them, and in a fast-scaling Thames Valley firm that data is a mess: deal numbers from a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) with duplicate records, revenue from a finance system, utilisation from a spreadsheet, none agreeing. The dashboard renders all of it confidently, which makes the disagreement worse, not better.
So the weekly leadership meeting argues about whose number is right instead of what to do. You bought a BI tool to create alignment and got a faster way to surface the underlying chaos. The problem was never visualisation; it's that the sources never reconciled.
What business intelligence dashboards costs in Reading
| Project scope | Typical cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Data pipeline and reconciled metric layer | £40k to £65k | 3 to 4 months |
| Full BI platform with governed dashboards | £75k to £100k | 4 to 6 months |
| Dashboard build on an existing clean pipeline | £25k to £45k | 2 to 3 months |
The fix: business intelligence dashboards built for Reading, not rented
A proper BI build fixes the layer beneath the dashboards: a reconciled data pipeline with defined metrics, deduplicated sources, and governance so a number means one thing. Then the visualisation, in Power BI, Tableau or custom, finally tells the truth. You get alignment, not a prettier argument.
- Dashboards show conflicting numbers across teams
- Leadership argues about data instead of decisions
- Duplicate CRM records poison your sales metrics
- There's no governed source of truth behind the visuals
- Your data is already clean and reconciled
- Off-the-shelf Power BI connectors meet your needs
- You only need basic reporting on one system
- You lack anyone to own data governance
The capability list that earns its budget
Business Intelligence Dashboards services we deliver in Reading
The engagements Reading teams bring us most often: KPI dashboards, data warehouse, embedded analytics, business intelligence dashboards and BI development.
How long it takes, phase by phase
Exactly what you get
Dashboards you can actually trust, because the work goes into the data layer beneath them: a reconciled pipeline from your CRM, ERP and ops systems, deduplicated sources, and governed metrics that each mean one thing. The visualisation, whether Power BI, Tableau or custom, then tells the truth, so leadership debates decisions instead of whose number wins.
How to choose a developer in Reading
Hire for data engineering, not dashboard design, because the chaos lives in the sources, not the visuals. Ask how they reconcile conflicting numbers across your CRM and ERP and how they dedup records. Insist on a governed metric layer with single definitions and drill-down to source. The teams that fail jump straight to pretty charts; the ones that succeed fix the pipeline first.
- Reconciled data so every metric means one thing
- Deduplicated CRM and ERP sources behind the visuals
- Defined, governed metrics leadership can trust
- Self-service dashboards without per-team data chaos
- Decisions made on numbers, not on whose source wins
- The hard work is data engineering, which is invisible and underestimated
- Source systems may need cleanup before dashboards can be trusted
- Governance requires ongoing ownership, not a one-off build
- It exposes uncomfortable truths some teams would rather not see
- !They focus on visuals, ask how they reconcile the underlying data
- !No dedup plan, ask how duplicate CRM records get resolved
- !They skip governance, ask who owns a metric's definition
- !No drill-down, ask how a board number traces to source
- !They promise dashboards in two weeks, ask about the data layer first
If business intelligence dashboards is on the roadmap, helpdesk & ticketing, erp, custom software usually follow within the year. Budget them as one conversation.
Rohan advises mid-market and enterprise teams on ERP, CRM and custom software, and has led delivery on dozens of business-software builds.
Writes for Digital Heroes, shipping business software for 2,000+ brands across 55+ countries since 2017.
Frequently asked questions
Why are our Power BI dashboards untrustworthy?
Almost always because the data feeding them never reconciled. When the CRM has duplicate records, the ERP has its own revenue figure, and a spreadsheet has utilisation, a dashboard just renders the disagreement faster. The fix is the data pipeline beneath the visuals, not the visuals.
Do we need to replace Power BI or Tableau?
Usually no. Keep your visualisation tool and build the reconciled, governed data layer it should sit on. Power BI and Tableau are fine front ends; the problem is what they're pointed at, so the investment goes into the pipeline and governance.
What does a governed metric layer actually do?
It gives each KPI a single agreed definition and a single source, so revenue means the same thing in every dashboard and every meeting. That governance is what turns a dashboard from a fight-starter into a decision tool.
How does this connect to our CRM and ERP?
The pipeline pulls from both, deduplicates and reconciles, then serves clean metrics to the dashboards. This is why BI projects often surface the need to fix the CRM duplication problem first, since dirty sources poison everything downstream.
Can we drill from a board number to the detail?
Yes, and you should insist on it. A trusted dashboard lets you click a board-level figure and trace it to the underlying records, so when someone questions a number you can show exactly where it came from rather than re-arguing.