TurnData IntoDecisions

Data Analytics, Business Intelligence (BI), and Data Science each play a unique role in how businesses understand and use data. Data Analytics focuses on examining data to answer specific business questions through statistical analysis, reports, and dashboards. Its goal is to explain what happened and why, using tools like Excel, SQL, Tableau, and Power BI. Typical timelines range from a few hours to a few days. Business Intelligence (BI) is a broader discipline that includes data analytics along with data warehousing, ETL processes, and real-time reporting systems. BI helps organizations monitor performance and make informed decisions through historical and real-time insights. Common tools include Power BI, Tableau, Looker, and Qlik, with projects generally taking days to weeks. Data Science goes beyond analysis to apply machine learning, statistical modeling, and predictive algorithms that forecast future outcomes and optimize performance. It focuses on what will happen and how to improve it, using advanced tools like Python, R, and TensorFlow, typically requiring weeks to months for implementation. At MoonDive, most projects begin with BI dashboards for real-time visibility and operational insights, later evolving into predictive analytics and data science solutions as clients advance their data maturity.

The data you need depends on your analytics goals. For basic reporting, 3–6 months of transactional data (sales, orders, users, events) is enough. For customer analytics, collect demographics, behavior, purchase history, and marketing touchpoints with at least 1,000 customer records. For predictive analytics, aim for 12+ months of data with 10,000+ records and clear outcomes. Focus on data quality; it should be accurate, complete, consistent, and up to date. If you’re just starting, set up tracking tools like Google Analytics or Mixpanel to collect data, or use external datasets to fill gaps. At MoonDive, we’ve built powerful analytics systems with as little as 10,000 rows of data, proving you often have more than enough to begin.

At MoonDive, we use a flexible analytics tech stack tailored to your business needs. For Business Intelligence and Dashboards, we work with tools like Tableau, Power BI, Looker, Metabase, and Google Data Studio. For Data Warehousing, we rely on Snowflake, Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, and PostgreSQL for smaller datasets. Our Data Processing and ETL layer includes dbt, Airflow, Fivetran, and custom Python scripts for advanced transformations. For Product Analytics, we use Mixpanel, Amplitude, Google Analytics 4, and Segment to track user behavior and engagement. For Advanced Analytics, we leverage Python, SQL, R, and Jupyter Notebooks to perform deep data modeling and insights. Tool selection always depends on your tech stack, team skills, budget, and goals. We’re platform-agnostic; our focus is on recommending what fits your business best, not what’s most profitable for us.

At MoonDive, analytics implementation timelines depend on project scope. A basic dashboard (5–10 metrics, one data source) takes around 2–4 weeks, covering data connection, layout design, and stakeholder reviews. A medium BI system with multiple data sources and dashboards usually requires 8–12 weeks for warehouse setup, ETL pipelines, modeling, and training. For a fully advanced analytics platform, including data warehousing, automated reporting, and self-service analytics, the process takes 16–24 weeks. A typical 12-week project includes: • Discovery (1–2 weeks): Define goals, data sources, and KPIs. • Data Infrastructure (3–4 weeks): Build warehouse and ETL pipelines. • Dashboard Development (4–5 weeks): Create and refine visualizations. • Training & Launch (1–2 weeks): Conduct user training and documentation. We also follow a quick-win approach, often delivering a core dashboard within 2–3 weeks to start driving insights early, like one client who saw their first revenue dashboard by week three.

Yes, MoonDive specializes in integrating data from multiple sources to create a unified analytics ecosystem. We connect databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB), SaaS tools (Salesforce, HubSpot, Stripe, Shopify), marketing platforms (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Mailchimp), cloud storage (AWS S3, Google Cloud, Azure), and even custom APIs. Our integration methods include: • Pre-built connectors (Fivetran, Stitch) for quick, low maintenance syncing from 100+ sources. • Custom ETL pipelines (Python, dbt) for complex or unique data transformations. • Reverse ETL to push analytics data back into tools like Salesforce or HubSpot. We handle both batch syncing (every few hours) and real-time streaming for live dashboards. The result is a single source of truth, enabling cross-channel insights and accurate performance tracking. For example, an eCommerce client unified data from Shopify, Google Analytics, Klaviyo, and Facebook Ads, resulting in a 35% increase in marketing ROI through better attribution and decision-making.

The right KPIs and metrics depend on your business model and goals: • E-commerce: Revenue, Average Order Value (AOV), Conversion Rate, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Lifetime Value (LTV), Cart Abandonment Rate, and Return Rate. • SaaS: Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), Churn Rate, CAC, LTV/CAC Ratio, Activation Rate, Net Revenue Retention, and Free-to-Paid Conversion. • Marketplace: Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), Take Rate, Active Buyers/Sellers, Liquidity, and Repeat Purchase Rate. • Content/Media: Daily/Monthly Active Users (DAU/MAU), Engagement Rate, Time on Site, Content Consumption, and Ad Revenue per User. • General Business: Revenue Growth, Profit Margins, Retention, NPS, Sales Pipeline Value, and Burn Rate (for startups). At MoonDive, we focus on actionable metrics that drive decisions, not vanity stats. We help you define KPIs aligned with your goals, build dashboards to monitor them, and set up alerts for performance deviations. Most clients start with 5–7 key metrics and expand as insights grow.

We maintain data quality and accuracy through a robust multi-step framework: • Validation at Ingestion: We check schema consistency, enforce correct data types, validate value ranges, and remove duplicates before storage. • Ongoing Monitoring: Automated checks run daily to track freshness, detect anomalies, and monitor missing or null data trends. • Transformation Best Practices: All pipelines are version-controlled, idempotent, and fully logged. We test sample data before production and reconcile totals between source systems and dashboards. • Documentation & Lineage: Every dataset includes a detailed data dictionary, transformation lineage, and known issues log for transparency. • Error Handling: Automatic retries, graceful recovery, and real-time alerts ensure continuity even when a source fails. At MoonDive, our systems deliver 99.5% data accuracy, and any discrepancies are resolved within 24 hours. Each dashboard also displays data freshness indicators, so users always know how recent their insights are.

Yes, MoonDive ensures strong data governance and compliance through structured ownership, role-based access, centralized data catalogs, and strict retention policies. We comply with major regulations like GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, SOC 2, and PCI-DSS, using AES-256 and TLS encryption, row-level security, audit logs, and regular security reviews. To protect privacy, we apply anonymization, pseudonymization, and data masking in non-production systems. Our teams maintain thorough compliance documentation and receive regular training on secure data practices. Example: For a healthcare client, MoonDive built a HIPAA-compliant data warehouse with encrypted access, detailed audit trails, and routine compliance audits, passing certification with zero findings.

A data warehouse is a centralized system that combines data from multiple sources for fast analytics and historical tracking without affecting your main database. Operational DB: Handles live transactions. Data Warehouse: Handles analytics and large-scale insights. You need one if you: • Use multiple data sources. • Need historical or complex analysis. • Have a data team or plan for ML. At MoonDive, our solutions deliver ROI in 6–8 months through better, faster decisions.

Both serve different goals: • Batch Processing (most common): Data updates every 1–24 hours. It’s cost-effective, simple, and ideal for financial reports, dashboards, and trend analysis. • Real-Time Processing: Data updates within seconds. It enables instant insights for fraud detection, live monitoring, and personalization, but is costlier and more complex. • Near-Real-Time (Hybrid): Syncs every 5–15 minutes, offering a balance of cost and data freshness for product or social analytics. At MoonDive, we typically start clients with batch systems for reliability and scale, then add real-time components only where speed drives real business value.

Yes! MoonDive offers tailored data analytics training to help teams become data-driven: • BI Tool Training (Tableau, Power BI, Looker): Dashboard navigation, report creation, and collaboration. (4–8 hours) • SQL Training: Query writing, joins, aggregations, and performance tips. (12–16 hours, hands-on labs) • Data Literacy Workshops: Reading dashboards, understanding KPIs, and making data-driven decisions. (4 hours) • Advanced Analytics (Python/R): Statistical analysis, visualization, and best practices. (20–40 hours) Live workshops, recorded sessions, detailed documentation, and ongoing office hours. Our programs enable self-service analytics, reducing ad-hoc report requests by up to 60%. Every BI implementation includes training to ensure your team confidently explores and utilizes data.

MoonDive offers end-to-end analytics support to keep your systems accurate, scalable, and insightful. Our Managed Analytics Service covers dashboard updates, data pipeline monitoring, performance tuning, and user assistance. Support plans: • Basic: Monthly updates, monitoring, and bug fixes. • Standard: Priority support, weekly updates, and monthly insights. • Premium: Dedicated engineer, daily support, and ad-hoc analysis. We also provide proactive insights, anomaly alerts, quarterly optimizations, and self-service resources like guides, tutorials, and team channels. As your business grows, we scale your analytics from core dashboards to predictive and ML-driven insights, ensuring long-term value and continuous improvement.