Customer Success Story

United Regional's Story

It’s not unusual for an expanding business to experience problems with information reporting, data governance, and implementation of long-term, data-driven systemic change. Companies continue to invest vast amounts of time and manpower into analytics only to discover inconsistencies in the final stages of reporting. United Regional Health Care System was experiencing some of these problems and has arrived at a long term solution. Thanks to the collaboration between United Regional and Zuar, accurate self-service reporting and analytical problem solving are now being implemented across the organization. Furthermore, United Regional now possesses Tableau power users (Stephen Calvert & Brandon Beshear), a full team of Tableau Desktop users, and a sophisticated road map to improve their BI. This is their story…

United Regional invested ample thought and consideration into the growth of their business. They began by setting internal objectives and searching for a software company to help meet those objectives. Like many future Tableau users, most of the data reporting was being communicated through Excel. After careful deliberation, Zuar was called upon to deliver a full spectrum of services to enhance United Regional’s Business Intelligence. Zuar initiated their unique, speed to value, consultative model to support the success of United Regional’s long-term vision.

Phase 1 – Acquisition of Tableau software followed by on demand support from Zuar. The early stages of implementation focused heavily on the establishment of longitudinal goals, road mapping, and a unified desire to transition from a report factory to individual self-service reporting. Zuar set out to facilitate United Regional’s development of data governance and rapid visual analysis to unlock business insights through use of Tableau software.

Phase 1 also signifies the beginning stages of one of United Regional’s Tableau power users. Brandon Beschear, the Administrator of the Ambulatory Surgery Center and a lifetime Excel reporter, became immersed in the world of Tableau. Brandon identified the long term implications that such a reporting system could have on his organization and immediately set out to answer specific use case questions.

Phase 2 – Empowering United Regional to take ownership of their own BI. United Regional was provided tailored training, utilizing their own business data, to allow their employees to begin building content for the entire organization.

United Regional received a full week of training, commonly referred to as a Sprint Week. During this training program, the mornings were reserved for learning the basics of Tableau Desktop software while the afternoons were dedicated to training specific user groups, deep dives into advanced user topics, content development, and strategic road mapping. Sprint Week was followed by further on-demand support from Zuar to answer additional software or road mapping questions.

Phase 2 of Brandon’s journey was powered by personal initiative and on demand support from Zuar. Brandon began learning Tableau on his own and was quickly identified by his organization as power user. In fact, after only a short time utilizing Tableau, Brandon was so intrigued by the software and its capabilities that he signed up to present his implications at a national conference. Brandon was also an attendee of the Sprint Week training and was able to collaborate with Zuar to start developing visuals to inform stakeholders about the performance of the Ambulatory Surgery Center.

Phase 3 – Organizational roll-out and additional training geared toward server users, advanced topics, and upper management. After helping United Regional get up and running, Zuar was called on again to train various groups of Tableau Server users, provide advanced Tableau training topics for experienced users, and further support company wide buy in of the newly instituted strategic road map.

The second week of training was structured similarly to the Sprint Week, providing basic Tableau Server training in the morning and advanced topics, user groups, and 1:1 sessions with senior leadership in the afternoon. This type of training structure allows for higher levels of information consumption and reduced rates of mental fatigue.

Phase 3 of Brandon’s journey continued to expand his in-depth knowledge of Tableau topics by working with Zuar’s Chief Product Officer during advanced user groups and staying after hours to tackle complex use case scenarios. Through visual analysis, Brandon was able to expose inefficiencies connected to system level productivity. Brandon was then able to create powerful visuals to share this information with his stakeholders.

Phase 4 – Long term engagement and endurance. United Regional continues to maintain a close relationship with Zuar and will contract support to tackle advanced analytical topics, ad-hoc analysis, complex calculations, data preparation, best practice advise, etc. Zuar places a high level of importance on the future outcome and success of their clients, willing to remain engaged as long as necessary to provide support for the long haul.

During Phase 4, Brandon’s deep dives into specific use cases allowed him to make a substantial impact at United Regional. Specifically, Brandon has been able to influence organizational change by reducing the amount of time patients are required to spend in surgery. United Regional has noticed improvements in patient satisfaction and company-wide financial benefits. Brandon was able to present his findings at a national conference just 9 months after his first interaction with Tableau Software thanks to his dedication to the product and support from Zuar. Brandon has increased his value within his company and is looked to by his peers as an organizational leader of Tableau.