“We're not looking for clear visibility — we're looking for any visibility.”
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Intelligence PlatformLicensed Consumer Products / CPG$96.5M Revenue
Turning a $96.5M Company's Data Into Executive Intelligence
A $96.5M licensed consumer products company ran on Business Central, a CRM, a commerce stack, and a pile of spreadsheets — none of which talked to each other. We unified the data into one read-only intelligence layer and turned it into executive-grade reporting, pricing intelligence, and a data-grounded AI assistant. Their CEO described the starting point as 'not looking for clear visibility — looking for any visibility.' We changed that in weeks.
Systems we connected
Microsoft Business CentralHubSpotShopifyPLMMonday.comPricing spreadsheets
01
The Company
A North American leader in licensed consumer products generating $96.5M in annual revenue. The company operates across multiple brands, channels, and product categories with complex pricing structures involving royalties, tariffs, and multi-tier distribution. Its business ran across a dozen disconnected systems — Microsoft Business Central for transactions, a CRM and commerce stack for the front end, and the pricing spreadsheets in between. The transactional systems worked, but there was no layer unifying them: virtually no analytics, dashboards, or executive-level reporting.
Annual Revenue
$96.5M
Industry
Licensed Consumer Products / CPG
Employees
200+
ERP System
Microsoft Business Central
Connected Systems
9+ (BC, HubSpot, Shopify, PLM, Monday.com, and more)
FP&A Team at Start
None — first FP&A Director hired during engagement
02
The Problem
The company experienced $6.3M in write-offs in a single year — 6.89% of North American revenue — their worst year on record. Financial statements for 2024 weren't available until August 2024. A complex 13-step pricing waterfall spanning supplier costs, tariffs, sea freight, tooling, royalties, and more was managed in a single Excel spreadsheet understood by only one person. Leadership was making multi-million dollar decisions based on stale spreadsheets and gut instinct.
“Our ERP captures every transaction but we can't get a single useful report out of it.”
“We didn't see our first 2024 financial statements until August 2024.”
03
What We Built
Starting from a single discovery call and a pricing spreadsheet, we built the custom integration layer that connected their live Business Central data — and the pricing spreadsheets only one person understood — into one normalized, analytics-ready model. The connection is read-only by design: we never write back to their source of truth. On top of that unified layer we built the reporting, pricing intelligence, and AI assistant that replaced the combined output of an FP&A analyst, BI consultant, and data engineering team — operational in weeks, not months. (CRM and commerce data are on the roadmap to fold into the same layer.)
Executive Dashboard
Real-time KPI ribbon with revenue, gross margin, EBITDA, write-off rates, and channel/region/program breakdowns — updated automatically from live ERP data.
Pricing Intelligence
Interactive 13-step margin waterfall that reproduces the single-point-of-failure spreadsheet at ~95% parity — supplier cost, tariffs, sea freight, tooling, royalties, and more. Tariff scenario modeling across all tiers — 'What happens to margins if China tariffs go to 145%?' — answered in seconds.
Inventory Risk Engine
AI-powered sell-through analysis with risk scoring by program, warehouse, and SKU. 60–90 days of advance warning on potential write-offs with proactive intervention recommendations.
Order-to-ERP Reconciliation
Automated matching of orders, fulfillment, and GL postings back to Business Central — surfacing mismatches, missing dimensions, and revenue that wasn't landing where leadership thought it was. Deterministic checks, auditable line by line.
AI Assistant
Domain-specific AI connected to the live database, answering complex multi-dimensional queries: 'Which programs are margin-negative after freight?' requires joining sales, inventory, GL, dimensions, freight, and royalties in a single response.
Scenario Modeling
Interactive P&L simulation for strategic planning — 'What happens if we lose our top 3 customers?' or 'What's the impact of a 15% tariff increase on Q3 margins?' — with results grounded in actual data.
04
The Numbers
Conservative first-year ROI: 5x–15x return on platform investment
$1.6M–$3.2MPotential annual savings from write-off reduction (25–50%)
1–3%Margin improvement through pricing intelligence
10xFaster decision-making (months to minutes)
200+ hrsExecutive time saved annually
$150K–$300KFP&A labor cost offset
8 weeksDiscovery call to live platform
05
The Timeline
Not 6 months. Not 12 months. Weeks.
Week 0
Discovery Call
60-minute deep dive into business challenges, data landscape, and strategic priorities.
Week 1–2
Working Prototype
Functioning demo built from the discovery call — using real terminology, real products, real pain points.
Week 2–3
Feedback & Refinement
Client team tested the prototype, identified priorities, and shared additional data sources.
Week 3–6
Efficiency Audit
Comprehensive assessment of all 9+ systems, data flows, and bottlenecks with a written action plan.
Week 5–8
Live Data Connection
Platform connected to Business Central via API with real-time data synchronization.
Week 8–12
Full Platform Launch
All six modules live, team onboarded, and continuous optimization engagement begins.
06
The Reaction
“This way exceeded our expectations. We went from having zero visibility into our business to having an entire intelligence platform — and it happened in weeks, not the 12–18 months we were told to expect.”
CEO
Chief Executive Officer
“For the first time, I can ask a question about our business and get an answer backed by real data in seconds. That changes everything about how we make decisions.”
COO
Chief Operating Officer
“The pricing simulator alone would have justified the investment. The fact that it came with five other modules is remarkable.”
VP of Sales
Vice President of Sales
Two very different builds. The same missing layer.
Whether you need to see your business or run it without manual glue — let's talk about what one unified layer looks like on your data.