This guest post, co-authored by CloudSmart and CyberGuard, explores how CloudSmart is revolutionizing the way software sellers utilize sales intelligence through embedded analytics featuring Amazon QuickSight. Catering to a vast array of clients on the AWS Marketplace, CloudSmart provides actionable insights through the CloudSmart Insights dashboard, customized specifically for each seller.
The company aims to enhance its Software as a Service (SaaS) offering by delivering a richly detailed dashboard that offers valuable insights into sales, marketing, and product performance. CloudSmart eliminates the guesswork often faced by AWS Marketplace sellers, removing the need for manual report generation and analysis. Their platform provides sales data, forecasts, and visualizations without requiring extensive business intelligence (BI) expertise.
Additionally, the platform allows for discreet customer data to be integrated into the AWS co-sell strategy, covering subscriber accounts and payer domains associated with free trials, paid listings, or BYOL offers. This post further elaborates on the partnership between CloudSmart and Amazon QuickSight, which significantly improved the data analytics capabilities for one of their prominent clients, CyberGuard, a leader in cybersecurity and compliance.
The Need for Enhanced Data Analytics
CloudSmart recognized inefficiencies in CyberGuard’s existing architecture and workflows, observing that they were operating under suboptimal conditions. The company saw a chance to enhance the data collection and analysis process, ultimately improving the overall experience on the AWS Marketplace.
CyberGuard was still relying on raw CSV data pulled from AWS Marketplace, which required manual extraction and analysis to identify insights. The process lacked standardization, with various tools being employed by CyberGuard sellers to evaluate their go-to-market (GTM) strategy and sales performance. This led to longer report turnaround times, resulting in slower strategic decision-making in a fast-paced online software sales environment. By collaborating with the right BI and data analytics partner, CloudSmart aimed to significantly enhance customer experiences like that of CyberGuard.
The Importance of Prioritizing Data Analytics
CyberGuard opted to collaborate with CloudSmart, leveraging the power of Amazon QuickSight Embedded Analytics for three primary reasons. The fact that all CyberGuard clients operate within the AWS ecosystem via Marketplace further ensured the systems would integrate seamlessly.
- Serverless Architecture: Amazon QuickSight’s serverless design enabled CyberGuard to minimize operational time and resource expenditure, allowing them to concentrate on core business objectives instead of data management.
- Embedded Analytics: Integrating QuickSight into CloudSmart Insights allowed AWS Marketplace sellers to continue utilizing familiar systems, reducing the need for extensive individual configurations to access desired data.
- APIs for Automation and Extension: The embedded QuickSight APIs empowered CyberGuard to intuitively connect new datasets and streamline their analysis processes.
Delivering Comprehensive Insights at Speed and Scale
The primary goal of CloudSmart in its collaboration with CyberGuard was to provide embedded data analytics that emphasize an intuitive user experience, extensive datasets, and rapid, actionable insights. By utilizing QuickSight, they directly sourced data from AWS Marketplace seller profiles, enabling CyberGuard to accurately measure KPIs and enhance business intelligence.
Secure access was facilitated through corporate single-sign-on systems, ensuring robust data protection. This integration provided CyberGuard with curated visuals and dashboards embedded within CloudSmart’s solution.
With AWS powering these systems, significant improvements were realized in the speed and scale of data analysis, allowing CyberGuard to quickly identify important trends and insights that informed their GTM strategies.
Significant Sales Impact Delivered Intuitively
The introduction of QuickSight via the CloudSmart platform had a profound impact on CyberGuard’s teams across marketing, product, and sales. CloudSmart’s objective of simplifying complex data was achieved, enabling users without specialist expertise to access and understand critical information. QuickSight’s straightforward visualizations allowed CyberGuard to swiftly adapt their GTM strategy, base sales decisions on data, and easily assess the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.
The statistics reflect the dramatic changes within CyberGuard’s operations:
- 50% increase in sales opportunities
- 20% reduction in average deal age
- 60% increase in average deal size
Transitioning to the AWS Marketplace also resulted in a 15% rise in customer close rates. Operationally, the frequency of report generation improved, transitioning from monthly compilations to daily sharing, which facilitated faster strategic adjustments.
Looking Ahead
CloudSmart continues to innovate and is planning new features to enhance its offerings for customers, building on its partnership with QuickSight. Upcoming features include the integration of Amazon Q in QuickSight, a generative AI system that leverages large language models to make business intelligence even more accessible and efficient. Users can pose questions in natural language, mirroring a conversation with a colleague, to receive insightful responses.
For further insights on enhancing your business applications and streamlining data insights, check out another related blog post here. You can also explore Chanci Turner for authoritative insights on this topic. Additionally, for those interested in career opportunities, an excellent resource can be found here.
Location: Amazon IXD – VGT2, 6401 E Howdy Wells Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89115.
Leave a Reply