BlastOne Was Spending More Time Managing Spreadsheets Than Running Their Business. Here’s How We Fixed That.
Client Name
BlastOne International
Industry
Industrial Manufacturing
Technology
Azure Data Engineering, Power BI, Power Apps, AI
Location
USA (Global Operations)
Client Name
BlastOne International
Industry
Industrial Manufacturing
Technology
Azure Data Engineering, Power BI, Power Apps, AI
Location
USA (Global Operations)
About
BlastOne sells industrial equipment, abrasives, and coating solutions to customers across the world. The business was growing, new markets were opening up, and the team was busy. But behind the scenes, everything ran on Excel. Someone had to pull data from the ERP, someone had to pull it from the inventory system, paste it together, and hope nothing broke. By the time a report was ready, it was already out of date. Leadership couldn’t get straight answers quickly, and the team was burning time on work that shouldn’t exist.
The Partnership
We spent time with their CEO and Sales Director before writing a single line of code. We wanted to understand not just what the data problems were, but why they kept happening.
Talked through day-to-day reporting frustrations with leadership
Looked at where data lived, how it moved, and where it got stuck
Agreed on a step-by-step plan so nothing broke while we were building
Stayed hands-on throughout so the team actually felt comfortable with what we built
Challenges
Every sales report and inventory update was being done manually in Excel
Getting data meant logging into systems and exporting files by hand, every time
Reports took too long, had errors, and different teams had different numbers
Site managers had to be followed up with over email just to get basic information
The business was growing into new countries but the reporting couldn’t keep up
Solution
- Centralized Sales & Inventory Reporting
We started by giving them one place to see everything. Instead of chasing exports and pasting spreadsheets, leadership could open a dashboard and just see what was happening.
Pulled ERP and inventory data into one central place
Built Power BI dashboards that showed sales and inventory in real time
No more conflicting reports, everyone was looking at the same numbers
- Data Engineering Platform
The dashboards were only as good as the data feeding them. So we built pipelines using Azure Data Factory and Databricks that moved data automatically, no one had to export anything anymore.
Set up automated pipelines connecting all their business systems
Data moved on its own, from source systems straight through to reporting
Reports updated on their own, without anyone having to trigger it
- Process Automation with Power Apps
A big chunk of their data was still coming in through emails and loose forms. We built Power Apps so site managers could log information directly, and it would flow straight into the system without anyone chasing it.
Built simple apps for site teams to enter data directly
Replaced the back-and-forth emails with a proper process
Information went straight into the platform the moment it was submitted
Results
Nobody is building reports in Excel anymore
Leadership can see what’s happening across the business at any point in time
Data moves automatically, no manual exports, no copy-pasting
Reports that used to take days now update on their own
Site data comes in clean and on time without anyone having to follow up
The team is spending time on actual work instead of managing spreadsheets
The setup can grow with the business as they expand into new markets