Kunai Partners With Top Five Consulting Firm to Build Data Insights Engine With Modernized Value Calculator Tool

One of the nation’s top five consulting firms (to be referred to as Client), has synonymized its reputation with a data-driven approach to solving complex business problems. Within 15 years of their founding, Client became one of the top five strategy consulting firms in the world. Client’s major areas of activity include private equity firms, technology companies, healthcare organizations, and governments. They employ thousands of employees with offices in major metropolitan cities across the globe. Client has a reputation for delivering measurable results and helping clients achieve lasting impact in their organizations.

Many of the innovations that Client facilitates begins with their Cost Transformation offering. These 12 to 36 month engagements identify clients' cost-savings targets and translate those targets into specific initiatives, which are then tracked over time for effectiveness.

In 2019, Client recognized the need to update their powerful Value Calculator. As it were, the existing Value Calculator could not express the powerful capabilities that many of its users desired. Though still powered by Client’s robust dataset, the platform faced several technological limitations that made it infeasible to modernize as it was.

If Client wanted to add new functions, modernize infrastructure, and allow for deeper scalability– they would have to build new systems from the ground up.

In 2019, Client turned to Kunai to help migrate their powerful Value Calculator from spreadsheets to a dynamic, scalable platform fueled by Client's experiences and rich data. The new Value Calculator would transform formerly siloed analyses into a connected platform that leveraged the power of analytics to track and benchmark performance over time.

The new platform would also benefit from an updated interface, allowing users to easily derive insights at a glance, as well as enabling Client’s teams to contribute to the Value Calculator’s capabilities by adding data and new use cases.

Kunai began work on a discovery phase to map the customer journey and validate the tools, platforms, and development schedule for the project. Kunai also facilitated interviews with Client consultants to better understand their needs. This phase concluded with a low-fidelity demo prototype consisting of early sketches and flows.

Next, Kunai developed a clickable demo. This phase would flesh out the feature set for the next phase, a low-code demo as well as begin work on the back-end database solutions necessary to turn Client’s existing spreadsheets into the dynamic experience they were looking for.

Kunai opted to use a low-code provider to streamline the development process and allow for easier onboarding and hand-off. The team used Mendix to stitch together data from Client's digitized experiences and insights, client data, and third party benchmarks. Mendix made up the bulk of the UI tools and widgets for the project. Mendix widgets were developed in React to help integrate Tableau Viz, packaged JS code for Tableau filters, and implement export functionality.

On the backend, Microflows were utilized to obtain Trusten Tokens for database access from the browser as well as database modifications in response to changes in the frontend.

Since launch, the Value Calculator has been used as a first-contact tool that Client consultants leverage when speaking with C-suite clients about cost transformation. Combining its deep knowledge with the ability to quantify and analyze problems, Client can promise the next generation data and insights to clients looking to solve their biggest problems.

Lastly, as an evolving platform, the new tool allows Client’s teams to add new use cases and grow its data set without the help of software engineering teams. The built-in security and compliance measures combined with its scalable architecture ensures a future-proofed platform that can be modified to adapt to new developments in both technology and finance.

“This project was an intensely collaborative effort between Kunai and Client. Our teams gelled together well, ensuring swift development and reliable development. Client’s teams are professional and talent made manifest. It was an honor to work with them, and we look forward to future collaborations with much excitement.”- Sandeep Sood, CEO at Kunai.