Custom Automated Reporting Platform for HPA Group
Sam Fairweather
Company Overview
HPA Group Pty Ltd is an Australian based importer & national distributor of European hand dryers, washroom accessories and wholesale cleaning supplies.
The Problem
HPA Group faced significant challenges in gaining actionable insights from their sales and marketing data due to the following issues:
Disjointed Data Sources – Sales data was stored in Unleashed Software, while marketing data was spread across Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads, making it difficult to analyze performance in one place.
Lack of Integrated BI Solution – There was no existing software capable of seamlessly combining sales data from Unleashed Software with digital advertising data, preventing a clear view of marketing effectiveness.
Manual Data Processing – Extracting and merging data manually was time-consuming, error-prone, and inefficient, leading to delays in decision-making.
Unclear Return on Marketing Spend (ROMS) – Without a unified data model, HPA Group could not accurately track revenue generated from each marketing channel, making it difficult to optimize ad spend.
Siloed Reporting & Limited Insights – Marketing and sales teams worked with separate, inconsistent reports, leading to misalignment in strategy and inaccurate performance assessments.
Missed Growth Opportunities – The lack of clear insights prevented HPA Group from identifying the best-performing marketing channels, leading to suboptimal budget allocation and missed revenue opportunities.
A comprehensive Business Intelligence (BI) solution was needed to unify these data sources, enabling real-time insights into sales performance, marketing effectiveness, and return on investment.
The Brief
HPA Group engaged The Data Lab to design & develop a custom fully automated reporting platform to extract data from multiple data sources including Unleashed Software, Google Ads, Facebook Ads and Instagram API's into their own data warehouse.
The data would then need to be transformed, blended and aggregated into a number of tabular database views that could used to build out fully automated BI reports.
Summary Of Objectives
Automated Data Extraction: Automate the extraction of data from data sources to save time and ensure consistent data access.
Centralized Data Warehouse: Create a data warehouse that would consolidate data from various sources, making it easier to manage and analyse.
Business Intelligence Reporting: Develop intuitive, automated BI reports that would help HPA Group derive real-time, data-driven insights for their business.
The Solution
The Data Lab implemented a modern, cost-effective data warehouse using Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Key Steps in the Transformation:
(1) Setting Up a Google Cloud Data Warehouse
Migrated all client performance data from platforms like Unleashed Software, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Instagra, into a centralized BigQuery data warehouse.
Automated data ingestion pipelines using Google Cloud Functions and Cloud Scheduler for day -1 reporting.
The data warehouse allowed for faster querying, reliable storage, and easy scalability as HPA Group data needs grow.
The architecture also ensured data from different platforms could be cross-referenced and blended. For example, campaign performance from Facebook Ads could be compared with sales data from Unleashed Software to assess return on investment (ROI).
(3) Data Transformation with SQL and Python
Replaced manual processes with SQL and Python to automate data transformation workflows.
Established standardized data models to ensure consistency and reduce errors in reporting.
(3) Automating Client Reporting
Connected BigQuery to Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) for automatically up to date, interactive dashboards.
Enabled clients to access up-to-date insights without waiting for manual updates.
(4) Cost Optimization
Took advantage of BigQuery’s 1TB free data per month.
A key milestone in the project was The Data Lab were able to build a custom reporting platform that wouldn't incur any future monthly subscription fees from Google. HPA Group only had to pay a small upfront development fee.
Workflow
Impact and Benefits
Highly efficient and automated reporting system, drastically reducing the time and effort needed for monthly campaign performance reporting.
Manual errors, which had previously caused data inconsistencies, were virtually eliminated due to the automated ETL process. Data was now accurate, standardized, and ready for analysis as soon as it entered the data warehouse.
The data warehouse built was designed for scalability. The data warehouse could easily scale to handle increased data volume without performance degradation.
Reporting platform strengthened HPA Groups ability to clearly identify ROAS and opportunities for improvement.
Established a centralized and secure data infrastructure which improved overall efficiency and guaranteed precise and confidential reporting.
By having data loaded into their very own data warehouse HPA Group now have the means & flexibility to blend & transform all of their data to gain deeper insights for the business.
We achieved substantial cost savings by steering away from traditional methods and automating the reporting process.
Workflow
Conclusion
By migrating to Google Cloud, HPA Group overcame the inefficiencies of manual data manipulation and unlocked significant cost savings. The integration of Unleashed Software sales data with Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads within a unified BI framework provided:
Automated Data Processing – Eliminating manual extraction and consolidation reduced labor costs and freed up valuable time for data analysis rather than data preparation.
Real-Time, Accurate Insights – With cloud-based data pipelines, the business gained instant access to performance metrics, ensuring faster, data-driven decision-making.
Optimized Marketing Spend – Advanced reporting and analytics enabled HPA Group to track ROI across all digital channels, allowing them to reallocate budgets effectively for higher returns.
Scalability & Efficiency – Google Cloud’s scalable infrastructure ensured cost-effective data storage and processing, reducing reliance on expensive, manual workflows.
Powerful, Customizable Reporting – BI dashboards provided clear, actionable insights, aligning marketing and sales teams with a single source of truth for business performance.
With Google Cloud, HPA Group transformed its data strategy, achieving greater efficiency, cost savings, and improved marketing effectiveness, ultimately driving better business outcomes.
If your business faces similar challenges, consider exploring Google Cloud and custom data solutions to future-proof your reporting infrastructure.
Learn how The Data Lab can help you drive growth. Contact us now.
What Our Clients Say
Working with The Data Lab, we built a custom automated reporting platform and data warehouse that has drastically reduced the time, effort, and cost involved in generating monthly performance reports for our clients. What used to take days is now delivered in hours, giving us faster insights and allowing us to focus on strategic decisions. The solution has streamlined our processes and improved our overall efficiency, making a huge impact on our business operations.
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Posted May 4, 2025
Developed a custom automated reporting platform for HPA Group using Google Cloud.
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Timeline
Jan 1, 2025 - Apr 30, 2025
