Long Tail ETL Connectors: Extract, Load, Transform (NEW)

ETL solutions help data teams connect the most common sources, but they fall short when you need a long tail connector to a bespoke application.

Analytics initiatives starts with core connectors

When your company gets started with data analytics, you start with the highest value connectors.

You connect your product database and your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, so you can start building dashboards.

The goal is to prove a positive return on investment. Can your team use data to make better decisions? Are there KPIs that you can automatically track to measure success?

However, as you mature your analytics team and data technology stack, you develop bad habits if you restrict yourself to only connecting to the largest systems.

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

I used to run business intelligence at LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP), and I fell for the same trap everyone else ends up in.

We had a treasure trove of product data in a MySQL database and I came to understand it like the back of my hand.

I used our product data to answer every question:

1. What's driving churn? Let me pull the product data.

2. Who are our highest value customers? Let me pull the product data.

3. Which clients are facing problems right now? Let me pull the product data.

Problem #1: Only using core connectors creates an incomplete picture

When you consider things like churn, high value customers, or which clients are having problems - product data is only one piece of the puzzle.

Long tail applications with support tickets, net promoter scores, billing information, and engineering tickets, can help create a 360 degree view of what's going on. You can address problems proactively, regardless of when and where the problem is taking place.

Problem #2: Only using core connectors creates manual work

Most business metrics live in an application somewhere, but they don't all live in your product database and CRM system. You need long tail access to track progress in an automated way.

You've probably seen the spreadsheets companies use to track progress. Everyone on the team is tasked with setting measurable goals and then updating a data point in the spreadsheet every week for the leadership team.

At Portable, we track things like blog posts, open engineering bugs, support conversations, and product roadmap milestones. None of these live in a core system, but they can all be automated.

Solution: We build and maintain long tail ELT connectors

At Portable, we don't differentiate our solution based on the most commonly used ELT connectors - we build and maintain custom ETL connectors.

We believe analytics teams deserve a fully automated, complete picture of what's going on in their business.

Do you have a bespoke application you want connected to your data warehouse? Try Portable today.