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Case Study
Office of Finance Transformation: Scaling with a Modern Data Platform
Industry:
Healthcare
Focus:
Data architecture and reporting
Senturus modernized the monthly reporting system for Chord Specialty Dental Partners (Chord) using an Azure modern data warehouse architecture and Power BI reporting. The scalable solution supports the seamless integration of existing and new data sources as well as AI capabilities providing annual savings to Chord. Near real-time analytics and reporting automation give the company the insight speed to further enhance their competitive edge.
Challenge
Chord is a private-equity-backed dental rollup that manages 60+ dental organizations spanning pediatric, orthodontia and ambulatory surgical facilities. Their financial analytics team struggled to produce monthly productivity reports for leadership and regional management. Report turnaround was bogged down by a monthly manual process pulling data from 60 locations that took a team of three 15 workdays to complete. Data would be extracted from five sources (three practice management platforms, a financial system and an HR application, all of which were third-party supported), compiled in Excel, and then generated into required reports.
The long turnaround prevented leadership from reviewing current, actionable data. Chord wanted to harness the full value of their data. They needed insight immediacy for their management and a better way to employ the time of their financial analysts, redirecting them from data curation to proactive analysis.
Solution
Senturus partnered with Chord to automate their reporting process and deliver a panoramic view of operations with responsive reporting that uses near-real time data. To do so, data from the five disparate systems was integrated into an Azure modern data warehouse (MDW), complemented by dynamic reporting capabilities via Power BI. A semantic model was created to conform all the data into a common reporting layer standardized on Chord’s business lexicon.
Reports were built to provide different levels of insights into the organization’s performance. Capabilities included filtering, drill down into office productivity metrics, and views by time periods and practices. The MDW approach supports the seamless integration of new dental practices and provides the foundation for integration of AI.
Benefits
Significantly boosting reporting efficiency and supporting growth, the modern data platform has transformed analytics for Chord and has escalated the strategic value of its office of finance.
- Cuts monthly financial close processing by over 50%—from 15 days to just two.
- Allows Chord to evaluate the practice performance and determine if daily targets are met.
- Engages practitioners in monitoring their own performance to improve personal metrics.
- Significantly reduces time, work and cost associated with future integration of new dental practices.
- Creates trust in the data, enabling more confident decision making.
- Gives the finance team time to focus on more strategic endeavors and increase business value.
- Lets analysts uncover trends and patterns that were previously obscured, e.g., collections, AR balance, billed vs. collected, and productivity.
- Allows Chord to seamlessly integrate additional systems into their architecture as they evolve their business.
About our client
Chord Specialty Dental Partners is a dental support organization dedicated to expanding access to quality dental care for children and adults, supporting over 60 practices across six states. From accounting and financial management to human resources and procurement, they support their partner practices and their patients.