Personalized data cards with self-defined regions in Power BI for Group A

For Group A, the umbrella organization behind Kwadro and Belisol, we developed a customized map visualization in Power BI. Their challenge? Mapping branch groups—specific regions based on the locations of their showrooms, which do not align with standard administrative boundaries.

Challenge

Group A needed to clearly map custom-defined branch groups (regions based on showroom locations) for better data visualization and reporting. The existing maps only allowed for official boundaries, which limited their ability to display KPIs and other data tailored to their operational needs.

Solution

A personalized map layer was created using a TopoJSON file, incorporating custom branch groups based on zip codes. The solution was integrated into Power BI, leveraging its features for scalable and user-friendly self-service BI dashboards.

Approach

Group A’s data was collected, including the mapping of municipalities to branch groups. A custom map layer was created using Mapshaper, combining zip code data with StatBel’s conversion tables. This layer was visualized in Power BI, allowing users to drill down into municipality-level data.

Result

A clear, interactive dashboard in Power BI enabled Group A to visualize and analyze KPIs, online leads, customer data, and sales figures per branch group. The solution improved decision-making and operational efficiency, meeting Group A’s requirements for tailored reporting.

To visualize certain KPIs and other important data, group A wanted to use a map of self-defined regions with their branches on it. Group A calls these 'branch groups'. These regions or branch groups are based on the geographic locations of their showrooms. But because it was only possible to visualize official Belgian or Flemish municipal boundaries, they needed support to report their figures in the desired way.

Everyone knows the map of Belgium below, which can be subdivided into regions, provinces, districts and municipalities:

Group A asked us to personalize this map and distribute it in the above-mentioned branch groups. These groups usually consist of a combination of different municipalities in which one or more showrooms are located. In this way they can also go beyond provincial borders, so that you get a new layout of the known map.

The reason for dividing this map into branch groups is so that its reporting can be used by their employees in their day-to-day operations: displaying different types of figures per branch group, the number of online leads or calling new customers and view certain sales figures.

With self-service BI, employees who have little affinity with data or have less technical knowledge can get started with certain data themselves and easily set up and consult dashboards.

Together with Group A, we started collecting data that they already had available, such as a mapping of which municipality belongs to which branch group. We then looked for a map of Belgium in TopoJSON format, a specific file format that encodes topology.

Because the branch groups were already defined per zip code, we selected a map with a subdivision per municipality and with zip code as one of the attributes. Since only maps with NIS code were available as an attribute, we created a map layer ourselves and added zip code as an attribute based on the most recent conversion table from StatBel.

Once this map layer was created, we added the branch group data as an attribute based on zip code. Once this was added, we were able to rearrange the map based on branch group. Creating map layers, adding attributes and rearranging map layers was always done using the free Mapshaper tool.

Afterwards, we further elaborated the different map layers in Power BI. There are many visuals available that allow you to combine multiple map layers. This way, we have created a map visual that can show desired values per branch group and where it is possible to drill-down to the underlying municipalities per branch group. This makes it possible for Group A to show, for example, a turnover figure per branch group on the map. When a certain branch group is clicked, this turnover figure is shown per municipality that is located in the selected branch group.

I came to ACA with a pretty specific question: I wanted to provide insight into certain figures on a map, with a selective representation of our own sales regions and a subdivision within those regions. The ACA data team managed to get this done in no time. The communication was excellent and they strived to deliver exactly what I had in mind. This attitude led to the desired result!

Patricia Alen

Marketing Director at Group A

Patricia AlenMarketing Director at Group A

Personalized data cards with self-defined regions in Power BI for Group A

Challenge

Solution

Approach

Result

About Group A

Challenge

Clearly map all their branches

Solution

Clear dashboard in Power BI

Approach

Get started yourself thanks to self-service BI

Result

Easily consult desired data per branch group

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