How Sigma's Data Apps Boosted Our Certification Tracking

Last week, Brooklyn Data partnered with Sigma to launch their exciting new offering: Data Applications. To do it, we leveraged our deep experience with Sigma's powerful dashboarding capabilities to build these new interactive applications.

We've been advocates for Sigma's intuitive platform for a long time, creating impactful dashboards that empower data-driven decisions. Especially when our clients need data input capabilities, we use Sigma for its intuitive input tables and seamless integration with its BI product. Now, with Data Apps, we're taking that expertise to the next level, constructing interactive tools that streamline workflows, unlock new levels of efficiency, and redefine how businesses interact with their data.

Our Certification Tracker App

When we heard about data apps, an internal use case immediately came to mind: Certifications Tracking. We started with a simple spreadsheet, but our needs became more complex with time — different users needed to interact with the data in their own ways and the spreadsheet became unmanageable.

This app addresses a critical need for our team: effectively managing and tracking professional certifications. It allows us to monitor our individual progress, department-wide achievements, and advancement towards critical partnership requirements. This isn't just a static dashboard; it's a dynamic, interactive tool that empowers our entire organization to add, update and query progress towards our goals. Each user archetype is empowered to obtain the insights they need, including certification timelines, costs and budgets, expiration forecasts, and more. We can achieve this thanks to how Sigma enables multi-user workflows in their dashboards and apps.

Building Multi-User Workflows with Sigma Data Apps

The true power of our Certification Tracker lies in its tailored workflows for distinct user groups.

• Administrators can:

• Gain a holistic view of all certifications, including flagging expiring ones.
• Review and flag new certifications to guide their conversations with managers, partnerships, or department leads.
• Track progress against strategic goals and monitor partnership status, ensuring we remain on track.

• Team Managers can:

• Monitor their team's certifications, including those in progress, achieved, and easily see expired ones that need attention.
• Add new certifications and update statuses to keep the system updated.

• Department Leads can:

• Assess their department's overall certification status and progress towards goals.
• Identify and address any potential bottlenecks or challenges faced by team managers.

These distinct user experiences, built within a single application, demonstrate the flexibility and power of Sigma Data Apps combined with Sigma’s already powerful BI functionality and data governance toolkit.

What We Love About Sigma Data Apps

Our experience building the Certification Tracker and other applications has highlighted several key advantages of Sigma Data Apps.

• An All-in-One Platform: The ability to combine data input and visualization within a single environment is a game-changer. It streamlines workflows and eliminates the need for complex integrations.
• No-Code Development: The intuitive, no-code interface significantly reduces the learning curve and accelerates development. We can quickly build and deploy powerful applications without extensive coding knowledge.
• Built-in Version Control: Sigma's built-in version control simplifies application management. We can easily track changes, manage versions, and roll back to previous states, ensuring stability and reliability.
• Boilerplate Components: The pre-built components, such as modals with pre-built action buttons, optimize the developer experience and accelerate development. We can focus on building functionality rather than reinventing the wheel.
• Enhanced Developer Experience: The actions come pre-configured with relevant input fields, data types, and mappings, which significantly speeds up development. The ability to target whole element containers, rather than just individual elements, further enhances efficiency.

Exploring the Exciting Possibilities of Sigma’s Data Apps

Our journey with Sigma Data Apps has been rewarding so far. As a Sigma Data Apps launch partner, we've witnessed firsthand the transformative potential of this new offering, and we're eager to continue building innovative applications that empower our clients and our own teams. As experienced Sigma developers, we're confident that Data Apps will enhance the experience of Sigma users and add better ways to interact with data. We look forward to seeing the creative solutions that our fellow launch partners and other developers bring to this amazing platform.

Need help building custom applications in Sigma? Reach out. Our team would be happy to help you.