Synopsis
In an evolving post-pandemic economy, local Montréal businesses are actively seeking ways to adapt and thrive. By delivering continuously updated analytics along with user training, Fastloop supported SDC to chart their impact on tourism, mobility, and economic activity.
Highlights
1700+ Montréal business leaders supported
$100k+ annual savings from reducing outsourced reports
Real-time insights powered by high-quality data
Challenges
To strengthen economic vitality in the downtown core, SDC Montréal needed the kind of data-driven understanding of the health and activity of their members that could only come via collaboration with a trusted partner that had the right expertise. Fastloop came in with the ability to understand their needs and propose suitable KPIs and metrics that would reflect the state of the city and the impact of their initiatives. They were able to quickly identify the challenges faced by SDC.
Core challenges include:
With data scattered across multiple public, paid, and internal sources, accessing it was a labour-intensive and time-consuming process for SDC Montréal.
SDC was limited to quarterly and annual reports. This meant decisions were being based on outdated trends as these static reports took staff weeks to prepare.
Turning data into accessible, member-friendly insights involved time-intensive manual effort and technical expertise that they did not have.
Solution
Fastloop delivered a scalable, self-sustaining analytics system powered by Google Cloud over three iterative phases that built upon each other. Their solution integrated publicly available data from a variety of sources into easy-to-use and understandable dashboards that support actionable insights by providing a precise, consistent, and holistic picture of the downtown Montréal core.
Key components of the solution:
Fast iteration and continuous improvement, delivered in total 7 dashboards and their data models across 3 phases:
- Built a proof of concept that utilized different publicly available data sources
- Defined priority KPIs, built standalone dashboards for each data source and summarized dashboards, and enabled a single source of truth in BigQuery
- Ingested and modeled new data sources, updated and enhanced dashboards to be auto-updated
Fastloop utilized their GCP expertise to leverage native GCP features in ways that created intentional value for SDC Montréal.
Automated real-time ingestion pipelines
Fully automated ingestion from 9+ sources, combining API-based, streaming, and file-based data into BigQuery using Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, and Cloud Scheduler.
Multi-source data integration
Consolidation of public, paid, and survey datasets into a unified schema for cross-source analysis.
Custom data models in Looker
Tailored LookML models enabling drill-down from city-wide KPIs to granular event-level data.
Integrated publication dashboards
Overview dashboard specifically designed for export and inclusion in SDC’s State of Downtown publication.
API integration
Direct integration of Moneris and Eco-Counter APIs into the data pipeline.
Results and Impact
Instead of quarterly reports, data is now accessed via continuously updated dashboards. This enabled SDC to respond to trends in days instead of months. Those real-time data-driven insights facilitated decisions that helped Montréal businesses adapt and thrive in an evolving local economy.
These solutions were paired with 6 comprehensive training sessions, where the SDC team gained the skills to independently operate, troubleshoot, and evolve the platform This was facilitated on a “Train-as-you-go” model that allowed Fastloop to build foundational understanding alongside our key delivery milestones.
Fastloop was up to speed on what we needed to do right away, and understood what we needed to see. They clearly laid out the next steps and scope of work, so we knew what to expect. The dashboard allows us to visualize a lot of information in a way that makes sense and is easy to understand. It provides us with valuable insights that we can share with our members, allowing them to make decisions based on real data, not just assumptions.
– Jules Hébert, SDC Deputy General Director
Why Fastloop.ai?
Ability to deliver against a tight timeline
For their first phase, Fastloop showed a quick time to value by first producing a proof of concept before implementing the desired solution.
End-to-end GCP expertise
From cloud set up, to data ingestion, modelling and visualization, Fastloop was able to deliver.
Building a scalable solution
New data sources can easily be added as needs evolve.
Client empowerment
Fastloop led comprehensive training on the GCP ecosystem to ensure SDC would have long-term independence.
Future Outlook
Fastloop continues to work with SDC Montréal on initiatives that expand and build on this work thanks to key decisions made from the outset.
Built to be a Scalable Solution
Data sources can be added, updated, and removed as new needs arise and old needs become obsolete. In subsequent project phases, Fastloop has worked with SDC Montréal to integrate data on transit usage, parking, tourism trends, crime rates, traffic violations and more.