How to Choose a Power BI Partner for Manufacturing

What to ask before you hire

Use this as a working list. If a partner cannot answer these clearly, keep looking.

Can they start with one painful report? A focused early result beats a six-month program with nothing to show.
Do they model for reuse across finance and operations? Shop-floor metrics and the profit and loss should share definitions.
Do they know the ERP? SAP, Odoo, Infor, and similar systems need practical extracts, not a slide about connectors.
Will they fix trust, not just the visuals? Slow refresh, the wrong grain, and inconsistent measures kill adoption faster than an ugly chart.
Who does the work? Prefer senior people who stay on the engagement.
What does handoff look like? A working report, clear measures, and training on your data.
How do they price a defined scope? Flat fee for a defined deliverable is easier to approve than open-ended hours.
Do they plan for governance? Workspaces, certified datasets, refresh, and capacity once more than one team uses the model.
Can they say no? A good partner narrows scope. A weak one sells more dashboards.
What happens after go-live? An optional retainer or a clear next step, without a platform pitch.

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They talk about throughput, scrap and yield, on-time delivery, inventory, downtime, and the finance close in the same conversation.
They ask about grain, meaning unit, shift, line, and plant, before they talk about visuals.
They expect ERP, a plant system, maintenance, and Excel to all be in the picture.
They expect different pages for operators, plant leads, and leadership.
They treat report speed as part of the job when volume is high.

Alluvium LLC is a Power BI and analytics delivery partner for US mid-market manufacturers and similar operations-heavy firms.

We fit when you need:

We are not a fit for body-shop staffing, a multi-year rewrite before any report ships, or a chatbot on measures nobody has verified.

Start with one bottleneck report, or talk through whether we fit.