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How we improved performance and user adoption by switching to Omni as our BI tool

Recently, we switched BI tools to address performance bottlenecks and increase adoption/impact with data. In this post, we’ll walk you through:
  • How we aligned our business goals to our BI search criteria
  • Why we chose Omni for business intelligence
  • Early impact & how we’re fostering increased adoption

The Need For Change

The limitations of our previous BI tool

Our previous BI platform, Looker, served us well for years, but as our business needs evolved, it became increasingly evident that the tool was falling behind. The biggest challenges we faced included:

  • Complex syntax for non-technical teams: Business users struggled to build dashboards independently, relying heavily on the data team for support
  • Performance bottlenecks: As our data volumes grew, the instance became slower
  • Outdated visualisations: While the tool once felt modern, newer BI tools have surpassed it in terms of flexibility and presentation which made it less exciting for our data team and business users to interact with
  • Declining user engagement: As a result of the technical barrier to entry, slow performance, and outdated UI, business user adoption plateaued and new users weren’t excited to start using the tool
Triggering the decision to migrate

The tipping point came when our data team started receiving continuous feedback from various stakeholders about frustrations with the existing BI tool.  As a result, we were spending more time responding to ad-hoc requests, performing small fixes, and managing feedback instead of building out new, interesting and strategic use cases for the business.

At the same time, we noticed that our BI platform provider was shifting focus, discontinuing key support services and deprioritising enhancements and feature releases. This led us to explore alternative solutions that aligned with Game Lounge’s long-term data strategy of empowering all of our teams to make data-driven decisions.

Defining our BI Goals

Balancing business and technical needs

From the start, we believed it was crucial that our evaluation process accounted for both business users and data professionals. To achieve this:

  • We conducted team-wide workshops to gather feedback on must-have features
  • We prioritised platforms that offered self-service analytics, reducing dependency on the data team
  • We engaged key business users early on, ensuring they had a say in the final decision
What we needed from a modern BI tool

With our broader business goals in mind, we came up with a specific set of criteria for evaluating new platforms. Our primary objectives included:

The Selection Process: Why Omni Won Us Over

Evaluation framework

We evaluated multiple BI platforms, each with strengths in different areas. Our approach involved:

  • Running a proof-of-concept (POC) trials to test real-world usage
  • Comparing cost, feature set, and user experience — for business users and the data team — across different tools
  • Measuring query performance and ease of adoption
Omni’s standout features

After thorough testing, Omni emerged as the strongest contender. It excelled (no pun intended) in:

Dedicated Human (Engineering) Support

Omni’s commitment to customer success

One of the biggest differentiators was Omni’s approach to customer support. Unlike our previous BI tool, which phased out direct human support over time, Omni provides:

  • Real-time Slack integration: Instant access to engineers and support staff
  • Hands-on assistance during migration: The Omni engineering team were incredible in helping us migrate our back-end infrastructure and critical dashboards when we were facing issues (massive shoutout to Liam in particular)
  • Feature requests delivered during migration: Several of our requested features were implemented in the UI over time
The importance of ongoing support

For fast-paced, data-driven companies like Game Lounge, having direct access to engineers is invaluable. Omni’s commitment to maintaining dedicated human support reassured us that we weren’t just choosing a tool, we were also gaining a long-term partner.

Realising ROI with Omni

Time and cost savings

Omni’s streamlined approach helped us reduce costs in two key ways:

  • Lower dependency on the data team: Business users started building their own dashboards proactively, whilst using Excel-like syntax
  • Optimised cloud costs: Omni’s  cache balances the hybrid execution of in-memory and in-database queries

Enhanced decision-making

Since migrating, we’ve seen faster and more data-driven decision-making. Stakeholders are getting quicker insights, and engagement with our BI platform has significantly improved.

In fact, within the first month of onboarding everyone to Omni and sunsetting our previous BI tool, we saw an all-time high in weekly active users – a number 10% higher than we had ever reached in 4 years using the previous tool.

Driving Adoption Across Teams

Building excitement and trust

Migrating to a new BI tool required buy-in from the wider business. To ensure a smooth transition:

  • We communicated the benefits early and addressed concerns transparently
  • We involved key teams in the testing phase, making them feel part of the decision
Training and engagement

We made sure that onboarding was seamless by providing:

  • Interactive training sessions to get teams up to speed
  • Documentation and how-to guides for self-service learning
  • Internal data champions who could assist colleagues with the adoption

Lessons Learned During BI Tool Selection

The importance of a well-defined evaluation process

Some key takeaways from our migration:

  • Engage the whole team: A tool that works for engineers but frustrates business users won’t succeed
  • Don’t underestimate migration complexity: Even with the best tools, moving years of content takes thorough planning
Overlooking is part of the process

No POC and migration plan can account for everything. We encountered unexpected challenges along the way, but having agile problem-solving and very skilled and hard-working data team members made all the difference.

Advice for BI tool Selection

Crafting a checklist for decision-making

Before committing to a BI tool, ask:

  • Does it align with your business and technical needs?
  • What are your team’s must-have vs. nice-to-have features?
  • How well does it integrate into your existing stack?

Avoiding common pitfalls

Some common mistakes businesses make when choosing a BI tool:

  • Choosing based on brand recognition alone: The best-known tool may not be the best for your needs
  • Not considering user adoption: If business users can’t work with it, the best features won’t matter
  • Ignoring long-term support: A tool without ongoing human support can become a costly burden

Looking Forward

What’s Next for the Data Team

With Omni now fully integrated, we’re focused on maximising its potential:

  • Shifting from dashboards to action: Moving beyond passive reporting to create more automated and insight-driven workflows
  • Building trust through transparency: Strengthening governance and ensuring data consistency across teams
  • Incorporating Data Science into BI: Using predictive analytics and trend detection to drive better decision-making through AI
  • Enhancing self-service analytics: Enabling more business users to generate insights independently

For more on our data team’s journey, check out: Game Lounge Data Team

Let’s Connect

We welcome and highly encourage feedback from other professionals in the data field. If you have any questions regarding BI migrations or would like to learn more about Omni, please contact us. We can facilitate a direct introduction to the Omni team for a better overview of the platform.

Furthermore, we intend to publish a technical blog post detailing how we migrated four years’ worth of content in under three months without disrupting business operations. Follow us for future updates!