CORE X Partners Got 16 Warehouses Off Excel and Onto Real-Time Data with Power BI
| Facility | Temp Zone | Product Category | Pallets | Move Type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario, CA | -18°C Frozen | Protein / Meat | 84 | Outbound | Complete |
| Crown Point, IN | 2-8°C Refrigerated | Dairy | 62 | Inbound | Complete |
| Holland, MI | -18°C Frozen | Produce | 47 | Transfer | In Transit |
| Scranton, PA | -18°C Frozen | Bakery | 55 | Outbound | Complete |
Say Hello to CORE X Partners
CORE X Partners operates a national network of 16 cold storage facilities — frozen and refrigerated food logistics coordinated across multiple partner operators, each running their own data systems and reporting workflows.
One Platform. Four Outcomes.
Every architecture decision traces back to these four goals — and every live Power BI dashboard proves them out across all 16 cold storage locations.
Unified Model
Unify All 16 Sites
Ontario · Salt Lake · Crown Point · Holland · Walton · Burleson · Scranton · Sturbridge — and 8 more — on one platform.
unified
Automate All 4 Pipelines
Scheduled refresh from all 4 source systems. Zero manual data exports. Zero copy-paste reporting.
automated
Real-time Leadership Visibility
Live pallet counts, OTD rates, and financial KPIs — not days-old spreadsheets. Always current for all 16 sites.
old data
Role-Based Access at Scale
Right data to the right person — enforced by the model. No manual filtering, no separate report versions per site.
Own site
Scoped
Scoped
right person
16 Warehouses. 4 Disconnected Systems. One Very Long Weekly Excel Process.
Every week, someone pulled exports from Datex WMS, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and UKG — reconciled everything in Excel, fixed the errors, and sent a report that was already stale by the time leadership opened it.
- Four manual exports weekly — Datex WMS, Dynamics ERP, Salesforce CRM, and UKG payroll each required separate downloads and reformatting.
- VLOOKUP errors across cross-system reconciliation eroded confidence in the numbers — decisions made on untrustworthy data.
- Warehouse GMs had zero Power BI access — only executives could view dashboards, and even those lagged days behind reality.
- An existing Power BI environment existed but pipelines were not automated — refresh cycles lagged and required manual intervention every week.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DATEX WMS EXPORT — Week 22 — Pulled manually 05/12/2026 | |||||
| 2 | Facility | Temp Zone | Pallets In | Pallets Out | On-Hand | OTD % |
| 3 | Ontario, CA | -18°C Frozen | 312 | 294 | 1,840 | 97.2% ⚠ |
| 4 | Crown Point, IN | 2-8°C Refrig. | 208 | 195 | 1,120 | 94.8% |
| 5 | Holland, MI | -18°C Frozen | 175 | 160 | 980 | #N/A |
| 6 | Walton, KY | -18°C Frozen | 142 | 138 | 740 | #REF! |
| 7 | Burleson, TX | 2-8°C Refrig. | 188 | 171 | 1,050 | 95.4% |
| 8 | Scranton, PA | -18°C Frozen | 144 | 132 | 820 | #VALUE! |
| 9 | +8 more facilities not yet reconciled… | |||||
Our Solution
- Automated pipelines from Datex WMS, Dynamics, Salesforce, and UKG directly into Power BI — scheduled refresh, zero manual exports or intervention.
- Unified data model joining all four sources — single source of truth serving all five Power BI dashboard layers simultaneously.
- Role-based access deployed across all 16 sites — executives see everything, site managers see only their own facility, automatically.
| Facility | Temp Zone | Pallets Out | OTD % | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario, CA | -18°C Frozen | 294 | 97.4% | ▲ +1.2% |
| Holland, MI | -18°C Frozen | 160 | 96.8% | ▲ +0.8% |
| Crown Point, IN | 2-8°C Refrig. | 195 | 94.8% | ▼ –0.4% |
Warehouse Managers Had No Visibility Into Their Own Operations
The data lived in Datex and Dynamics — it just wasn’t accessible to the people on the ground. Site managers ran on gut instinct while executives received stale, untrustworthy reports.
- General managers at individual cold storage sites had zero Power BI access — daily operational decisions made without live data.
- Executives needed cross-location visibility from Datex; site managers only needed their own site. No system enforced this boundary automatically.
- No performance benchmarking — impossible to identify which of the 16 facilities led or lagged without building a custom report by hand each time.
| Rank | Facility | Temp Zone | OTD Score | vs Last Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 1 | Ontario, CA | -18°C Frozen | 97.4% | ▲ +1.2% |
| 🥈 2 | Salt Lake, UT | 2-8°C Refrig. | 96.8% | ▲ +0.8% |
| 🥉 3 | Holland, MI | -18°C Frozen | 95.9% | ▼ –0.4% |
Our Solution
We built a layered Power BI environment — 5 purpose-built dashboards, automated pipelines from all 4 source systems, and role-based access scoped across all 16 cold storage sites.
Before vs After — Weekly Reporting Process
Before Sunflower Lab
Manually export Datex WMS data — download inventory CSV, reformat, save to shared drive.
Pull Microsoft Dynamics ERP separately — VLOOKUP against Datex figures, fix #REF! and #N/A errors.
Add Salesforce CRM and UKG payroll exports — manually reconcile labor costs against Datex throughput.
Build weekly summary in Excel — format, validate, distribute. Already 2–3 days stale on arrival.
Site managers request data — someone builds a custom one-off report manually, every time.
After Sunflower Lab
Datex WMS connects directly to Power BI via automated pipeline — inventory, pallets, OTD on scheduled refresh.
Dynamics, Salesforce, and UKG join the same unified semantic model — no VLOOKUP, no errors by design.
Cross-system reconciliation eliminated — unified model handles joins and transformations automatically.
Leadership opens Power BI Executive Dashboard — live data across all 16 sites, no report assembly needed.
Site managers log into their own role-scoped Power BI dashboard — self-serve, no waiting for custom reports.
per week
Landing Page Dashboard
First ScreenUser-friendly Power BI home summarizing critical KPIs from Datex, Dynamics, and UKG — guided navigation to each report module for every role.
Operational Dashboard
CoreInventory turnover, pallets on hand by day, inventory moves, shipping activity — powered by Datex WMS automated pipeline. Filterable by day / week / month / quarter.
Financial Dashboard
Revenue, expenses, profitability, and variance KPIs with interactive slicers — Microsoft Dynamics ERP and UKG labor costs joined in the unified data model.
SRE Summary
Service reliability and execution metrics tracking operational commitments consistently across all 16 cold storage sites using the automated Datex pipeline.
Monthly Ranking
Cross-warehouse performance ranking — OTD scores, pallet throughput, and labor efficiency from Datex + Dynamics across all 16 facilities, instantly comparable.
Role-Based Access
Executives see all 16 Datex-connected sites. Warehouse GMs see only their own. Finance and ops teams auto-scoped — enforced by the Power BI model, no manual filtering.
- Five Power BI dashboards: Landing Page, Operational (Datex), Financial (Dynamics), SRE Summary, and Monthly Ranking.
- Role-based access live: executives see all 16 sites; warehouse GMs see only their own facility's data automatically.
- Data model designed for Microsoft Fabric — P&L analysis and balance sheet visibility expansion requires no rebuild.
reporting
Datex WMS Pipeline
PrimaryWarehouse inventory, pallet moves (inbound/outbound/transfer), storage capacity, and OTD data — automated from all 16 Datex-connected facilities into Power BI on scheduled refresh.
Microsoft Dynamics Pipeline
FinancialERP financial data — revenue, purchase orders, cost centers from Dynamics — joined to Datex inventory data in the unified model for accurate cross-source financial reporting.
Salesforce CRM Pipeline
Customer accounts and contract data from Salesforce linking clients to Datex warehouse activity — enabling client-level reporting across multiple storage locations.
UKG Workforce Pipeline
Payroll and labor hours from UKG feeding the Financial Dashboard — labor costs visible alongside Datex inventory throughput in the same Power BI Financial report.
Unified Semantic Model
All four sources — Datex, Dynamics, Salesforce, UKG — joined into one Power BI data model. Single source of truth all 5 dashboards read from. Built for Microsoft Fabric migration.
Microsoft Fabric Ready
The Datex-to-Power BI architecture is already designed for Fabric migration and AI-driven analytics — P&L and balance sheet expansion requires no rebuilding from scratch.
Architecture & Mapping
Datex, Dynamics, Salesforce, UKG mapped; data model designed; access requirements set for 16 sites.
4 Sources → Power BI
Automated connections from all 4 source systems with scheduled refresh and transformation logic.
5 Reports Built & Tested
Operational, Financial, SRE Summary, Monthly Ranking, and Landing Page reports delivered.
16 Sites Deployment
Role-based access to be added across all sites; GM training will be initiated; executive Power BI rollout on schedule.
P&L + Fabric Migration
P&L analysis, expense breakdowns, balance sheet visibility, and Microsoft Fabric migration underway.
Measurable Impact
A unified Power BI environment across all 16 CORE X cold storage facilities — delivered and expanding into P&L analysis and balance sheet visibility.
unified on one platform
fully integrated
in manual reporting
eliminated
Project Timeline
Architecture & Mapping
Datex, Dynamics, Salesforce, UKG mapped; data model designed; access requirements set for 16 sites.
4 Sources → Power BI
Automated connections from all 4 source systems with scheduled refresh and transformation logic.
5 Reports Built & Tested
Operational, Financial, SRE Summary, Monthly Ranking, and Landing Page reports delivered.
16 Sites Deployment
Role-based access to be added across all sites; GM training will be initiated; executive Power BI rollout on schedule.
P&L + Fabric Migration
P&L analysis, expense breakdowns, balance sheet visibility, and Microsoft Fabric migration underway.
Hours Saved — Weekly, Across All Reporting Processes
The platform is actively expanding into P&L analysis, expense breakdowns, and balance sheet visibility — because the Datex-to-Power BI architecture was designed to scale from day one.
If you’re managing multiple locations without a single source of truth, this story hits home.
Your team is still closing the week in Excel.
Spreadsheets were never built for 16-location operations. When your Datex, Dynamics, and UKG data lives in separate files instead of a unified Power BI model, every decision is slower and every new location makes the problem exponentially worse.
You have four systems but no unified view.
Most multi-site operations run on 3–5 platforms that were never designed to talk to each other. The data exists in Datex and Dynamics — it just isn’t connected to a Power BI dashboard leadership can trust. Automated pipelines solve this immediately.
Site managers can’t see their own performance.
When only executives see Power BI dashboards — and those dashboards are stale — the people making daily Datex-level operational decisions are running blind. Role-based access changes this the moment you go live.
Manual reconciliation is your biggest hidden cost.
Every hour pulling exports from Datex, formatting Dynamics data, and cross-referencing UKG payroll is an hour not growing the business. 15+ hours a week across your reporting team compounds fast. You don’t need to accept that.
Ready to Eliminate Manual Reporting Across Your Locations?
If your team exports from Datex, Dynamics, or any WMS + ERP combination into Excel every week — there’s a faster way. We’ve built it for CORE X. We can build it for you.
Book a Free Power BI Audit →
